High pan temperatures lead to hot rising and expanding effluent (grease, odor, and water vapor) that can have a velocity of 3 ft/s. Generally, capture of this flow requires an encompassing hood aperture and ventilation air flow rate high enough to ensure containment and rejection to the outside. Downdraft ventilation systems, whether in the countertop or vertically placed behind the cooktop, are in the wrong place to do this efficiently. With sufficient airflow, they can capture and contain rear burner effluent in proportion to the vector sum of their induced air velocity (which falls off rapidly with distance) and the effluent velocity at each point over the pan.

The only difference between gas and induction in this situation is that the gas flames can be affected by the transverse flow of a downdraft ventilation system. Pan temperature and hence effluent velocity can be the same for the same cooking process.

'Contempt' would be a better choice of words than 'hate.'

kas

^x2

I don't know if you've ever seen a gas downdraft in operation, but as soon as the fan goes on you can see the flame get sucked towards the vent, away from the pan. You can imagine how this would be a problem. This often leads to people turning the fan off so that they can actually cook, defeating the entire purpose of the system in the first place. Integrated downdrafts are worse offenders than pop-up downdrafts.

Using a downdraft with induction or radiant electric is nowhere near as good as using an actual hood, but at least you can cook effectively while venting.

IMO, there is more effluent coming from a gas cooktop than an induction cooktop.