20 Best Cattura Downdraft Review (2022 Updated)

Recently my Broan downdraft vent went belly up after 15+ years. I researched my options given the fact that I already had an island with a cutout in it and a Bosch electric cooktop installed as well.

Well the Zephyr downdraft was the closest thing to a like for like replacement but it did need some minor venting changes. Now that it is in and working, I am very happy with its performance. It is powerful, quiet and unobtrusive.

I am a happy camper.

I am happy to purchase this downdraft vent. The system works very well. The Best Buy sales agents are very helpful to make sure the system can work and they sent an installer to measure our old existing vent in our home.

The installer came out later to place our new ventilation system.

So far everything works perfectly. Easy push button to activate down draft and there is a side dial to adjust fan speed. Still to new to discover any flaws yet

I installed this downdraft hood myself, so got to see the construction details. Seems a good quality build. We like the variable speed blower controls. The description of the model we purchased clearly states “In-line blower sold separately”.

There is another model that does include a blower, so be sure you are purchasing the model you need. Our home already had an installed blower and duct-work from a previous installation. The Broan model we purchased worked perfectly with the existing blower.

We installed this downdraft range hood with a gas cook top. We never use the cook top without running the fan. It works great, and on high, sucks all odors and smoke away from the cook top. Just one minor peeve, the two filters sometimes do not want to come out.

And after 10? years, we had enough heat that the pull tabs on the filters melted and stretched. The filters still come out, and the tabs have not broken. When it was first installed, the installer put the filters in backwards, with the tabs inaccessible on the inside.

I used a credit card to get up and behind the filters, and they were off. And then put them back in correctly. Based on our recommendation, my mother-in-law has one with an electric cook top. She loves it, but is bothered by the fan noise.

This unit is awesome. We love it. Probably the highlight of our new island countertop. Now, choosing the proper fan is not simple. Please work with your sales professional closely. They are very approachable and respond in a reasonable amount of time.

We chose the wrong one and had to return it. I must say their return process was awesome as well. They sent me a return label, I dropped the unit off at UPS and there was a credit on my account in a matter of days.

We had an older vent similar to this but from a different manufacturer that was nearly useless. We were very reluctant to install a another downdraft system given how poorly the first one performed, but a salesman we trust highly recommended this to accompany our new cooktop.

We are very pleased as this works as well in our kitchen as most hood vents work. The vent quickly and efficiently clears cooking odors, steam and, yes, even smoke if we are not paying enough attention to what we are cooking.

It is reasonably quiet and very unobtrusive when not in use. Even when in use it is reasonably sized and does not take up too much of the island where we have it installed. Of course, like any downdraft system I’m familiar with, it does take up a fair amount of real estate in the cabinet below the cooktop, but.

So I moved into an old house wish a partially functioning kitchen. It took me the better part of a day to de-grease the entire kitchen, even the inside of the cabinets, from decades of the prior owner cooking greasy stuff in the kitchen without a hood.

I decided I would never cook a grease generating type of food until I had a range hood, but what to do? Well, for years I lived in a house with my ex (not my ex then) and we had one of these cheap Broan hoods.

We did all kinds of cooking, and the kitchen did not accumulate a layer of grease, so when I found this hood on Home Essentials Direct dot com, I bought it, and I bought the power cord adapter that allowed me to plug it into the wall.

I did something not aesthetically normal but effective: I used the four holes in the back of the hood to bolt it into the wall. I bought inch-and-a-half long screws that were as thick as possible and still go through the holes in the back of the hood along with wall anchors for them.

I found a stud on the left and mounted the hood into those, with the holes on the right used to screw the hood into the plaster. Thanks to the left side being screwed right into the stud, this hood isn’t going anywhere.

So, I cooked my first steak yesterday by searing it in a pan and finished it in the oven. This hood sucked up what came up off the pan and filtered it and blew it out just fine. That was the first steak I’ve had in almost a year (I rarely buy steak in restaurants).

Prime rib in my new old kitchen, thanks to this Broan hood.

Update 03/2021: No issues with the range hood at all! The filter is easy to lean. It looks nice with my refinished cabinet, and all bronze hardware that accents the black hood! See updated photo! First Review: I’m renting a condo and didn’t want to spend much on updating the kitchen; the old fan hood was a bisque color and I hated it.

I originally wanted stainless but I decided to go with black – and pleased that I did. The range hood only comes with the hood and 4 screws – I just used everything from the hood I was replacing. The install was very easy (after watching a few YouTube videos) and I am a female.

I only needed an extra hand to hold the range in place while I screwed /secured it in and took me no more than 30 min. I made sure I shut the main breaker off before disassembling/assembling – connecting the ground, black and white wires was easy peasy.

I guess it depends on the setup you have or want.

I picked this hood based on its design and the Bosch name. But now that I own it, I would not buy one again. Here is the good, the not good, and the bad. In its favor, the hood has four large grease traps with twice the surface area of the KitchenAid hood it replaced.

The result is great air flow. The hood is a little quieter and moves far more air. Not so good is the ergonomics of the pull out. It is a thin strip of metal and sits flush with the bottom of the hood.

There is no easy way to grab it. You have to stick your fingers in a narrow gap and pry it open. I also don’t like the controls on the underside of the hood. You can’t see them and they are inconvenient to get to.

Now the bad. The blower motor came out of balance. The motor and the entire hood vibrate when the hood is on. You can see it and feel it. I immediately placed a service call with Bosch and a repairman came the next week.

He said the vibration is normal and refused to replace the motor. However, I’m am engineer and I know this is not normal. The bearings in the motor are not designed to take this kind of abuse. I expect the blower will fail at some point after the warrantee expires, leaving me with a repair bill.

I had very specific parameters to fit the space for a vent hood in our remodel and this one is perfect. We needed it to vent out the back instead of up and we also wanted to minimize the space the vent took up in our smallish kitchen when the vent wasn’t in use.

This is a great solution!.

Our old range hood was so low that we would bump our heads every time we used the cooktop. This one is very slim and stylish. Asked our neighbors how they liked it and they couldn’t even tell it was there until I pulled it out.

Lights are great. Exactly what we were looking for.

I got the whole kitchenaide pro kitchen suite wiht my pro kitchen package, when we built our home a few months ago. Now my review may be a little slanted, as Ive never had a hood that actually blows through a vent to the out doors.

This blower is very powerful. When we are searing meat indoors on cast iron, this hood easily takes all the smoke away, if you turn it on first. If you don’t, and your smoke detectors remind you, it removes the smoke very quickly.

Its not overly loud, on the lower levels, but on the higher levels it moves a lot of air, and you can hear it working for sure. The LED lighting is bright, and even, and it has about a 3000 K color temp, so its not glaring blue or white, its a nice soft color, but still bright enough to see what you’re cooking.

I don’t usually value builder upgrades, I prefer to buy basic, and do things later. This happened to be a sale deal, and was a great value. I love this kitchen, and I am so glad I did the upgrade.

I like the way this looks. Unfortunately that is all I can say because we haven’t actually been able to connect it. Bought as part of a kitchen redo and our installer ha s a question about whether it’s truly “ductless” since conversion kit seems to attach at top and not inside.

Which would be manageable except that no one at Kitchenaid can tell me. Have spent 25 minutes on hold with a “product specialist” today who didn’t know. She connected me to a post-sales specialist, which was actually another company entirely.

They aren’t taking any phone calls – their entire staff is in “a training” so you have to leave an email inquiry and wait for a response. I’ve been a loyal customer for three sets of appliances now, but there is no support after the sale.

Next time I’ll stick with the Broan hood. Cost 20% or this one and they actually answer the phone.

This unit is installed by builder in our new house. Grease leaks out the back of unit on to granite backsplash. We clean the filters regularly. I called KitchenAid and they promptly sent a tech to troubleshoot.

Tech doubled up filters. But problem still not solved. i have taken extended warranty also. KitchenAid reps adamant and saying no problem with unit and mechanically working. But i feel unit is faulty or has faulty design.

I’ve had used different hoods and this is the first one that leaks grease. I wouldn’t recommend it.

First, there is nothing NEW about this. This model is many years old and was a display model, without a box. This model is what I bought seven (7) years ago, and it has been superceded by model KXU2836JSS.

Also, for a delivery charge of $235. 20, you’d expect the item to arrive in less than three weeks, but to date it is still not here, the shipping company says it has yet to arrive in the Dallas area, and American Freight’s only outreach is to send me this invite to rate the appliance that I have yet to receive.

I would not do business with American Freight again, and I would also never buy a set of Kitchenaid appliances in the future. Not reliable and service is a joke!.

I had this Hood installed for about 5 most before it died kind of. I was cooking for 3 days straight over Christmas and the heat ended up warping the plastic where the controls are. The replacement part was going to be worth almost as much as a new hood.

10 cent piece of plastic ruined a good product. Kitchen Aid was amazing in dealing with the issue and giving me a credit for a new hood.

Just installed to day with an experienced buddy and took us 2. 5 hours including removing old range hood, adding mounting boards to narrow hole width, and installing new hood; installation went smoothly and it operates as advertised; only quirk is that extended range hood blocks button access for short people; not a deal breaker but designer should have given button placement more thought.

When redoing my cooktop, from propane to induction, I wanted a downdraft like the one I was replacing—part of cooktop. However I chose the telescoping downdraft. Was uncertain when it was installed, hesitant to embrace, but man-oh-man do I love it.

The exhaust is perfectly placed to remove steam and fumes from small and large pots as well as saute pans and grills. And the downdraft disappears when not in use. The fan was installed remotely resulting in the unit being almost silent.

Unit looks great, the height of the downdraft vent and powerful suction does a great job in removing cooking smells. Unit is easy to install but is bulky and does take up about half the cabinet space under cook top.

When the switch is pushed to raise or lower downdraft vent, it cannot be stooped until its fully raised/retracted. The switch can get stuck under the top stainless trim.

We recently remodeled our kitchen and purchased the Jenn-Air pop up to go with our new Wolf cooktop. When the installer installed both pieces, the Jenn-Air pop up didn’t work. We had to then go through the hassle of a 3-week process of talking to the dealer where we bought it, go through the process of having a repair man come and look at it, and then come back over a week later and replace the motor–ON A BRAND NEW APPLIANCE!!! This has been a frustrating, ridiculous, aggravating experience.

I don’t think it is too much to ask that a brand new, out of the box Jenn-Air appliance would ACTUALLY WORK! Clearly, Jenn-Air does not have any quality control if a brand new appliance needs a new motor.

Jenn- Air should have replaced this clearly faulty appliance rather than make us go through this hassle. Also, no one from Jenn-Air ever contacted me regarding this. Now I have no idea if this appliance with ever work properly, or continue to be a Lemon”.

There needs to be “lemon laws” to protect consumers from faulty appliances like this one.

An expensive downdraft and we did have lots of problem installing this unit. First, it was not a direct fit for an older unit that I have that went bad. Then when it arrived, the electronics controlling the unit was out of order and it id not raise up and down.

After about a month, the parts came in and was replaced. It took the installer the whole afternoon to install it since there were also some additional issues. The unit looks nice, but very expensive.

This is not what I would expect coming from Vikings. However, I have to give Best Buys/Pacific Appliances kudos for their support in the completion of the installation. I would reconsider the unit but do recommend Best Buys for their customer support.

This is a nicely looking unit, but on several occasions that I used it, it blew out the flames of burners closest to the vent. If two rows of burners were used on the cooktops, I could not even start the burners closest to the vent, while the vent was blowing.

Seems like the vent is too strong for the cooktop. We used the vent recommended for the cooktop Model VGSU53616BSS.

A great product that works nicely with the 600 CFM Interior Power Ventilator. The 18″ high chimney rise and the positioning of the opening on the top are very effective in terms of venting vapor, smoke and odor to the outside.

The smooth surface of the front panel and the smooth surface behind it are very easy to clean. It is also easy to clean the two filters behind the front panel.

I am a very long time customer of Jenn Air appliances. I have the stove top, refrigerator and double wall oven. I have loved them all-I updated the stove top after 20 years. However the knobs are hard to see whether they are at low, medium, high ect.

Although these knobs look better than the old ones, they are not functional. Also, cleaning the stove top is much harder to some reason than my old Jenn Air stove top. I tried Cerabrite as well as Access and both just do not seem to clean as well.

It takes much longer to bring it to a shine even for the smallest spot. This feature alone would make me hesitate to buy another Jenn Air stove top. Finally, I should mention that the best feature of all is how Jenn Air changed the downdraft making that easier to clean.

The knobs are an easy fix for Jenn Air and customers should be accommodated the new knobs-as far as cleaning the stove top, perhaps Jenn Air should check into this. Also the edges are square rather than rounded as the my original Jenn Air was which I suspect after sometime there is a chance of a chip.

To sum it up although I love Jenn Air, I hesitate to buy further products unless the flaws listed here are corrected which would show Jenn Air values their customers.

We replaced a 35 year old electric coil Jen Air range with this range. It fit nicely in the existing cutout and only required a slight adjustment to the vent pipe to hook that up. It works great and we had bought the recommended cleaning kit before installing the range.

It heats quickly and is easy to clean although we have not had any real bad burnt on spills to deal with yet. Admittedly, we bought this unit because it was the only downdraft electric cooktop we could find.

I read reviews on older units and it looks like JennAir had corrected the shortfalls. One of the big improvements was the addition of a metal edge to protect the edges of the glass on the cooktop. One thing we don’t care for is that it does not anchor in, you are relying on gravity and the weight of the unit to hold it in place.

Another issue is they provide a narrow spongey gasket which you attach under the rim to seal the the unit to the countertop. It’s really hard to keep the gasket in place when you are lifting the unit into place.

We solved both of these issues by using a bead of silicone caulking under the edge of the unit. It seals the unit to the counter so spills can’t get under the unit and keeps the unit from shifting around.

Legit, honest review here, not a promotion. I’ve had this cooktop for just a few months and already, it’s suffering from significant cosmetic defects in the cooktop material, in the layers of the ceramic, not on the surface.

This is even after treating it with the ultimate regime of care and TLC, exceeding the manufactures instructions. Other review have noted this as well. It’s just not made with quality glass. While it cooks evenly, heats quickly and drafts well, these cosmetic issues have me regretting this purchase considering I picked this brand as I replaced a 28 year old Jenn Air cooktop that aged amazingly well even with decades of use and abuse.

We did not treat the old one nearly so kindly, even teaching kids to cook on it. Never had anything other than minor surface scratches. Also, this cooktop lacks some basic ergo features like dial indicator lights for each burner, and knobs that are visually difficult to discern position.

Lastly, just one indicator light for all burners. Given the lack of features and lack of quality, the price is just not justified, look elsewhere. Very disappointed in this “luxury” brand.

I took out a useless microwave with a recycling exhaust fan and installed the new kitchen aid fan. Normally I do not read instructions, but I found these very helpful. The hardest part was cutting out the the bottom of the existing cabinet and the hole in the top for the vent pipe.

Even so I had the unit in and through the ceiling in about an hour and a half. I put in the pipe and insulated it to the roof. I chickened out about cutting a hole in my roof and spent a week trying to find a roofer to put on the roof vent.

I can now cook bacon inside and even use the wok without stinking up the house. It was definitely worth the effort.

Love this hood. It is extremely low profile (~2. 5” below cabinet) and very quiet, especially at low speed which is nearly imperceptible. Installation of this hood is a bit more complicated than most hoods that just need four screw holes and a hole for the vent pipe.

With this hood you remove most all of the bottom panel of the cabinet and screw large brackets to the gable walls of your cabinet. The perimeter vent system with hidden grease filters is an elegant touch that looks nice from all angles.

CFM output seems good at all speeds and the boost is nice for those moments you broil something in the oven too long and have lots of smoke!.

Generally Love all Kitchenaid products. The ONLY downside to this particular range hood was the difficulty of installation. Because it fits into a very small space, my husband ended up redoing EVERYTHING (ie.

the old range hood was a different brand and the venting configuration was entirely different). He had to redo: inside venting, outside air venting duct (which required drilling a new hole in the stucco), cabinetry (both size of cabinet and outside facing of cabinet), drywall, electrical socket location.

LOVE this product but it was a pain in the axe to install. Recommend it highly if you are hiring a professional to install. Not for the casual OR even the journeyman do-it-your-selfer. Would have given it 5 stars if not for this.

Sound levels are nicely low, but you have to do the duct work correctly!.

Good product but save yourself aggravation and hire a pro installer. Issues: You need a very small Torx driver. The one with the package is too big and won’t fit the screws. You will use this Torx driver a lot.

The packing includes two wood blocks screwed to the back of the housing. See issue 1, since parts have to be removed to get at the screws holding the blocks. The installation manual is wrong. Do not drill 7/16 holes into drywall for the anchors.

Go with a smaller drill size else be ready to hit the hardware store for new anchors. If you have lower ceiling, mount the fan at a height where you don’t need to cut the chimney steel. As mentioned in the title, hire a pro and save headaches.

Now that mine is finally installed, it looks good, quiet fan and good air removal.

We overspent on KitchenAid products thinking we wanted “the best” high-quality kitchen appliances. We were completely wrong and will never look at or buy “high-end” KitchenAid products again. Our oven hood rusted out within one year and our microwave needs to be slammed to “operate properly”.

A service professional from KitchenAid/Whirpool has been to the house on two occasions. He said the hood was rusting due to proximity to the coast!! Further, the Microwave needing to be slammed was normal operating.

Customer service responded that there was nothing we could do. Bottom line, these products are defective and the KitchenAid/Whirpool Customer Service will not correct the problems. Please read the reviews and beware.

I bought this hood to replace an existing non vented hood. My home has two stories and there is no way to vent through the roof. The one I used to have, had a decorative wooden cover and the build up on it was too hard to clean.

I am hoping that this one will be easier to keep clean. The vents are up at the top on the sides of the chimney. If you need a non venting hood, you must order the recirculation kit to go with this model.

It comes with two carbon filters which filter the air and recirculates it into the kitchen. I don’t think all hoods come with the carbon filters. I haven’t used it much yet but I do notice on one side of the chimney, a light coating of black dust from the filter.

I will make sure it is installed correctly before I worry about that. It could be a one time thing from the first use. We will see. The metal filters can be put into the dishwasher to clean which is a plus.

On the first level, it operates fairly quietly but at a 2 or 3 it is like most any other and quite noisy. I do like the look and have had success with KitchenAid products before.

This unit has a automatic shutoff feature that senses heat from the cooktop and turns the unit off after a few minutes if no heat is detected. We have an induction cooktop, which of course does not radiate heat itself but heats pots through induction.

Even if we had two or three large pots going on the cooktop, the fan would turn off. There is no way to bypass the shut off. We asked the salesperson and Whirlpool customer service if there was any problem with induction before installing the unit.

None of the marketing material, the salespeople at the appliance store, nor Whirlpool customer service were aware of this design flaw. And of course you can’t return these appliances once they’re out of the box, although the retailer where we purchased it did reluctantly take it back after we paid a hefty restocking fee.

Other issues which should convince you to avoid this product: – Whirlpool customer service is completely useless. I contacted them for ducting requirements before installing the unit. All they would do is to refer me to a local installer.

However, the installer would only tell me that they “don’t do ducting”, although they would be happy to charge me $200 to hang the unit on the wall as long as the ducting is already in place. – The unit is very clumsy to hang compared to the Venmar hood I replaced it with.

The hanging screws are located in the motor housing which is made of very cheap and flimsy sheet metal. The Venmar, on the other hand, provided a proper hanging bracket that is much easier to position and install, and is also much more stable and reliable.

I spoke to a Kitchen Aid customer support person and wanted to provide feedback on the quality of Kitchen aid products. I was advised to leave a review here. So here I am to provide my feedback on this ‘top of the line’ product (42 inch island mount) that is great but the manufacturing quality of this is subpar.

Beyond this, Kitchen aid does not stand behind their products and when things go south their contracted service providers are the least helpful and on paper factory-trained but have no clue how to fix issues with their appliances.

From day 1 of installation this unit has an issue of internal wiring because of which the perimeter lights flickered and not always worked. The Kitchen aid FACTORY TRAINED technician fixes the problem by applying some tape on the wires under the hood.

The problem resurfaces after 4 months and now the technician comes and supposedly orders a part that I am still waiting on after 8 months. Disappointed with the service provider, I call Kitchen aid and explain them the problem.

Kitchen aid now tells me that the unit is out of warranty and I have to pay for the diagnosis and repair. Keep your fingers crossed with this unit. If it works, great. If not, Kitchen aid will not stand behind their products and you are on your own.

Not only is this the nicest looking range hood I’ve ever seen its the best range hood I’ve ever bought. The fan is very powerful and is very quiet. I always complained when my husband wold make bacon in the morning that the smell of bacon would linger for hours.

Not with this fan. When the bacon is done, the smell is gone. I highly recommend this item to everyone.

Working great!! Can’t smell anything when I use it for cooking BBQ. Easy to clean up for Hood covers, just isolated from hood and leave it into sink with detergents. That’s it! I like the light brightness adjustment.

This replaced an old hood that had stopped working. We tend to cook a lot of bacon and other meats on the stove, and it made a difference right away in containing the grease and smoke smell that would typically linger throughout the house.

While it’s a bit hard to hear anything when it’s cranking full blast, it’s clearly working and probably similar to other similar devices. Love how easy it is to take out the grates to clean, vs. the mesh grate on the previous unit we owned.

Love my new hood. So far so good. Works well. Looks great too

Had the unit installed as part of a kitchen remodel. Looks great, worked great for about 14 months. The night light feature decided to stay on all the time. The switch will not turn on/off the light.

The support team suggested I disconnect power to reset it and it still is just on non-stop. They sent out a tech and he clearly had no idea why it stayed on and suggested that the circuit board is bad, $400+ repair cost.

I told him I’d think about it and got charged $100 for a service call. No way an appliance that I paid over $1,000 should only work well for just over a year. Disappointed in how the support group treated me.

I had this installed by professionals a little over a month ago. The sales team was excellent in helping me select what would work in my existing kitchen and actually recommended one that had an excellent rating and less expensive.

I went with the Whirlpool, because I wanted it to match my new oven and refrigerator. Well there is no LOGO on this hood, so what difference did that make? This was the most expensive unit and it did not come with a trim Ring to go around the duck that goes to the ceiling.

So now I have the additional cost of having someone do spackling and painting around the hood. Was there supposed to be a trim ring in the kit??? This is an attractive looking hood. It’s quiet on low and medium and a bit louder high.

Venting is good. Has nice lighting around the glass. It does show the grease and the glass steams up and streaks. Must be cleaned regularly. But so far all seems to be working okay.

We have only had this range hood in operation for just over two months. The hood is attractive and the vent system works well. It is quiet except for the high level but that is expected. In just two months the light bulb burned out.

I was more that shocked to find the replacement bulb can only be purchased from Whirlpool or its authorized dealers. It is a special bulb and no regular bulb will fit. The cost of the bulb is $26. 76 EACH plus shipping which cost me an additional $8.

99. If I have to replace bulbs every two months that will be a significant expenditure over a year. I will not be purchasing any other Whirlpool appliances and may look to replace this one with another brand.