The Bora X Pure Downward-Extracting Induction Cooktop

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  John Whitley

  6 days ago

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  Speaking from experience, I tend to simply curse anything other than properly designed range hoods for the primary task of removing particulates and fumes from cooking.  In short, it’s effectively impossible for cooktop or pop-up extractors to do a good job “because physics”.  In this regard, cooktop extractor fans have a similar challenge as industrial dust collection systems.  The intuition, however, is easy.  Think about blowing vs. sucking air through a straw.  It’s easy to blow through a straw and feel the stream of air at quite a distance away, as you’ve created a directed stream of air.  But think how close do your hand needs to be to the end of the straw to feel air being sucked in. In the suction case, air is being pulled evenly in a (hemi-)spherical space.  This is why the hood on a range hood extractor is important: as collection space for the hot, rising gases so the extractor fan “has time” to capture and remove them.  Without a properly designed above-mounted range hood, it’s inevitable that a huge amount of the cooking fumes simply escape upward and away.  Most recently, my experience with a nominally well-regarded pop-up extractor was that it was just a “slingshot” for greasy cooking fumes into the adjacent space. I think there’s a strong argument that this entire category of extractor is a particularly bad kind of “form over function”.

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    Phillip Priolo

    John Whitley

    6 days ago

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    I agree that minimalism can go too far. Physical dials and buttons are so much nicer to use. I'd be worried that food splatter (spaghetti sauce boiling) would get in this thing easily. On the induction / gas topic: It's awesome with cast iron. My favorite way to cook from experience in a converted van.
    
    Downward extractions sounds great for cooking spicy foods. Get those spicy fumes away from my face before I cry and cough from all those habaneros and ghost peppers.

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  Ray Jepson

  5 days ago

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  I designed a range hood before.  I would tend to say, maybe.  It looks like the hole is large and with relatively little obstruction, so it's possible to get a large air flow without too much noise.  Whether it works as well as shown, I'm not so sure.
  

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  Frank Borsboom

  5 days ago

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  I've seen these type of extractor pop up in a couple of new kitchens (friends getting new houses), and I'm surprised at how well they work! They seem to work just as well as over hanging fume extractors but without the overhead volume, making the kitchen a much more open space.
  

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