My downdraft is great with outside motor so not too noisy. Having said that I would also have been happy with a ceiling extractor if I had the space above for the venting.

I have just bought a schweigen with motor on the roof. The best information and help that I got was from the installers. Parex Industries are the NZ importers, but I must say the only help they gave me was the phone number of the installers. I just tried to find it for you but can't. They are brilliant to talk to and get advise from. I spoke to them before I purchased. The one thing that I realized is the installation is one of the major factors. Give Parex a ring and get installers number will be your best bet, all the retail outlets did was provide conflicting information.

Thanks for your comments everyone. We've taken your advice (Luke and NH) and changed the island to a rectangle (1200 x 3000). We lose one breakfast bar seat but gain storage and dining room space plus it shortens the distances from the island to the cooktops. It also removes the need for a corner carousel. We're much happier with this result. Dairy_maid, we've done what you suggested and walked through some common tasks. Overall it works reasonably well although we may keep some coffee spoons and butter knives in the scullery drawers for morning toast and coffee. We've also invested in a "silent" rangehood which has the motor on the outside of the house behind the fridge and we've upgraded the scullery sink to one that is 600 x 400 (internal size). Fabrication starts tomorrow. Woohoo. Once again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. The design has been significantly improved with your input.

We are wanting to replace our splashback but we are not sure if it is possible....our current splashback is backpainted glass, securely glued onto the wall and a line of silicone sealing it to the rangehood - would removing it wreck the wall behind it? Would we need to remove the rangehood too and replace the Gib board behind it? If anybody has done this I'd love to know what is involved.