Recirculating downdraft system for a cooking appliance

A cooking appliance comprising:

• an oven cavity;
• an oven door pivotally mounted to a front surface and configured to selectively provide access to an interior of the oven cavity;
• a cooktop defining a top surface of the cooking appliance and including at least one heating element and a single inlet of a downdraft system, an access member pivotally mounted to the cooktop and pivotable between a first position and a second position, wherein at the first position the access member conceals the single inlet, and at the second position the access member permits air to enter the single inlet;
• an air duct system comprising a first air path for the air to flow between the single inlet and a first outlet and a separate, second air path for the air to flow between the single inlet and a second outlet;
• and
• a blower configured to draw air from the ambient environment of the cooking appliance adjacent to the cooktop into the single inlet and through the air duct system to the first outlet and the second outlet, and to expel the air through a main outlet back into the ambient environment.

A cooking appliance having a top surface, bottom surface, front surface, back surface, a first side surface, and a second side surface opposing the first side surface, the cooking appliance comprising:

• an oven cavity;
• an oven door pivotally mounted to the front surface and configured to selectively provide access to the oven cavity;
• a cooktop including at least one heating element and an inlet, the cooktop defining the top surface of the cooking appliance;
• a first outlet and a second outlet;
• an air duct system configured to selectively provide air communication between the inlet and the first outlet and further configured to selectively provide air communication between the inlet and the second outlet;
• and
• a blower configured to selectively draw air from an ambient environment of the cooking appliance into the inlet and through the air duct system and expel the air out the first outlet back into the ambient environment, the blower further configured to selectively draw the air from the ambient environment of the cooking appliance into the inlet and through the air duct system and expel the air out the second outlet.