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OTR Microwave - distance to range - help!

14 years ago

Okay, so we met with our cabinet guy today, and he told us we had to have at least 30" between our gas range and our hood or otr micro. This means that the microwave would START at 5'7", which is totally insane. His assumption was that our BTUs were too high for a shorter distance. So, I went out and checked the statistics on other gas, dual fuel and electric cooktops. ALL of them listed 30".

My question is - has anyone else experienced this issue? Will I truly fail my inspection if I lower it to 22"? I mean, I'm not going to blast 4 15000 btu burners at once, and I don't want to move the micro/get a hood.

Any advice much appreciated.

Drew

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Comments (4)

llaatt22
14 years ago
Most building codes specify a minimum 30" clearance unless cabinets have additional heat insulation and sheet metal fire protection which can get pretty ugly or expensive. It is good to also keep in mind that the measure is from the highest point on the grates when dealing with a gas stove. You probably will need a hood and your microwave would probably be a lot happier elsewhere.
friedajune
14 years ago
If you have 4 15000 btu burners, you should NOT have an OTR MW. As Laat2 pointed out, you need a proper hood. And 22" is completely wrong--it is way too low, you will have trouble cooking with something that low, and you will damage the MW. Even at 30" distance, with 15,000 btu burners you will likely melt the undersides of the MW over time, and fry the electronics.

Also, check the specifications and warranty on your 60,000 btu range. Many of the powerful ranges stipulate precisely that OTR MW's are not to be installed above them. If you ignore that and do it anyway, you likely have voided your warranty.
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No personal experience, sorry. All I can do is speak generally from the viewpoint of someone who uses the range (and hood) quite a bit. My wife and I have an Italian "designer" hood. It looks pretty spiffy, but if I had it all to do over again, I would have gone less for the looks and more for the effectiveness and ease of cleaning. I would have gone for a more restaurant style underside with baffles, a more pronounced "hood," etc. I would not even consider a hood such as the one you named. Nor would I entertain the purchase of a hood with glass or any exposed surfaces on the underside. Everything under there gets greasy quick and I don't want to worry about trying to shine stainless steel in that area. I want to use a heavy grease cutter in there, put as much of the undersides in the dishwasher as I can, put it all back together and get back to cooking. Here is a link that might be useful: range hoods
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dsanz
Original Author
14 years ago
I know - you are right. I'm just frustrated because my kitchen isn't huge and I really wanted to save space. Now I'm going to get a giant spaceship hood over my range. Echh.

Thanks for confirming that I was unreasonable.
friedajune
14 years ago
Dsanz - you should not think that way about your hood - a hood is actually a much more attractive look than an OTR MW. By far. And of course, a hood works better to exhaust too.

I started out with an expensive brand new OTR MW, and I hated it so much that I switched it out for a hood. I had to sell the MW on Craig's List at a loss, but I still don't regret it one bit. Hated that OTR MW. Though it was top of the line, it didn't exhaust worth a darn, was really noisy, made the stovetop area feel crowded and enclosed, and I hated pulling hot sloshing dishes from a height. They're ugly too. My sleek stainless steel hood is so much nicer looking.

Do you have an open shelf in your cabinetry to put an inexpensive countertop MW? Or a pantry shelf?

For your hood, you should get one with enough cfms. The rough rule of thumb is 100 cfms for every thousand btus. Your range's total btu's is 60,000; you should get a hood with 600 cfms.

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