We are going to start the remodel of our kitchen soon and are researching appliances right now. We need a new slide-in range, microhood and dishwasher. We cook mainly Indian food - so we get ALOT of use from the stove; we hardly use our oven (in fact, I think I've used it like 2-3 times in the past 3 years). Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to redesign my entire kitchen to fit a good cooktop. Can you guys recommend a good slide in range that can fit our needs? Also, I need a microhood and a very good dishwasher - we run almost 2 loads a day (1 baby and 1 toddler...go figure...).

Dedicated means no other outlets on the circuit. The outlet behind the stove is likely on the kitchen counter circuits, and using these for lighting of a microwave that is not sitting on the counter is not allowed. You need to install a new 20 amp circuit that has a single duplex receptacle for the microwave. The outlet can be in a cabinet (or in the sell behind a cabinet) but the cord cannot be run in a concealed location (like between a cabinet and the wall). Putting the receptacle in the cabinet avoids having it be considered a wall-counter receptacle that requires GFCI protection.

Thanks! I noticed that the grille was greasy and when I removed it, the top filter obviously had been filtering. The fact that the holes on either side of the top filter had airflow and were completely open (there were no filters on them) made me think that something was wrong.

Typically the OTR manufacturer has that the upper cabinet that the OTR attaches to must be 30 inches above the range top. Most OTR's are 15-17 inches tall so that puts the bottom of the OTR between 13 and 15 inches away from the cooking surface. This puts the bottom of the microwave interior floor somewhere around 4.5 feet from the kitchen floor or about armpit to shoulder high for the average height person. When you start getting higher than shoulder high it becomes more dangerous for the person removing hot food from the m/w.