I have the same (similar)Frigidaire microwave in the house I purchased a couple of years ago. It's a CPLMV169DCD (the newest one has the last 3 letters changed). Anyway, I was surprised to see steam venting from the front left corner of the "vent area" on this "exterior vented" system, when boiling something like rice in the microwave, which we do all the time. The situation got critical, when I realised it was ruining the cherry cabinets over top the microwave... replacing one cabinet door would, no doubt, be a major run-around with finding matching finishes from the (probably) discontinued line etc. etc... as always happens... so I want to get to the bottom of the microwave steam issue. I removed the microwave and took the thing apart, and found that there appears to be no way to direct steam from the microwave into the venting for the rear ductwork... and steam is very difficult to control once it starts flowing. So I contacted Frigidaire on their website and got the pat answer that the system is set up for front venting and rear venting and you have to change the orientation of the fan motor etc. etc. This appears to be BS... that stuff is obvious to manipulate during installation... there is no design feature for getting the steam from the microwave cabinet into the venting system... the venting system is only for air being sucked from the (very inadequate) vents on the bottom of the microwave cabinet... a sort of range vent system that works very poorly and does not capture much air-flow from the stove top (anything on the front two burners does not get captured by the "range hood" vents.) So I found an outfit in Calgary that just does installation for the large appliance retailers and got talking to a technician who finally remembered that he got the run-around from Frigidaire when trying to fix up the exact same problem for a client and he admitted that it seems to be a design problem that Frigidaire has not addressed and continues to act as if it is not a real problem. This is likely due to the fact that most people don't actually cook in their microwaves, but just heat the odd coffee-cup... and they call this microwave part of the "Professional Series"... that is laughable... no professional would consider such a very low-grade machine. In addition to the steam problem, here is the list of defects on this 2-year old machine... - fan for range-hood has only one speed (hi and very noisy) since installation (previous owner did not notice, before it was too late for warranty service I guess) - turntable motor broke after one year... very lightweight part which I removed from the bottom and fortunately is easy to replace... but it will burn out again! - inside light has burnt out after 2 years only When you look at the parts and manufacturing of this machine you find that it is substandard compared to something like Sharp even in the $120 range. Anyway, I am now looking at replacing the microwave with a proper range hood only and getting a microwave that sits on the counter. I managed to rig the inside vents etc. so that half the steam gets sucked out by the fan, but it's still not perfect and my wife continues to steam-burn the cabinets forgetting to turn on the fan or boiling something for 15 minutes or more. I'm not sure that this helps, but at least I have "vented my steam"! Cheers

Like you in my Mom's kitchen the best and most convenient location for the microwave was over her smoothtop stove. Hers has 420cfm and is vented to the outside and is much better than her old hood despite the more restricted capture area (it is also quieter). She uses hers quite a bit so this model probably does more than you would need. Item: Genius Prestige Inverter Over-the-Range Stainless Steel Microwave (NNSD297S) Supplier: Brault & Martineau Manufacturer: Panasonic Manufacturing Region: China Specs: 2.0 cu. ft. microwave up to 420 cfm 2 speed fan combines steam, convection and microwave features keep warm menu sensor reheat and cook capabilities 2 hood light settings Cost: $549.99 - Sears Canada Price: $699.99 - suggested US retail price: NA Warranty: 2 Year Limited Notes: - delivery included In situ: Her old countertop model was a Panasonic and was still going 10 years in and she had a freind with this exact model who was particularly happy with the fan.

Our microwave will be under the cabinet, but with a drawer underneath that, and then about 7 inches of counter space in front of the drawer, if that makes sense? We chose a mid size microwave - 1.6 cubic foot, I think (can't remember how wide) - could have gotten a convection or a Panasonic Inversion in that size, but decided against it. We asked our cabinet maker to give us a bit of extra room in the microwave slot, just in case we ever replace it with something a bit larger. I've never liked OTR microwaves - I'm 5 8 and they are a bit high for me to use comfortably. If we have a child or a shorter adult in the house, that microwave is hard for them to use. Also, it isn't safe to be working with hot food over another potentially hot surface (the stove top). And - microwave/range hoods tend to not have really good ventilation - separate hoods are going to be better quality. I'm not a KD, though - that is just what I've read in kd books.

@acm I hadn’t thought about into the sunroom then out the side. That would be easiest, but would mean two bends. I’ll have to look into that. For wall cab plans, If you can make out my very hastily (not to scale) drawing. We have one hanging cabinet planned between our front door and window and an easy reach corner wall cabinet (the kind that wraps around corner, not angled) in the corner next to the range. The picture with the MW on the metal shelf is where that first wall cabinet would be and I agree that is the best spot. I’ve liked it there. It’s very accessible, you have a place to set things when you take them out. Its close to my cooking area but not right in it. This morning I told DH we absolutely could not hang a MW under the corner cabinet. It’s such a bad spot. You can’t actually get in front of things in that corner. I can’t imagine trying to pull hot things out of a MW from to the left or right of it. That does sound dangerous. He has agreed to put it in the wall cabinet that corresponds to where I have it now, but only if it can be inside the cabinet. The cabinets are shaker but he is definitely throwing in some craftsman elements and he really wants to try to get that uniform look that you see in craftsman furniture. This has been really hard because our space is odd and in order to make it work symmetry has had to go out the window. He is wanting to try to make the uppers as uniform as possible. I’ve done lots of sketching trying to figure out how things will work. Here is one when I was trying to imagine how to make the microwave not look completely out of place there above the range ending at the window. I just could not do that to my satisfaction. A hood will not only be more functional but it will look so much nicer in that spot. Here I adjusted a drawing to make the wall cabinet have an open shelf for the MW. He doesn’t like how that it would make our only two wall cabinets no longer match in style, which I get. I’m not super excited about the idea of having to open a door to use the microwave, but I’ll do if I have to. I’ll work on him some more first and see if I can get him to come around to either an open shelf or a built in. GE does have a smallish MW that can be built in or hung and would fit on that shelf and we decided to make them slightly deeper to accommodate a MW more easily. Since our prep areas are under the windows the deeper cabinets won’t affect us. I could hang it under the cabinet but then I’d have to move my coffee pots and I really like them there. @kaseki I hadn't thought to try that, though the MW is currently in a box. I was going to call GE however since its been decided to put the MW in the wall cabinet, no need to figure it out I’ll just sell the MW. Thanks for the tip about wind direction. I’ll keep that in mind.