The microwave has three way venting 1. Out the rear 2. Top vent and 3. ductless. The installer has to spin the motor in the direction you are venting in your case he spun it to return inside or ductless.

Guadalupe - I believe you are talking about the range vent portion, which OP says is venting outside proplerly.

Nutbunch - I think you're out of luck; this seems to be by design. Read the "Service Call Check" section and it says to turn on the MW and be sure it's venting out front. Honestly that's what I would have expected. Whether or not this is standard or you bought the stupidest MW out there I really don't know.

There's probably nothing wrong with your OTR microwave. That's probably how it's designed to work. You've simply run into a glitch with those things. My GE Profile works the same way ... except even worse because the exhaust isn't vented to the outdoors ... AND the idiot builder / kitchen designer surrounded the thing with fancy trimwork. The OTR has a panel over the exhaust grille that auto-closes when the unit is off, auto-opens when either the microwave or venting is turned on. The trimwork blocks the exhaust from blowing upward, so it blows FORWARD ... AND the trimwork blocks access to the charcoal exhaust filter, which was never installed anyway.

Unit off, vent closed

Exhaust on, vent open

I had a situation where a Maytag OTR was installed incorrectly. the vent was correct, but there was a second fan shroud inside that was not put to the correct possition. The unit overheated after a few minutes. But this one vented out the front for the microwave.

Thanks for your replies.

Yes when I press the Vent button it sucks the air below it and that steam/grease/air goes up the vent in the back to the ducts and outside. I hear the back vent open and hear it close when I press to close the vent button.

The back vent does not open when something is cooking inside the microwave. Instead on the left top (no grill or trim pieces up there) hot air/grease/steam comes out. The MW sticks out about 4 inches from the back of the wall more than the cabinets do. So that left top venting blows directly on the cabinet above and on the cabinet to the left.

dadoes, I like your fancy trim. It looks substantial. My cabinets are new, but I couldn't afford subtantial so had to have the laminate inlay. That's what I know will warp/peel over time. Probably in a short time as we use the microwave a lot!

The service people come today. So we'll see what they say. I really hope it's fixable and I'm not stuck with this.

I haven't taken any closeup pics yet, here's an idea of what it looks like from afar.

I wonder whether the MW venting location has anything to do with the location of its controls? I've never seen them along the bottom like that.

I am considering that exact MW apparently only available at Lowes. I do not have an outside vent. Yes the controls are along the door bottom front, but that shouldn't be the issue with this venting.

Me for thinking all microwaves are alike.

Lowes for selling a product they have no idea is different.

The result - It's normal that it vents directly up. Usually they think there is more space than what I have.

If you turn the vent on, it creates some kind of backdraft which seems to pull the air/steam/grease away from the front. This worked for 40 second stuff. I'll have to test longer cooking time dishes.

If the manual vent operation works to save my cabinets, then I still don't know. The kids don't remember that kind of thing. I might forget. I think I will go back to lowes to see if I can exchange it for another MW.

Don't buy it Cindy49. It's way more trouble that the price seems to indicate.

I disagree, Cindy. The configuration appears to sacrifice "facial area" leading to venting other than forward. Compare with other microwaves (our previous-generation Avantium, for example), and I think you'll understand what I mean.

I think you've apportioned the blame fairly, nutbunch. Good luck with that exchange. In the meantime, put a sign up to remind the kids.

nutbunch, what is the model number of microwave? How do you like the Frigidaire gas range? Is it convection also?

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

nutbunch, what was the outcome?

It is six years since this post and I have the same problem with an OTR microwave bought at Lowe's and paid them to install. I called Lowe's and they sent the installer back, who didn't want to see a demonstration of the problem. He messed with it a bit (didn't take it down) and told me it's the steam from inside the microwave venting out the top and I need one that vents out the front. Well, guess what, they don't make those any longer. There are only a couple of options, which have horrible reviews and probably are getting phased out. I'm so upset that I paid for installation only to have to take it out. Lowe's did agree to take the microwave back, but only after I spent hours on the phone. The sales associate tried to blame me for not knowing what I needed. If I can't expect them to know how to do a proper assessment and I have to research exactly what I need then I should just buy it online! That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I will not go on and on about all of the junk I've been through in the last week with Lowe's. Last time I will buy anything substantial from them. Unfortunately, I purchased a refrigerator and stove from them!

I put a Frigidaire microwave in several years ago and noticed awhile back that steam was accumulating on the upper cabinets when I cooked in the microwave. I just had the cabinets redone over the microwave to meet specs -- they originally actually jutted out to meet the front of the microwave -- thinking that would solve the problem. It didn't!! So disappointed!! Has anyone else come up with a fix yet? I looked on line and it looks like all microwaves over the range vent up rather than out into the room now adays. What are these people thinking? Or not!

I am having the same problem. New home, new microwave. The steam and grease just stream down my upper cabinets. I have been on the builder to provide a vent to the outside. Before reading this, I thought that would solve the problem. Ugh! I didn't realize it was a mw flaw! Now I'm not sure what to do.

My Sharp over-the-counter (OTC) MW oven doesn't do this. It vents down. You might want to consider using a hood compatible with your cooking and move the MW elsewhere.

I would love to move the Microwave. Believe me, the thought had occurred. I just have to consider the cost. my previous house had a beautiful vent Hood that actually worked. The built-in microwave didn't steam up my cabinets. You never know what you had till it's gone. Ugh!

I think i have a similar OTC frigidaire with convection and it has ruined the front of my cabinets above the unit. See pictures. Not a happy camper.