You are not crazy! That is the reason I have not bought one yet. All of the companies are doing this. Why, I do not know. They have switched the venting of OTR to come out of the top now instead of the front. I'm thinking that somebody thought this looked better...no vent lines on the front. But, all I can imagine is ruining the cabinets above the microwave with the moist air. The only one I have found that vents out the front is a Bosch model, but I don't know the dimensions.

So the cabinent makers and microwave manufacturers don't talk to one another when they change a feature?
I believe it, but I can't believe it. My KD who is pretty smart and up to date, certainly didn't anticipate this.
You'd have to bump out all the continous cabinets in the kitchen to get it to look right.
It was just installed today. I really, really hope the box is still in the dumpster and didn't get rained on.
In one way, I'm glad to know it wasn't my fault or the contractors.

You are not crazy! That is the reason I have not bought one yet. All of the companies are doing this. Why, I do not know. They have switched the venting of OTR to come out of the top now instead of the front. I'm thinking that somebody thought this looked better...no vent lines on the front. But, all I can imagine is ruining the cabinets above the microwave with the moist air. The only one I have found that vents out the front is a Bosch model, but I don't know the dimensions.

The standard has been 15" deep for as long as I can remember. And that's a loooonnnnnggg time. LoL! They are supposed to stick out the 3". It's normal. A lot of people do a 15" deep cabinet above the MW and do staggered depth cabinets to add interest, but it's not necessary.

hollysprings, I don't understand. The standard what is 15: deep? the Microwave? What's supposed to stick out the 3"? The microwave?
I confess: I am a novice.
Honestly, I'm just glad to have cabinents that line up, never mind staggered depths.

It is cheaper to switch out the microwave. Microwave is often the first appliance that dies in the kitchen. I prefer to buy a decent one for a 100bucks or so and just put it in a shelf. No trim kit etc.

"I bought a standard over the stove micro in whatever measurement I was instructed to get."

So, when you were at the store and noticed that the display model was out in front of the cabinet and that when the door was opened the appliance was wider, it didn't strike you that were it even with the cabinet front, the door would not open?

You are aware that appliance stores routinely provide appliance brochures, upon request.

You are aware that virtually all appliance brochures are available in PDF form, at your fingertip.

"So the cabinent makers and microwave manufacturers don't talk to one another when they change a feature?"

They are separate business who have no responsibility to one-another.

The sole responsibility to be informed lies with you, the customer.

I don't get your point snoonby but from your tone I wonder if understanding would actually be helpful to me. I know the size to buy. I talk to the appliance salesma who is the dept manager. He shows me ones that meet the specification I'd been given. They are not displayed in cabinents just on shelves. It was in the box until I saw it on the wall when I got home from work. I am interested actually in what I could have done differently. I am not even sure the cabinents were on the walls when I was told to go buy the microwave.
The comment about designers of cabinents and applyliances... Forgetaboutit....it was meant to be ironic...but at eastern time zone it is much too late to dwell on misplaced irony....

Now I'm confused. Mine is even with the front doors of the cabinets and opens fine.

I didn't want mine to stick out, and we ended up with such deep upper cabinets that it can't. But the original plan was to cut into the wall behind it a little in order to make the microwave flush. Good luck!

The cabinents open fine. I didn't mean to say they did not.

The carpenter, who has been honest and straightforward over the last 6 months, says most otc microwaves stick out. Pulled up a photo from his phone.
Of course, there are the other photos of flush otc microwaves. The question is, am I choosing the most useful battle to engage in? Can I live with it?
I'm already more used to it.
idabean

They all stick out if your upper cabinets are 12" deep. It's only if you choose to go with deeper cabinets (15") that it wouldn't stick out. There is an upcharge for that choice.

Or, you can choose to just bump out the cabinet above the OTR. It adds interest to the crown molding to do that, but you would probably also want a few other elements deeper, like any corner cabinets, etc.

Is your microwave an OTR microwave that has to be mounted above the range? If not look at GE space maker microwaves.. They are the shallowest and my appliances store has a display which shows this microwave being flush with the uppers which are standard depth.

The plus about a smaller microwave is that it would be smaller!
This thing looks gigantic....it may twice as big as the one that served our family of five for 20 years.
Now that the kids are gone, and my husband and I use it to partially bake 5 potatoes before they go on the grill, I might throw myself in it to get away from kitchen design problems.

My moms sticks out but I had never noticed it. There is extra light bar trim on the bottom of the 12" cabinets that masks some of this.

Is your range in place yet? You probably won't notice it once it's all put together, as the range will stick out further again. Also, don't worry that you made some type of mistake here--I think the depths and differences you are noticing are standard in today's marketplace of cabinets and appliances.

I just went and looked at mine and mine sticks out, but it looks fine. I love so much having it off the counters that I don't care. I think most DO stick out. I'm sure it will be fine.

Ours sticks out too and we were pretty disappointed with how it looks. Weird thing is that our uppers ARE 15" deep, so contractor put a block of wood behind the microwave to make sure it STILL sticks out! (wish he had told me first).

I believe all OTR MW's are about the same size. My GE profile was installed by the builder (and we paid a builder's premium for it) under a 15" deep cabinet, so only the door protruded. It was installed to recirculate (not vented outside), and after it died, we took it out. It was then we realized most of the venting was blocked by the extra deep cabinet. Perhaps that is why it died after only 6 yrs. There are just two of us, and we only use it for heating water for tea and reheats. Plus there was no charcoal filter installed.

I learned GE makes a bump out kid for installation under a deeper cabinet, but then it would really be in my face. I will not bump out the new one, but I have found a GE Model JNM3151RFSS that is relatively inexpensive and vents to the front. It doesn't look as sleek as the other stainless models that vent out the top, but I'm hoping it will last more than 6 yrs.
This one will have a charcoal filter as intended, but we will have to lower it once a year to change it. I did figure out that, in order to change the filter on the GE models, you need 2.5" of clearance on the top to get to those screws. So it must stick out at least that far. We still won't have that, but it should be a better arrangement than what it was. I'd love to go to a recirculating hood (outside venting is not an option) and a small countertop unit, but it would be mounted 71" off the floor, and I don't think a hood would be efficient at that height. I'd have to significantly increase the CFM's, and I still don't know if it would be any better than the MW vent.

Here is a link that might be useful: GE Model JNM3151RFSS

I am commenting here 8 years after the original post in case anyone still reads this. A lot of the comments above are misleading and I will explain my own experience. We remodeled our kitchen in 2017 and designed the cabinet above the stove to be 15" deep - to accommodate the depth of the microwave, so it would be flush. This was the primary reason we went with a bump out.

After the contractor installed the microwave I was SHOCKED to find it was installed to stick out another 3 inches, regardless of the cabinet depth I had chosen, leaving a 3" gap between the back of the microwave and the wall. Why? Because the the microwave vents are on the top of the microwave and the vent has to clear the cabinet it is mounted beneath. We were told that if we could vent to the outside the top vents could be ignored and the MW could be pushed back, but we live in an attached townhouse and there is no way to vent to the outside.

At the time, our solution was to sell the top-vent microwave and buy a lower quality front-vent microwave (very few to choose from) which could be installed flush to the cabinets. I was a happy camper. Now, nearly 5 years later, my front-vent microwave no longer works and I cannot find a replacement.

So my options are to:

1) have an eyesore of a MW sticking WAY out, which looks even worse when it sticks out 3" beyond a 15" bumped cabinet

2) keep my old MW and use it for storage and get a 2nd counter MW that works

3) try to have the current MW fixed, but so far the appliance repair shots are laughing.

4) continue my search for a front-vent microwave (in black to match all my other appliances).

Sigh.

Or you could pay a carpenter to cut down the depth of your cabinet as I am doing right now. I was part of the earlier conversations, and only now am I addressing this.

I did the same thing you did, replaced a top vent with a front vent after the original more expensive unit failed at the six-year mark. My front vent also has vents on top, so they are mostly blocked.

Like you, I am in a townhome. Venting to the outside would be expensive and probably not effective, as the vent would have to go to the basement then out the front wall. It would be a long run. And my current seven-year old MW is now misbehaving, so I am preparing for yet another new one.

I very much dislike "over the stove" microwaves. My previous home's kitchen (1992) had a shelf designed for that purpose since that what was available at the time, and it was dropped down lower since it was in a wall of cabinets. I also had a pull-out cutting board at countertop height which served as a shelf for placing your dishes from MW or oven. And the MW was a free standing countertop unit. As I recall, the "built-in" kits weren't yet available, so the shelf was the only option, but it served us well. I'm attaching a photo taken in 2007 after the original larger MW failed. I used my son's college unit temporarily, and it was considerably smaller. That same college MW is sitting on my countertop right now while I'm waiting for the cabinet to be re-installed. Look hard below the section of countertop, and you will see the pull-out cutting board.

The remade cabinet will be 13.5" deep, (remember, different house) which will still bump out slightly to balance other bump out cabinets in my current kitchen. I purposely avoided a 12" depth, as I thought it might be impossible to get it exactly flush with cabinets on either side. Is this the perfect solution? No. But I believe that early failure is due in part to poor venting and an inaccessible filter on a self-circulating unit.