Your request does not sound unreasonable to me. I thought that OTR micros were always higher then the cabinets on each side of it?? Not sure if that is how they are "supposed" to be or not. I think the important thing is how high it is above your cooktop!

Do you have the specs for your microwave? It will say in there how high it needs to be from the cooktop. Maybe you could use that leverage to show them they need to replace the cabinet above it? (If that is what you are requesting??)

IMHO, if you do not like the way it looks, tell them to order what you want. Whose kitchen is this anyway? Who is paying for it? They are "sick" of dealing with it? Well, sorry, but it is their job to do so! ;-)

I know how you feel though, we kept our cabinet people on their toes making things the way we wanted it. Funny how they act like they will give you the moon until you give them an agreement & then they sometimes try to avoid doing some things.

ANYWAY, that is my experience. I am curious to hear others.

JoAnn

Neither of you is right. The microwave should be installed at the height recommended in the installation instructions for your microwave.

Mine was

initially (no one read the installation instructions!). The instructions were that the top of the MW was to be 34 - 36" above the top of the cooktop, which put the bottom of the MW 18-20" above the cooktop. They installed it 14" above the cooktop.

After much work, the cabinet was cut down, and the MW was reinstalled at the correct height (mine is 20 1/2" above the cooktop).

The new cooktops and ranges are much hotter than the old ones we had. If your MW is too close, the bottom could melt if it's too close to the cooking surface.

Good luck.

There's usually a discrepency between the height of the OTR MW and the standard cabinet heights. The MW is typically 16", whereas standard cabinet heights are in increments of 3". So when you're designing the cabinets around the cooktop, you have to decide what space you want to leave above the cooktop for the hood/MW, 15" or 18" (that's the difference in heights between the cabinet above the cooktop & the ones to each side). The usual cleance between the countertop and the wall cabinets is around 17", so the total clearance from the cooktop to the cabinet above is either 32" or 35". (There's also consideration of how much room you need within the cabinet for ducting connections, depending on finished ceiling/soffit height.)

I usually make the difference 18". That also gives you a few more inches clearance above the burners. But it also puts the MW door a few inches higher. You and/or your designer apparently chose 15", which brings the MW a little lower.

If the cook is a shorter person, then the lower positon may be the right height. If you use large pots and need more cleance for the cooktop, then the higher MW position could be better.

It is as Momj47 says. The install instructions of your particular OTR micro will determine where it should be placed.

For our GE Profile 1790 OTR Convection/Micro, the install instructions state "the TOP of the OTR unit must installed a MINIMUM of 66 inches from the FLOOR (as in the ground, not from the range top, of course).

From a strictly looks standpoint, an OTR micro looks best at even with the bottom of cabinets or higher. A micro placed lower than the cabinet bottoms looks just plain weird to me.

Our cabinet bottoms are 15.5 inches above the countertop. Our OTR micro/convection oven bottom is 19.5 above the countertop. Don't have it much higher than that or lifting stuff into and out of the micro becomes difficult. I would have liked it at 18" better but we were dealing with existing cabinetry.

Here's another one to say, follow the instructions. Our KD asked me what OTR MW I was looking at, before designing the above-the-range cabinet - so that the "hang" would be correct.

My cabinets hang down about 2" on both sides of the OTR MW.

DonnaR/CA

Here is a link that might be useful: Donna's OTR MW

We had the same concerns after our cabinets were ordered and the OTR MW purchased. We realized that our MW was going to hang almost 2 inches below the cabinet line, and this with a 15-inch upper cabinet. Our choices were to go to a 12-inch cabinet above the MW or get a smaller MW. Since I'd already lost 3 inches here and there for spacers I wasn't convinced I needed, I wasn't about to give up another 3 inches. Trouble was we couldn't really find a much smaller MW. In the end we returned the MW and exchanged for another in order to save 1/4 inch. When they installed the cabinets, after the light rail was also put in, we found that the MW hung about an inch below the cabinets and, to us, it looked absolutely fine doing so. Actually if you can't get the "ideal" height, with the MW even with the bottoms of the cabinets, I prefer the look of the MW extending below the cabinets a bit to having several inches of floating cabinet. We're all short in this house so the height works out fine for us and was within the manufacturer's recommended distances from the rangetop.

{{!gwi}}

The definite priority is to have the MW at least the minimum distance away from the top of the stove as outlined in your stove manual.

Then, according to our appliance guy, the best drafting will occur if you have some of the cabinet hanging below the MW. So the air will funnel into that cavity and up into the MW exhaust system.

Our OTR is the minimum distance above the range but it does hang approx. 1.5-2 inches below the cabinets. I've seen plenty that do this too, but I personally prefer it to be even with the cab bottom. I haven't seen many that are though.