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More of a cautionary tale than anything I suppose.
Short version: check the DEPTH of your cabinet over the microwave very carefully and make sure the mounting holes fit on it.
First off let me say that I'm not a huge fan of over the range microwaves; they're quite a bit more expensive, a pain to install (more on that) and frankly a fume hood would be preferred. However its what was there and given the state of the wall behind it.. its what's going back there so on to our adventure.
The old microwave was about 10 years old and had been acting a little weak but was still working until Tuesday night when it wouldn't defrost a pound of stir fry - on high for 10 minutes. So off to the local borg we go (its about a mile away which is convenient) and pick up one of their vast selection (all having mediocre reviews). Getting it home (and having installed several of these in previous houses with no issues) I blithely start putting the mounting plate up on the wall and then go to drill the holes for the top hangers.. and ... the cabinet is about 1/4" to shallow (the edge of the hole intersects the face frame).. So pack it back up tonight and take it back. I got the poor guy helping us to climb up a platform ladder (cause we ain't allowed to do that ourselves no sir - 3' is to tall) and triple check measure the hole->back distance on a half dozen models to make sure it should fit. I'm tentatively positive that we now have one that will work - I'll check the spacing again after dinner - BEFORE mounting the back plate!!
Funny thing is when you look up the specs online they all say how tall they are (15-16" pretty much all of them) and how wide (every single one was 30") but a lot of them don't include the depth - which is where you run into problems. Even in the online manuals the depth is kind of handwavy if you're on the edge; so you pretty much want to get ahold of the top template if you can - if you have a shallow cabinet (ours is 11" interior and 12" total).
Short version: check the DEPTH of your cabinet over the microwave very carefully and make sure the mounting holes fit on it.
First off let me say that I'm not a huge fan of over the range microwaves; they're quite a bit more expensive, a pain to install (more on that) and frankly a fume hood would be preferred. However its what was there and given the state of the wall behind it.. its what's going back there so on to our adventure.
The old microwave was about 10 years old and had been acting a little weak but was still working until Tuesday night when it wouldn't defrost a pound of stir fry - on high for 10 minutes. So off to the local borg we go (its about a mile away which is convenient) and pick up one of their vast selection (all having mediocre reviews). Getting it home (and having installed several of these in previous houses with no issues) I blithely start putting the mounting plate up on the wall and then go to drill the holes for the top hangers.. and ... the cabinet is about 1/4" to shallow (the edge of the hole intersects the face frame).. So pack it back up tonight and take it back. I got the poor guy helping us to climb up a platform ladder (cause we ain't allowed to do that ourselves no sir - 3' is to tall) and triple check measure the hole->back distance on a half dozen models to make sure it should fit. I'm tentatively positive that we now have one that will work - I'll check the spacing again after dinner - BEFORE mounting the back plate!!
Funny thing is when you look up the specs online they all say how tall they are (15-16" pretty much all of them) and how wide (every single one was 30") but a lot of them don't include the depth - which is where you run into problems. Even in the online manuals the depth is kind of handwavy if you're on the edge; so you pretty much want to get ahold of the top template if you can - if you have a shallow cabinet (ours is 11" interior and 12" total).