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Woodenfish---thanks for the always excellent information. We hadn't considered that issue and as we'll be getting a gas range---certainly something to be aware of.
As to fan noise people-----every hear a smoke detector going off because even just frying burgers produced enough smoke to set them off?
What strikes me as odd----we can have all these advances in kitchen appliances, but we've forgotten some pretty good ideas along the way.
Like---I well remember back in the early 70s, there were what I think were called terrace-top ranges, where there was a second oven mounted above the range, about the height of where you'd normally have a hood----Above the top oven was a pull-out "drawer" which was the fan and grease filter. When you pulled out the drawer, the fan would come on and it did a great job of sucking up smoke and steam. Why couldn't the make the microwave slightly smaller in favor of an arrangement like that?? Oh, well.
Dave
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LIL
The other weakness OTRs have is poor lighting for the cooktop. Be sure to check that out too. The one I installed at my folks place you could hardly tell whether the lights were on or off.....
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Woodenfish said:
OTR microwave ovens are notoriously poor ventilators and have low reliability for their ridiculously high price. A lot of the all-gas ranges available on the market today emulate pro-ranges look and have high BTU output burners which can make the OTR micro really show its weakness. If you have one of these types of ranges I would really, really think twice before going this route. Be sure to measure the finished height you will have from the top of range to bottom of micro. There are minimum height restrictions you need to be aware of for the unit.
We have a GE OTR MW that shows this, but looks after itself sort of, when the range is on, and the OTRMW gets hot, it will turn on it's own cooling fans and cool itself down.
Sounds like a shop vac, but at least it stops itself from dying in the heat.
no permiti el bicho morderte
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Dave this is one of the times you have to just buy what you need instead of doing what she wants. I have seen below counter microwaves if she doesn't want to lose the counter space. I have tossed them out of all except one of my rentals and when it dies it goes too. Build her a cart or add a spot in a pantry for one
Phydeaux said "Loving your enemy and doing good for those that hurt you does not preclude killing them if they make that necessary."
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women have trouble understanding Trump's MAGA theme because they had so little involvement in making America great the first time around.
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daveferg said:
Seems I can't talk my wife into buying a countertop model---she's insisting on the over the range type. We all know most of them have a bad reputation as an exhaust fan.
Does anyone know of a model/brand with good exhaust ventilation?
http://over-the-range-microwave-review.t...views.com/There appear to be a lot of very good over the range microwaves. Many with 300-400 cfm fans.
I think you and others simply are unwilling to pay for the quality they want.
Economics is much harder when you use real money.
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joe1086 said:
LIL
The other weakness OTRs have is poor lighting for the cooktop. Be sure to check that out too. The one I installed at my folks place you could hardly tell whether the lights were on or off.....
Some of them have a nite light setting.
They usually have a 300CFM rating and that would be for a vent directly out the wall behind the unit. Keep in mind that the bigger range hoods start around 650CFM up to around 1200CFM. Any vented unit will suffer if elbows, transitions and dampers are used as they will slow air flow.
Al
I turn, therefore I am!
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We don't use the fan on ours. The only negative is that it is harder to reach to clean.
S.E. Alabama, formerly from Wisconsin.
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We bought a newer model(2 years ago) range with a pot boiler burner(located on the right front. We cannot put a saucepan on that burner, the 2 qt. pans are too small in diameter. That burner will boil 4 qt's of water in about five minutes or less.
I just installed a new hood/exhaust assembly a year before that---220 cfm capacity. It sits 22" above the range grills. The exhaust stack is 4' long(vents into attic).
It is LOUD. It pulls most of the steam/fumes from that pot boiler burner, I cannot imagine an over the range microwave having anything close to that capacity.
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Robert said-
"And those drawer microwaves are a fad but great for drumming up business for chiropractors."
We have a microwave drawer and find it easier and safer to use than an over the range microwave. Doesn't seem like it would cause a trip to the chiropractor any more than opening the silverware drawer. I'm curious why more people don't use them (other than cost)? Using a drawer microwave allowed us to install a high cfm vent over the stove that vents to the outside.
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First off---our Kenmore has loads of light projected down to the range top---no complaints.
GHR---thanks for the link---Don't have a problem with paying the price----but even tow of the top of the line units we've had over the years still don't "suck" worth a darn.
Dave
