Is it normal for a new dishwasher to stick out past the cabinets?

An inch proud of the cabinet faces is too much. Ours sat out a little when I first slid it in, and getting it flush took maybe twenty minutes of fiddling, so it's definitely fixable in most kitchens. First thing to check: the shipping brace. A lot of units come with a plastic or cardboard piece bolted across the top rear of the tub to keep everything aligned in transit. If the installer left it on, it can hold the machine off the wall by an inch or more. Pull the dishwasher out a bit and look across the top back. The install manual usually mentions removing it if you need the clearance. Second, look at what's behind the unit. The junction box where the power connects, the water supply line, and the drain hose all live back there, and if they're routed badly they'll keep the tub from sitting back. The drain hose especially loves to bunch up behind the machine. You want those lines to run off to the side or down low, not sit straight behind the middle of the tub. Third, the counter overhang. Most counters hang over the cabinet face by roughly an inch, sometimes more. The dishwasher body itself usually fits under fine, but the door is thicker than the tub, so the door is what has to clear the overhang. If the feet are cranked up too high at the front, the top of the door can catch on the counter and stop the machine short. Lowering the front feet, then leveling side to side with a level on the door rack, usually gets everything tucked in and lets the door sit even with the cabinet frames. The adjustable feet you read about are real. They're at the front bottom corners and you turn them by hand or with a screwdriver to raise and lower the unit. That's for leveling and for getting the door height to match the cabinets, not for pulling the machine back, so if it's sitting out an inch, the cause is behind it, not under it.

As for the inspector, they only check code stuff like the drain loop and electrical connections. Flush with the cabinets isn't on their list. Call the installer back and ask them to pull it out and see what's stopping it from going home. If they just set it in place without checking, that's on them, not your cabinets.

Been fitting these things in since the days when we just shoved 'em in and hoped for the best, and one thing I'd add: check how deep your cabinet opening is. A lot of older kitchens were built around shallower tubs, and some of the newer machines run deeper front to back. If the box is too big for the hole, no amount of foot turning gets you flush. Measure from the back wall to the cabinet face and compare it to the spec sheet that came with the unit. If the numbers don't work, it is what it is, but at least you'll know before you chew up the installer's afternoon.

Following this beacuse mine does the same thing, only it sticks out at the bottom instead of the top. Turns out our new tile floor is a bit thicker than what was there when the cabinets went in, so the whole machine rides higher and the door can't tuck under the counter lip like it should. Installer just shrugged at me too. One thing I've been scared to do is pull mine out to check behind it, since ours is wired in rather than plugged into an outlet. Is it actually fine to just slide it forward on the floor a little to peek at the back, or do you have to get someone in to disconnect stuff first? Sorry if that's a dumb question, first house, still figuring all this out.

The point about cabinet depth is real. We swapped ours out a few years ago and the new tub ran deeper than the old one, so no amount of foot turning helped. What actually got us flush was rerouting the drain hose down the side of the neighboring cabinet and zip tying it there so nothing coiled up behind the machine. Gained close to an inch from that alone. Might be worth checking behind yours before you even call the installer back.

One more thing to check before you call anyone back. Mine sat out like yours and it turned out the rear feet were too tall. Some machines let you adjust the back legs from the front with a screw in the middle of the toe kick area, and whoever installed ours had cranked them up. Front of the tub tipped forward and the door never lined up. Took the toe kick off, backed that screw off, and it dropped right in. Worth a look before anything gets pulled out.