OTR microwave

[rile]

I am in the planning stages of remodeling a kitchen. The stove sits against a wall, by itself, with a brick chimney behind the wall. The wall is lathe covered with plaster. Presently, there are no plans to put cabinets above the stove. Now, my problem.....is it possible to install an OTR microwave with that scenario? In other words, how difficult would it be to install an OTR microwave as a stand alone without cabinets around it? If anyone has done this, give me some pointers on how you did it, please.

[DaveG]

I've installed 3 of these, all with cabinets, on a sheetrocked wall. The 3 ovens were all of a different brand, and all attached slightly differently, but all three needed a large bracket mounting plate attached to the wall, with lag screws in the wall studs, plus extra toggle bolts. One, a Sharp brand, didn't need to attach to the cabinet above it, it had really long bolts that went diagonally from the bottom front of the unit to the top of the mounting plate. The Maytag and the GE both needed to be bolted to the bottom of the cabinet above the oven. At the very least you'd have to figure a way to attach the mounting bracket very securely. These things are very heavy. Plus you'd have to have some place close to plug it in, the cords are not very long. Finally, since these are made to be surrounded top and sides by cabinetry, the sides and top of the oven are not very attractive. Just food for thought. Dave

[Cliff Hartle]

They do exist.

I saw an episode of Food 911 where in the background I saw a otr micro wave that didn't have any cabinets on the top or sides. The only thing above it was maybe a shelf.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've had two and both has some attachment to the cabinet. Do you have cabinets along side the range? If so, you could put a shelf between them to accept the bolts from the MW.

Both also had attachments to the rear wall. IIRC, the mounting frame bolted to studs, but could possibly go into anchors in the wall. I'd be leery of drilling into a chimney though.

Go to the GE web site. You can download the instruction and installation manual. That may give you some or all of the information you need to decide what to do. Ed [e-mail]