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lolittakat

Are there any "short" microhoods?

lolittakat
11 years ago

We are updating our appliances and so far have selected everything besides the microhood. We only use a microwave in our household to warm up dog food, about once every few weeks and maybe only twice a year for personal reasons. At the same time i don't want to not have a microwave option as if we do need it later on in the future i don't want to use up my counter space for it. Right now we have 15" between old stove and old microwave, i'd like to install a skiny or short microwave over our ge cafe. Can't find any at local stores. We'd like to spend under $400

thanks!

Comments (4)

  • jwvideo
    11 years ago

    Do I understanding this correctly: you have a "microhood" over the stove now and, because the bottom is only 15" above your GE Cafe stove, you want something shorter in height to give more space above the stove?

    If so, I have a couple of suggestions for you.

    First, you might try searching by using the term "OTR." That stands for "over the range" and is often used as an abbreviation for microwave-range-hoods. My recollection is that OTR units are all pretty much the same height, which ranges from 15 to 17 inches in height. I do not think that there are any short ones vut you might find something if your search on OTR.

    Second, to say within your $400 budget, I would consider putting a vent hood over the stove ($100 to $200) and getting an undercabinet mw to put elsewhere in the room. I have a GE Spacesaver II mw (model number is PEM31SM) which I bought last January for around $200. It is only 10.5" tall, and is cabinet depth, so that still leaves workspace and storage space on the counter beneath it.

    If your current OTR does not vent to the outside, I might just skip a recirculating range hood. My experience is recirculating OTRs and hoods are ineffective for venting and mainly serve to provide additional lighting over the stove's cooktop.

  • lolittakat
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks JWVideo,
    We haven't installed our GE Cafe yet, we will once we lay new floors down. and with a small kitchen we can't use our precious cabinet space or counter space because of other items that we use daily such as an espresso machine and out KA mixer. I also prefer to keep my counters empty, we don't even have a toaster on there. I wish your microwave came as OTR option :)

  • _sophiewheeler
    11 years ago

    Shorten the cabinet that the MW hangs from if this is a retro fit. If this is new cabinetry, then your KD ordered the wrong sized cabinet and needs to reorder a shorter one.

  • jwvideo
    11 years ago

    What Hollysprings said.

    Does you current OTR vent out the back or the top? If out the top, you might be able to shorten the cabinet a few inches and move the OTR a bit higher with minimal loss of access and storage space in the cabinets over the stove bay.

    I know what you mean about small kitchens. My old house kitchen is not quite 9 x 11 and has four doorways, so counterspace is at a premium. When I was doing cabinets, MW and venting last fall, I considered an OTR. I looked at an LG Model # LMHM2017 which has a slide-out panel to give full vent coverage over the stove, 400 CFM draw and often turned up on sale for around $400. However, it is almost 18inches tall. Accomodating that height and clearance over the stove would have required moving the cabinetry too high and created problems with running venting to the exterior.

    I kept my existing hood, a Zephyr Cyclone which is only 5 inches tall. I bumped up the base of the cabinet next to the stove bay and hung my GE mw from the bottom of the cabinet next to the hood. That still left me with plenty of storage on that wall and got my MW off the counter. The MW is high enough that I can put my KA K5 stand-mixer underneath it. Since I was building those cabinets --- had to because the roo layout dimensions were to weird for stock cabinets -- I could do this pretty easily. It would not be that easy if you are working with stock cabinets.

    Another thing occurs to me. I have seen designs with stock cabinets that put an infrequently used MW above a fridge. This might work for you if you all are not short and your fridge is not overly tall. If you can find some recent "kitchen" editions of Fine Homebuilding magazine (kitchens are usually covered in the November issues), I think you will find several examples.

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