How not to install an over-the-range microwave oven

Nothing about IKEA kitchen installation is easy. And installing an over-the-range microwave oven is not an exception.

For starters, a standard 17-inch-tall over-the range microwave needs to go into the 20-inch-tall gap. This leaves us with 3 inches of exposed side panels of the adjacent wall cabinets.

An IKEA specialist I talked to recommended installing a filler piece above the microwave to make the bottom of the microwave flush with the cabinet bottoms, but this would bring microwave closer to the range (which is not a good thing). Besides, I am not sure how you would then attach the microwave to the bottom of the wall cabinet (the microwave is held by the suspension rail on the back wall and by two bolts attached to the bottom of the wall cabinet). If you add a filler piece in between, I suspect the standard bolts that come with the microwave will be too short. So, the exposed side panels seem like a lesser evil. Just keep in mind that you can easily scratch them when moving the microwave up and down, so be very careful (I'd recommend attaching some sort of plastic film to protect the exposed panels).

Then there is an issue of depth. Standard IKEA's SEKTION wall cabinets are about 3 inches deeper than standard American cabinets, so they are too deep for standard over-the-range microwave ovens. To address the problem, IKEA offers a NYTTIG filler piece at $20 a pop.*

NYTTIG Filler Piece, 30"

The filler piece gets screwed to the studs and the microwave suspension rail are then attached to the filler piece pushing the microwave to the front (see instructions).

Step 4 of the NYTTIG filler piece installation

I like that the NYTTIG filler piece has the stainless steel cover at the bottom: it looks good and helps protect the filler from the heat and fire. So it all should be well, except that my contractor did not use the NYTTIG filler piece.

I think because I had mosaic tile installed on the back wall, attaching the thick NYTTIG piece in front of it would have pushed the microwave too far to the front ruining the aesthetics. Instead the contractor installed a thinner filler piece at the back and pushed the microwave to the front as little as it was possible to not interfere with the operations (opening, closing doors). If I were to do it again, I would have picked the route recommended by IKEA, but I suspect my current setup will work, as well. Aesthetically, it looks great, at least, in front (in the back, a stainless steel cover would've looked better, but, I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes the back of a microwave oven?).

* It looks like the old $20 NYTTIG filler piece has been discontinued. I found a $10 NYTTIG Filler piece f (sic) over the range micro, but it is not the same as the old piece (it's thinner, and it does not have a metal cover).

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