I posted this in Housechat, but someone recommended I also post here, so here goes:
We are renovating our house, and our kitchen design will include a built in microsave. The location will be under the coutertop in a dry center island.
We want to get a combination mw/convection with a drop down door. The one we like best is a GE Monogram ZSC1001KSS. This includes their advantium technology. The problem is that in their installation instructions they state:
CAUTION:
For personal safety this product cannot be
installed in cabinet arrangements such as an
island, a peninsula or below a countertop
I have looked at other similar mw ovens including those from JennAir and KitchenAid and neither has the same disclaimer. Interestingly, GE includes the above disclaimer on all of the mw/convection ovens.
Does anyone have any idea why they would do this? When I called GE, they said it was an Underwriters Lab issue. Is there any risk if I end up mounting this under the counter anyway?
Replies
We have a microwave under the counter in our island, but it's only a mw, not a convection oven. I expect that it has to do with heat generation, since they specify not being under a countertop.
I wonder if it doesn't have to do with children fooling with the device.
I love having our mw under the counter; the kids can make their own popcorn, and if there's one thing I HATE doing, it's reaching up high to remove a hot dish. I'd much rather be reaching down, it's safer.
If you read the info provided, it seems to refer to enclosed spaces with a top on them, so I'm taking that to be regarding heat.
Another possibility they could be thinking about is lifting something hot out of the oven and having it boil up in your face.The statement was about "personal safety", suggesting that it isn't a ventillation issue, etc (which would be the same if mounted in an above-counter cabinet).
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
All these locations would place it at the face level of little kids. Its OK for microwaved food to pop into an adults faces.
hmmm, maybe anything to do with magnetic radiation and ummmm, reproductive organs? :)
Does anyone have any idea why they would do this?
Yeah, it's the heat output of the appliance, as a guess. That's why there's a 36 3/4" minimum to bottom of the opening requirement in the installation destructions. You can put anything you want under the advantium--other than another Advantium. The other thing to note in the destructions is that GE is recommending a 194ºF Adhesion temp for any adjacent cabinets. I'm going to guess that the UL people noted that a counter top right over the oven in use probably got a bit too hot to be practical (or loosened the laminate in the lab or the like).
Back in my indenture as a galley-slave to the cabinet shop, we had a number of big-builder clients who picked up on the fad of mounting a wall oven in a base cabinet. A fun design exercise this is not--getting 26-1/2", 27" tall of oven cabinet into a 30" face frame is a bit exciting (so was trying to ship, unbroken, 27" & 28" long 7/8" tall top rails . . . ).
One of the builders apparently extorted a good deal out of Jenn-aire or Whirlpool on a wall oven--which was good for them, except it required a 3-1/2" top rail to create an airspace in a tall oven cabinet. Oops, no under=counter mounting that bad boy.
That Advantium is certainly sized right to go in a base cabinet, 17-1/2" tall cut out would be around 25" off the floor, leave room for about a 12" tall drawer underneath (not at all like a jenn-aire only 6-1/2"-7" up from the floor).