Can I heat this? Or, how important is microwave vent clearance?

Post date: 2021-01-16 06:25:22

What happens if my microwave doesn't have the manufacturer's recommended clearances on each side? Will I burn down the house and die horribly?

I just moved to a new place that has a cabinet alcove in the kitchen that is clearly designed to hold a microwave -- it is 18"x 13"x13.5" and contains a hole for a power cord to go through. The smallest microwave I can find is 17.1" x 13"x 10". So far so good.

But it appears that every microwave on the market claims to need 12" of clearance above it and 3" of clearance on each side.

Does it really? What if I don't? I really want to use this alcove to free up counter space, and if the likely failure mode here is that my cheapo microwave lasts 3 years instead of 10 years, whatever, I don't care. But I also don't want to burn down the house!

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