Med-Psych.com

I bought a new nice stainless steel panasonic microwave (model #NN-SD997S Prestige 2.2 Cu-Foot 1250 Watt Microwave). It looks very nice in the space in the island cabinet designed for the microwave, but there is space around it and it looks like the space was designed for a trim kit around the microwave to make it look like a built-in unit. After talking with the place where I bought the microwave, they said there is a "trim kit" that goes with this microwave and it should fit my cabinet.

I did a little searching around, and I found the microwave at Amazon:

model #NN-SD997S Prestige 2.2 Cu-Foot 1250 Watt Microwave

And I found the trim kit the guy was talking about:

Panasonic TK-929SA Stainless Steel Trim Kit (27" width) for all 2.2 cuft Panasonic Stainless Steel Microwave models

I went ahead and ordered it based on the positive reviews.

It came quickly and seemed like a good deal with the free shipping. It was packaged well. Everything was there.

There was a very nice large face plate that surrounds the microwave and gets screwed into the cabinet. There was a large, sturdy baseplate that gets screwed into the bottom of the cabinet. The microwave sits on this baseplate with the legs locking into spaces on the baseplate. The baseplate also elevates the microwave off of the shelf to center it within the cabinet. There was some modified ductwork that looks fairly easy to install which helps guide the exhaust around the back of the microwave and over the top to come out the front through the face plate.

I first noticed that the baseplate was a bit hard for me to get inside the cabinet as the cabinet opening is a bit

narrower than the baseplate. By maneuvering the baseplate diagonally, I was able to get it into the cabinet. Before I screwed the baseplate into the shelf, I figured I'd test out the positioning of everything. I put the microwave in the cabinet onto the baseplate. I then held up the face plate to see how it would look around the microwave.

At this point I noticed I had a big problem. The baseplate elevated the microwave too high for my cabinet. When the microwave was in the cabinet on the baseplate, the face plate left a visible space underneath the microwave and covered the top part of the microwave. This obviously wasn't going to work.

I then thought I would just make a custom baseplate that only elevated the microwave the necessary amount for my microwave to be centered vertically within the nice faceplate. I then played around a little with putting things under the microwave to try to get it to the proper height.

I then realized I had another problem. The face plate is designed to rest inside the cutout of the cabinet for the front of the microwave. My microwave is almost the exact same width as the cutout in my cabinet, leaving about 1/8" of space between the sides of the microwave and the sides of the cutout. This doesn't leave enough space for the face plate to fit. I realized that no matter what kind of custom baseplate I would make, the faceplate just wouldn't fit in my cabinet.

I did a little bit of reading online and came across a company that makes custom trim kits for various microwaves: http://www.microtrim.com/

I found out about this company from a review someone had written about the panasonic face plates. It sounds like in the past, Microtrim may have been the company that Panasonic recommended people to use to get trim kits. This person said the trim kit worked well from Microtrim.

I decided that it was my best option (and the only one I was aware of) to obtain a trim kit to make my microwave look like a built-in unit.

Luckily, Amazon has an excellent return policy. They gave me a paid return address form to place on the box in which my trim kit came. I dropped it off at UPS and awaited my refund.

I went ahead and placed the order with Microtrim. Interestingly, the kit was a bit cheaper from Microtrim than what the official kit cost ordering through Amazon.

To place the order, I went to the Microtrim website and clicked on the "Order Trim Kits" link on the left side of the home page. I then selected the configuration of my cabinet. I measured the dimensions asked for and entered them into the form on the website, along with my microwave make and model.

I received a call the next business day from one of their staff. He told me exactly how much the different sides of the face plate would overlap my cabinet front. I then told him to go ahead with the order. He said I should receive it in about a week. I asked if I had enough space in my cabinet for the modified venting (which was in the package of the official trim kit) and he said that their kits don't have any modification for the venting. He said that there is enough room in the cabinet space so modified venting is unnecessary.

The kit arrived about a day before he had said I should expect it. At first, I thought they only sent me the support legs and not the whole kit. The box for the official trim kit was large because the face plate was one piece, and the base plate was equally large. This box was fairly small and light. After I waited another day or two and realized I wasn't getting another box, I opened this one to find that the entire trim kit fits in the smaller, lighter package. The difference in size from the official trim kit is because the face plate on the MicroTrim kit is actually 4 pieces (one for each side of the microwave) and instead of having a baseplate, there are two plastic runners that act as the baseplate. While the package was much lighter than the official trim kit, the MicroTrim kit appearance seemed nice.

The directions were pretty basic and included everything you need to know. You do have to cut the plastic runners the microwave will sit upon, but it was fairly simply to make the measurements and cut it to the proper length.

I then had to mark a line where the legs of the microwave sit so I could figure out where to put the runners. I also had to figure out how far back to set them in order to have the front of the microwave flush with the cabinet.

After I screwed the runners into the cabinet, I set the microwave on the runners, and then placed the face plate where it should go on the cabinet front. Before fully screwing it in, I tested out the microwave door would open. It seemed the door would scrape against either the top or the bottom of the face plate, depending on how I lined it up. I tried adjusting things, but realized that the way I had it set-up, the door was always going to scrape against the faceplate.

I then tried moving the microwave further forward, so that rather than having the front of the door flush with the trim kit, the door of the microwave would sit a bit in front of the face plate. After looking closer at the instructions, it looks like the front of the cabinet should actually line up with the front of the microwave – NOT including the door. In other words, the door should be in front of the front edge of the cabinet, not having the front edges line up with each other.

Once I moved the runners forward such that now the back edge of the door was lined up with the front edge of the cabinet, the face plate didn't seem to interfere with the door at all. I went ahead an screwed in the face plate.

I am very happy with how it now looks. Everyone who has seen it says it looks nice. I'll try to attach a photo.

So, my overall opinion is the the MicroTrim kit is a very nice option. It was not too difficult to install. The most difficult part was measuring and marking where to cut (the plastic runners on which the microwave sits), drill (the holes for the faceplate), and place the screws (so the plastic runners are located in the right spot.

One final comment. One of the best parts about using the trim-kit is that the microwave no longer slides around in the cabinet space when opening the door.

Still seems to be holding up fine. I did notice some moisture around the edge of the microwave when I was steaming rice, but that may have nothing to do with the built in kit. I'm guessing some steam just comes out of the edges around the microwave door which has nothing to do with the trim kit. Here's my attempt at posting a picture. We'll see if it works. It's a picture of the panasonic microwave with the MicroTrim trim kit to make it look like a built in microwave.