People of Bit-tech, spec me a ..... Microwave oven? Our current one works well, but the start button now only works half the time, half of those times double clicks and it's deteriorating. It is a standard 800w with a turn table. We only really use its start button and the door. Normally, we'd buy whatever is on offer at local supermarket, but haven't been to the supermarket for weeks. There are so many different options from online retailers. So what's a good microwave but also easy to use? - Analogue dial or digital timer - we definitely want digital timer. We sometimes want to do just 15 seconds to take the chill out of a small bowl of milk for the toddler. - Looks, we don't care, they all look largely similar plain boxes. - Stainless steel or ceramic interior? - Turntable or not? - Grill function worth it? - Panasonic Inverter thingy?! - What's a good brand?
I bought one that doubles as a convection oven and grill. I have never convected nor grilled anything in it. EDIT: That's a lie, I pressed the wrong button once and nearly set fire to the plastic packaging of a microwave curry. So I've grilled something in it once, partially, and only by accident.
I got a 900w Daewoo one thats going on 6 years and running perfectly! Unfortunately they don't make it any more though. You'll always want a turntable.
Ours packed in recently, and I started looking, having recently heard about them on bit-tech I decided a flatbed was a preferable design. I went down the rabbit hole and got so fed up with searching that I chose to repair our existing one instead. I think the bottom line for me was that it just gets used to warm stuff up, and I didn't want to pay the greatly increased price required for a marginally superior unit?
The only thing I care about is 'do the microwaves stay inside?'. Hmm. I have no idea if the one I have (came with the house) meets this criteria.
A microwave of 17 years died on me last year. My replacement criteria was the cheapest available with prime delivery from a brand I had heard of It was a Toshiba microwave, it was £60, and it was just fine. IMO don't bother with bells and whistles - you're not entertaining Gordon Ramsay or cooking Christmas dinner in your microwave, you're reheating leftovers. Get the cheapest one you like the look of (if you have to look at it) and make sure it fits your plates.
Unless you've got room for a built-in one, the choice is colour and rough external dims to suit your needs. The Mrs did this with our last microwave - it was a kind of viking funeral as it burnt the inside really badly, and only good fortune meant she caught it before it went full mental.
I'd recommend mine but I don't think the company (beyond appliances) is still around, £100 20 years ago, 900 watt, and a bar code scanner. A turntable is a must.
We went through this a few weeks ago. Microwave was old but OK. The glass tray broke in half, and I didn't think glueing would be suitable. Exhibit A was not large enough for our plates despite supposed careful measurage. Exhibit B was fine, Panasonic, about £120. I miss the 'Instant 60 sec' pressing the start button and also you have to select power first on this one. Got used to it fine, but mental adjustment after years of autopilot required!
A couple of people have said a turntable is necessary; a flatbed unit has no turntable but instead bounces the microwaves around, so it achieves the same effect but has the benefit of being easier to clean and more easily accepting large or square items.
I now use an £830 built-in flat bed microwave - it was part of the house. I'm sure it has a variety of special settings and programs that will never be used. I can honestly say I preferred the old one because it gave the same outcomes, but the beep could be turned off and it was quicker to dial in the time. Cling film or even better vented microwave safe containers are the answer to microwave cleaning problems. Prevention is the best solution.
My parents had a microwave they bought in the '80s, when it was finished and started beeping, it would stop if you opened the door. The unit I have now (seven years old?) just keeps beeping at you until it has finished its infuriating cycle, whether you open the door or not. Maybe I should open it up and cut the wires?
This one is relentless. After it's done, it beeps forever, non stop, two chimes per second, until you press "stop" Microwaves are relatively noisy, I know it's done because I can no longer hear the microwave, I don't need another audio cue to tell me. I can even confirm my hypothesis that last night's pizza is now hot by using my eyes to tell me that the light is no longer on, and the timer is no longer counting down. Given I'm microwaving things for 90 seconds and not 90 minutes, I'm also unlikely to have been distracted writing my latest novel or assembling Ikea furniture in the meantime to need a continuous beep that's audible throughout the entire house. And even in the unlikely scenario that I did forget somehow, the worst that would happen is that I put it in for another 15 seconds when I remember because it's marginally cooler. I'd open it up to remove the beeper if I didn't think that Siemens put all sorts of unnecessary electronics in there that would effectively make minor surgery like "remove beep" impossible.
Our microwave also has a grill and convection oven function. Never used it until shortly before Christmas when our cooker expired, at which point the multifunctional microwave became the best purchase ever.
Yep, depending on space and money it can definitely make it worth it just for that one time it saves your bacon... I sometimes use it for small things to save a bit of energy too (less volume to heat than the main oven). It has to be a proper reasonable convection oven though. Our last one claimed to be a combi but the temperatures were waaaay off and the heating was ridiculously uneven. The current Panasonic is very good though
Ok. Thanks everyone. Panasonic seems like a good bet. Yes, I used to always go with cheapest. This one was around £30 from beginning of ~2010 at one of the big supermarket. Gotta say, I'm surprised to see the bog standard ones are around £50-80 now. Single button quick start +1min is required. Wife ain't got the patience to dial in the time. This is perhaps also the reason why the single start button is on its last legs. Want 6min? she would press it 6 times. Finally, the turntable question is because I had used a 1200w non-turntable professional looking microwave, it works really well. So I'm wondering if this is worth getting at home. Similarly, I see a 1000w Panasonic with "inverter technology" that claims to be able to dial back its power properly, rather than others that use cheap pulse wave modulation. edit: We'll probably buy this combi, just because it's Panasonic from JL for 2 yr guarantee. It's not too expensive from cheaper alternatives on Amazon. https://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-nn-k18jmmbpq-freestanding-microwave-with-grill-silver/p3519148 The +1min, quick 30s buttons will hopefully make the start button last longer.
