Looking for decent microwave

[Fanatical Meat]

Above the range type not a countertop microwave.
Our current HD special brand Magic Chef’s keypad is crapping out and it has yellowed substantially over the 10 years we’ve been here.
We only use it to heat vegetables and occasionally leftovers. I do not want to spend a lot and I do not need a huge list of features.
I would like a recognizable brand because those will at least be UV Resistant to yellowing.

What brands do you guys like?

 

[Greenman]

I have the cheapest microwave I could find to use on the job. It was $29, has a timer knob, and won't die. It's been through a couple of storms, had a tube of structural epoxy blow up inside it, and the mold is getting a little thick, but it works like a charm.

 

[PowerEngineer]

YMMV, but I have had generally good experiences with Panasonic microwaves over a span of 40 (or so) years. I bought one immediately when microwaves first hit the consumer marketplace. As it happens, I just had to replace our microwave because the door opening mechanism broke (and they use oddball fasteners to prevent DIY tinkerers from frying themselves). Being thirteen years old, I feel we got our money's worth. I bought this one which is its updated equivalent:

Panasonic Family Size 2.2CuFt Countertop Microwave Oven with Cyclonic Inverter Technology NN-SN97HS

It turned out that this Costco- special model has IMHO the best combination of features (big and powerful) at a decent price ($220).

Not sure why the Costco Panasonic over-the-range model is so much more expensive! 😳

Panasonic 1.9CuFt Over-the-Range Microwave with Sensor Cooking in Smoked Glass/Stainless Steel

Anyway... Panasonic.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

YMMV, but I have had generally good experiences with Panasonic microwaves over a span of 40 (or so) years. I bought one immediately when microwaves first hit the consumer marketplace. As it happens, I just had to replace our microwave because the door opening mechanism broke (and they use oddball fasteners to prevent DIY tinkerers from frying themselves). Being thirteen years old, I feel we got our money's worth. I bought this one which is its updated equivalent:

Panasonic Family Size 2.2CuFt Countertop Microwave Oven with Cyclonic Inverter Technology NN-SN97HS

It turned out that this Costco- special model has IMHO the best combination of features (big and powerful) at a decent price ($220).

Not sure why the Costco Panasonic over-the-range model is so much more expensive! 😳

Panasonic 1.9CuFt Over-the-Range Microwave with Sensor Cooking in Smoked Glass/Stainless Steel

Anyway... Panasonic.

Good suggestion, I’ll look into this model.
Best Buy near me has them for less.
I like how it is a brand name so it will at minimum have a decent UV coating. Bugs the crap out of me how we started with a white microwave and now it is yellow.

When we bought the house these were the same color.

 

[lxskllr]

A little off topic, but does Panasonic still make good stuff generally? I've always liked their products. Usually not best in class, but sufficient and reliable. They do what they're supposed to do for a long time.

My microwave is an old counter top MonkeyWards model. Probably bought some time in the 80s. Good luck finding one of those! :^D I'd buy it again if I could.

 

[WilliamM2]

A little off topic, but does Panasonic still make good stuff generally? I've always liked their products. Usually not best in class, but sufficient and reliable. They do what they're supposed to do for a long time.

My microwave is an old counter top MonkeyWards model. Probably bought some time in the 80s. Good luck finding one of those! :^D I'd buy it again if I could.

I think thy make the best microwaves, simply because they are the inverter type. You can actually thaw things without them "cooking" at all. Not sure if any other company makes them besides LG, which is junk.

Microondas - Panasonic

Ver Panasonic Microondas

www.panasonic.com

Mines 12 years old, so I'd say they still make good products.

 

[BoomerD]

Just don't buy a Sharp brand microwave. They DO NOT WORK.

I put an onion in mine...hit the pizza button, when the cycle was done, I opened the door...there was still an onion in it...no pizza! I feel so ripped off!

 

[bigi]

Get the Wolf Speed Oven. This is the one to own. It is only 2,600 or so but currently there might be a wait time of several months.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Get the Wolf Speed Oven. This is the one to own. It is only 2,600 or so but currently there might be a wait time of several months.

While this looks great it is way excessive for our needs.
We use it to cook frozen vegetables and occasionally heat leftovers.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I’m not against the idea of a microwave convention over combo. Wife would like that even though she does use the oven often.
Do those need to be vented to the outside?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Still haven't done it, I so want to like this sexy looking one but I am afraid of the horrible things I have heard about Samsung appliances.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Samsung-1-7-cu-ft-Over-the-Range-Microwave-White/1002638110

 

[BoomerD]

I’m not against the idea of a microwave convention over combo. Wife would like that even though she does use the oven often.
Do those need to be vented to the outside?

Yes...we had one in our RV. Personally, we weren't impressed with the convection cooking in it, even though we do like the convection cooking in our home range.

Still haven't done it, I so want to like this sexy looking one but I am afraid of the horrible things I have heard about Samsung appliances.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Samsung-1-7-cu-ft-Over-the-Range-Microwave-White/1002638110

I've gotten to where I won't buy Samsung appliances. 2 very disappointing washer/dryer sets...and possibly the worst refrigerators on the planet. They work great...until they don't, at which time, just throw them away and replace it.

As for Panasonic microwaves...we had a countertop model in the 90's. Great microwave...until the plasti-glass in the door cracked badly during use. It went i the trash and was replaced with a G.E....which worked pretty well...until my idiot daughter ran it for 20 minutes...empty. Killed it. (Probably fried a thermistor) Tossed it and replaced that one with another GE countertop model. (which I dropped while moving several years later.)
We have a Fridgidare over-the-range microwave in this house. I think it's about 6 years old. It's OK. (vent fan set up is terrible)
Be aware that there is apparently no standard for OtR microwave installation or venting. What fits one unit may not fit another one.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There was a time when I thought a microwave was an unnecessary kitchen appliance. It isn't.

We have one which is part of our conventional electric oven console. I believe it has 30 years of use behind it. I have to replace a barrel fuse in it once every ten years or so. It still works great.

But we also have another one -- an LG -- picked up at Home Depot without a great deal of research before purchase. For a while, the digital display was acting up, failing to show parts of the clock and time-counter display. For some reason, that quirk just disappeared. I think we've had it so far for about 3 years.

But it's a $200 appliance. If I need to replace it, I can drop it off at GoodWill and go to the Depot, Lowes, Best-Buy -- anywhere -- to buy another.

Sometimes you have to warm up leftovers. It's good to cook corn-on-the-cob, string beans, carrots, brussel sprouts: add a few tablespoons of water, cover the veggies in a ceramic dish, set the timer for ~ 7 minutes or 12 minutes for two ears of corn. Very nice. Need soft or melted butter? 30 seconds.

Now, I can't live without them. This week's exercise will be finishing a huge batch of Tomato pasta sauce base for canning. It cannot be done effectively with any microwave appliance. But other things -- frozen chicken buffalo wings, something like that -- a microwave offers an option.

We don't have a big kitchen. But you need a stove-top range -- gas or electric. You need an oven. And a refrigerator freezer (bigger is better). And a toaster oven. And -- a microwave -- or two. I'm currently thinking about purchase of the Emeril 360 . I'll look for more info to see if I can expect it to last for a while, but it's only about $200. The simpler toaster oven comes in handy for a lot of things. Leftover pizza, anyone?

 

[Scarpozzi]

There was a time when I thought a microwave was an unnecessary kitchen appliance. It isn't.

We have one which is part of our conventional electric oven console. I believe it has 30 years of use behind it. I have to replace a barrel fuse in it once every ten years or so. It still works great.

But we also have another one -- an LG -- picked up at Home Depot without a great deal of research before purchase. For a while, the digital display was acting up, failing to show parts of the clock and time-counter display. For some reason, that quirk just disappeared. I think we've had it so far for about 3 years.

But it's a $200 appliance. If I need to replace it, I can drop it off at GoodWill and go to the Depot, Lowes, Best-Buy -- anywhere -- to buy another.

Sometimes you have to warm up leftovers. It's good to cook corn-on-the-cob, string beans, carrots, brussel sprouts: add a few tablespoons of water, cover the veggies in a ceramic dish, set the timer for ~ 7 minutes or 12 minutes for two ears of corn. Very nice. Need soft or melted butter? 30 seconds.

Now, I can't live without them. This week's exercise will be finishing a huge batch of Tomato pasta sauce base for canning. It cannot be done effectively with any microwave appliance. But other things -- frozen chicken buffalo wings, something like that -- a microwave offers an option.

We don't have a big kitchen. But you need a stove-top range -- gas or electric. You need an oven. And a refrigerator freezer (bigger is better). And a toaster oven. And -- a microwave -- or two. I'm currently thinking about purchase of the Emeril 360 . I'll look for more info to see if I can expect it to last for a while, but it's only about $200. The simpler toaster oven comes in handy for a lot of things. Leftover pizza, anyone?

In college, my first dorm experience was in an apartment with a kitchen. They didn't have an oven and didn't allow toaster ovens due to fire hazard (people putting things on top of them, then plugging them in).

We had a microwave and 4 burner stove top to cook with. I'm a pretty good cook, but got some quick/easy stuff. I had bought a bunch of frozen chicken nuggets and found that I could cook them on the stove top. I learned that I could do just about everything except bake freezer pizza on the stove top. Nuking any kind of meat or food would generate something with rubbery textures or off-flavors.

These days, I only use microwaves for nuking water in glass bowls when making ramen. I only started doing this again last year after going on a ramen kick while working from home. I would add fresh cilantro/onions/bean sprouts and hot sauce to make it legit.

I still believe that microwaves are somewhat useless appliances. We recently had issues with our over the range Kenmore. There was an issue with a coating on the door that was arcing because the paint was worn around some stickers. I didn't want to deal with fixing the paint or scorch marks so I just replaced it with a clearanced $90 no-name brand from Lowes. (made by Whirlpool)

On that note, avoid all LG products.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I broke my rule and was captivated by Samsung’s sexiness and its dumb low cost at Lowe’s. I had a coupon mailed to me for 25% off, tried it for the microwave but it wasn’t valid. Dude offered to honor it with a $20 extended warranty. I said “sounds likes someone is behind on the add on sales but sure I’ll do that”
I have been in that dudes shoes....
Basically $160ish I got the linked Samsung with a three year warranty. Won’t arrive until mid September but that is fine with me.
I suspect I will be disappointed with Samsung but regardless I am good for three years with a no longer wait than 5 days to fix/replace.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I broke my rule and was captivated by Samsung’s sexiness and its dumb low cost at Lowe’s. I had a coupon mailed to me for 25% off, tried it for the microwave but it wasn’t valid. Dude offered to honor it with a $20 extended warranty. I said “sounds likes someone is behind on the add on sales but sure I’ll do that”
I have been in that dudes shoes....
Basically $160ish I got the linked Samsung with a three year warranty. Won’t arrive until mid September but that is fine with me.
I suspect I will be disappointed with Samsung but regardless I am good for three years with a no longer wait than 5 days to fix/replace.

I feel like Samsung is the better of the Korean brands. I've had good luck with their TVs and computer monitors.

LG pisses me off because the company name is Lucky-Goldstar..... I remember they made computer monitors in the 80s that were paired up with Commodore and Amigas my dad used to sell. We also had a bunch of Goldstar dot matrix printers (even color) that were great. The problem though is that as discrete circuits became more common and things moved from solid state, the quality tanked. When they pushed their marketing campaign with the LG logo and said, "Life's Good", it made me realize they don't care about their actual name or their history.

My wife's uncle bought a whole kitchen of LG appliances. He said the LED light module in the fridge was the first thing to go. They had so many burn up that he couldn't get a replacement light module. He said the dishwasher had a bad pump, then started leaking around the door gasket. The knobs on the gas range were always getting bumped and the gas was on (with no flame). The oven also stopped heating and he had to get a repair guy out for that. Somewhere in there, he took the whole $3k+ of appliances out and replaced them with something else.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

In college, my first dorm experience was in an apartment with a kitchen. They didn't have an oven and didn't allow toaster ovens due to fire hazard (people putting things on top of them, then plugging them in).

We had a microwave and 4 burner stove top to cook with. I'm a pretty good cook, but got some quick/easy stuff. I had bought a bunch of frozen chicken nuggets and found that I could cook them on the stove top. I learned that I could do just about everything except bake freezer pizza on the stove top. Nuking any kind of meat or food would generate something with rubbery textures or off-flavors.

These days, I only use microwaves for nuking water in glass bowls when making ramen. I only started doing this again last year after going on a ramen kick while working from home. I would add fresh cilantro/onions/bean sprouts and hot sauce to make it legit.

I still believe that microwaves are somewhat useless appliances. We recently had issues with our over the range Kenmore. There was an issue with a coating on the door that was arcing because the paint was worn around some stickers. I didn't want to deal with fixing the paint or scorch marks so I just replaced it with a clearanced $90 no-name brand from Lowes. (made by Whirlpool)

On that note, avoid all LG products.

I might have a bigger -- or even much bigger -- repertoire of recipes in my head than you. Boys in my day didn't learn to cook (on average). You teach yourself when you leave home or go to college away from home. When I was about 28, my Moms sent me a copy of James Beard's American Cookery. I had been transferred to Dallas, and was living on government per-diem for about a month while I got settled. I went to a lot of restaurants -- not expensive ones, even so. When I was moved in and getting settled, I was keen on the James Beard cookbook and learned quite a lot.

Over many years, I was building my repertoire of recipes, but never bought a microwave. Maybe around 1993, I bought a small one for my kitchen, but without the wattage to do as much. I was focused exclusively on stove-top cooking and oven baking. And I always thought that toaster-ovens where sort of frivolous (but how are you going to make toast or a bagel?) I would say the integration of my thinking about microwave ovens began 10 years ago. I'm almost 74 now.

There are certain things for which you might use a toaster oven -- "dry-fried chicken" for instance, as I'm doing at this very moment. Got fresh string-beans from your garden? Don't put them on the stove-top and boil them. Put them in a casserole dish, add three Tbspns water, top off with some butter chips, cover and stick in the microwave for 7 minutes. Or -- for that matter -- diced carrots, with the butter and some brown sugar. Need to warm up dinner rolls after slipping butter chips into the center of each one? Microwave up to a minute, or depending on the number of rolls.

I've got a pizza stone for making pizza in the conventional oven. I might warm up the leftovers in the toaster oven, but never in the microwave.

I've been toying with the idea of getting an "Emeril [LaGasse] 360" -- as advertised on the TV. I looked at customer reviews, and now I'm looking at the NuWave Bravo XL. These are all built on a toaster-oven model, but have rotisserie and other features -- supposedly so you can "cook, bake, broil, dry-fry" anything you want. But the counter-tops in the kitchen are prime real-estate. I don't want to over-crowd the counter. The type of item I've described would replace an old toaster-oven. But our Hamilton Beach is working fine, and I am not in a hurry.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I feel like Samsung is the better of the Korean brands. I've had good luck with their TVs and computer monitors.

LG pisses me off because the company name is Lucky-Goldstar..... I remember they made computer monitors in the 80s that were paired up with Commodore and Amigas my dad used to sell. We also had a bunch of Goldstar dot matrix printers (even color) that were great. The problem though is that as discrete circuits became more common and things moved from solid state, the quality tanked. When they pushed their marketing campaign with the LG logo and said, "Life's Good", it made me realize they don't care about their actual name or their history.

My wife's uncle bought a whole kitchen of LG appliances. He said the LED light module in the fridge was the first thing to go. They had so many burn up that he couldn't get a replacement light module. He said the dishwasher had a bad pump, then started leaking around the door gasket. The knobs on the gas range were always getting bumped and the gas was on (with no flame). The oven also stopped heating and he had to get a repair guy out for that. Somewhere in there, he took the whole $3k+ of appliances out and replaced them with something else.

With appliances it seems like the fewer features the more reliable it is and the old school brands tend to last longer than the no name Home Depot stuff and the stuff from manufactures we see as “tech companies”
GE, Hot Point, Amana, fridigdair seem to be the way to go

 

[BonzaiDuck]

With appliances it seems like the fewer features the more reliable it is and the old school brands tend to last longer than the no name Home Depot stuff and the stuff from manufactures we see as “tech companies”
GE, Hot Point, Amana, fridigdair seem to be the way to go

I don't spend a lot of time keeping up with who makes what and makes it the best. I should, but these types of durable goods are supposed to last a long time -- 5, 10, 15 years -- maybe longer. So for kitchen appliances, I tend to follow my Old Moms' choices from a time when she could walk without cane or walker, or remember my name from one day to the next. Maybe 12 years ago, we were compelled to replace our dishwasher, and Moms was a Sears customer going back to green stamps and before. So we chose Kenmore. Our two-decade-old refrigerator was never the biggest model, and we decided to get the largest model that could be installed in the kitchen without taking out walls and doors. And we bought a Kenmore again.

As I said, the main microwave could be 35 years old, is probably a 1,200 Watt unit, and was part of the oven assembly, but I never bothered to find out who made it. One of the little tags pop-riveted on the assembly could probably offer better than a clue, but I'm old, and it's really small print, I'm sure. The spare microwave, same size and power, was a counter-top unit by Sharp. Moms may have had that one just as long. I didn't have time to do a month-long search for the right unit, so I picked up the LG at the Depot. I explained how it was temporarily unpredictable with the display, but it's working fine again. How that works, I wouldn't have a clue.

There's a joke about a woman whose car's transmission "stopped transmishing". The repair shop service advisor asked her how long she'd been driving it from when she first noticed the trouble, and she said "the last six months". And the service advisor scolded her, again asking "Why didn't you bring it in before allowing really bad things to happen?" She replies: "I thought if I drove it long enough, it would fix itself."

But that's what apparently happened with my LG microwave. It must've fixed itself. And I had already started planning to drop it off at Good Will and buy another, but that was probably one or two years ago.

It's true what you say, though. The more a device design attempts to do, perhaps replacing two or more appliances, the more complex the design. The more complex the design, the more potential for something to go wrong. This may also be a reasonable hypothesis about automotive vehicles, and it was the reason that I never went goo-gah over electric windows. Somehow, the introduction of micro-processors may have a positive impact on reliability, or as fallback, easier diagnosis or correction..

But since we're talking about kitchen appliances, I will dredge up a remark made by a young Swiss psycho-pharmacologist on a research grant at Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, near the national capital. He had worked his way through the University of Basel with summer jobs as a cook or assistant chef in Paris. That boy could cook!

And he always said "Simple is best." Generally applicable wisdom, perhaps.