Best Microwave Ovens – What’s the Best Microwave Oven to Buy?
Microwave Ovens are a great kitchen tool that will help with making & heating food, defrosting and baking cakes, and many other uses. There are various brands and options that are deciding factors when choosing a microwave oven. What’s the best microwave oven you can buy? Let’s take a look at the 6 most important features of best microwave ovens and the top rated options on the market today.
6 Important Features To Consider For Choosing the Best Microwave Oven
1. Capacity- Before buying a new microwave oven, you’ll want to spend a few minutes deciding how you’ll use it. If you have a large family, you will most likely want a larger model that can accommodate larger meals.
Microwave capacity is measured in litres, which is the volume of the inside of the microwave. There are compact models that range from 14 litres and some of the full-size models are as large as 40 litres such as Daewoo QT2 14 litres Compact Microwave Oven and Sharp R59SLMA 40 litre Microwave Oven respectively. Another factor to consider is the height and width of the actual microwave oven. Take a look at all the microwave-safe cooking vessels you own and measure the widest and the tallest, then look for a microwave that can accommodate them.
2. Power- All microwaves oven should include wattage in their specifications. This is an indication of how powerful the microwave oven is. The higher the wattage, the more powerful the microwave and the quicker your food will cook. You’ll usually find the larger microwaves ovens are the most powerful, although you can find midsize models that are considered high powered.If you’re debating between two models that are essentially the same, but have slightly different wattages, go with the style you like better because slight differences in wattage do not make too much of a difference.If you purchase one of the more powerful microwave ovens, you’ll want to reduce your cooking times as most microwaveable food is tested on an 800-watt microwave, which is considered mid-range.
3. Configuration- Once you’ve determined your usage needs, you need to decide if you want a microwave oven that sits on your countertop or if you’d prefer one that sits above your range or is built into your cabinetry.
Countertop models are the easiest to install because you simply plug them in and you’re ready to cook. Built-in or over range models may require professional installation because of necessary exhaust fans and other requirements. For the most part, the more powerful microwaves are designed to be mounted above your range or in your cabinetry, so if you want more power, you may need to opt for one of these models.
4. Features- As with most gadgets these days, there are a plethora of features and options available on microwave ovens. You’ll find everything from turntables and metal racks, to probes and sensors that help you cook your food perfectly. Although you might be tempted to purchase a model with all the bells and whistles, if you only use your microwave to pop the occasional bag of popcorn or nuke leftovers, you really won’t need to spend the money on all the extras.
An important feature that should not be overlooked, especially if you have a young family, is Childlock safety. This feature will ensure that your microwave oven will be child-safe and only operated by an adult. Usually this feature when activated will “lock” the microwave oven thus preventing the microwave from being used.
5.Ease of cleaning- Eventually microwaves do end up dirty from cooking. And by design, the microwave oven is made for cooking food with ease and quickly, therefore when it comes to cleaning, the same design principles namely “ease” and “quickly” should be the cornerstone of cleaning a microwave oven. Some microwave have black catalytic coating which enables quick wipe cleaning on the interior of the microwave oven. Also this coating prevents food from sticking on the inside of the oven.
6. Solo vs. Combination vs. Grill- Microwave ovens can be categorised in three ways; namely Solo, Combination or Grill.
A Solo microwave oven is primarily designed for express cooking such as heating soup/boiling water, cooking potatoes & ready to eat-meat meals, defrosting food, have limited features and are very cheap. They are primarily not used for cooking a delicacy or baking, although you can try. The Daewoo KOR8A0R 23 litre Solo Microwave is a typical of solo microwave ovens.
Combination microwaves use fanned hot air (convection heating) and usually have grills as a feature. Usually these microwaves offer multitude of diverse cooking options while combining the benefits of microwaves, grill and convection oven. Baking, roasting or grill can be all done with ease and faster as compared to standard ovens. Combination microwaves ovens are much more expensive however they have auto-functions and memory storage for pre-set program for cooking specific food; and example microwave oven is the Sanyo EM-SL60C Combination Microwave Oven.
Grill microwaves offer the user the ability to brown food and roast meat. They are great for grilling but cannot be very good at cooking other sort of food such as cooking rice. Rarely do you find a microwave just for grill; therefore most microwaves will either be Solo or Combination (combi) microwaves which simply features solo, combi and grill functionality in a single microwave.
If you get confused with the various types of microwaves ovens, just remember this: combi microwaves are rather more expensive than solo microwaves because they actually replace 3 devices in your kitchen.
Top Rated Microwave Ovens
Here are some of the most popular and top rated microwave ovens on the Amazon.co.uk shopping website. These microwave ovens have consistantly have high ratings and very few complaints.
#1- Daewoo KOR8A0R 23 litre 800W Touch Control Solo Microwave
 | Daewoo KOR8A0R Solo Touch Microwave Oven in Black is a very well made low cost microwave boasting over 200 reviews with 60% of reviews overwhelmingly giving it a 5 star thumbs up. It’s obvious people like the fact it’s lower priced as well as top quality. Check it out for yourself at Amazon.co.uk. |
#2- Panasonic NN-CF77SBPQ 27 litre 1000W Family-size Combination Microwave Oven
 | The Panasonic NN-CF77SBQ 27 litre Microwave Oven is an award winner with impressive features and functionality. This microwave oven has constantly been rated as best microwave oven by more than 6 dozens of people compared to just 8 complaints. Check it out for yourself at Amazon.co.uk. |
#3- Sanyo EM-SL60C 25 litre 900W Combination Microwave Oven
 | The Sanyo EM-SL60C 25 litre 900W Combination Microwave Oven with Grill in Stainless Steel is the perfect all-rounder for any kitchen. It replaces 3 devices in one small unit. Head over to Amazon.co.uk and get yourself this fantastic microwave oven. |
#4- Sharp R59SLMA 40 litre 900W Digital Combination Microwave Oven with Quartz Grill
 | Probably one of the best microwave oven on the market. It’s 40 litre capacity ensures that you cook just about any food you want. Customers complaints is almost non-existent! The minor comments that are negative are personal observations such as it was bigger than expected. Get this Sharp R59SLMA Digital Combination Microwave Oven with Quartz Grill today from Amazon.co.uk. |
#5 Whirlpool Jet Chef JT366BL 31 litre 1000W Microwave Oven with Grill & Crisp Function
 | Whirlpool Jet Chef JT 366 BL Microwave Oven looks and performs like a best-in-class traditional oven, but its sophisticated technology also offers you a lot more, combining incredible quality, variety and speed with remarkable ease of use. |
So What’s The Best Microwave Oven?
It’s ultimately up to the shopper how heavy duty they need their best microwave oven to be in the kitchen and what they want to use it for. Just remember the less wattage means less power and make sure that your read some customer reviews at the shopping site like Amazon.co.uk to really get the inside mind of the customer. Whichever model turns out to be the best microwave oven for you, enjoy the cooking!
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