M. Noble—January 28, 2014
After our previous two microwaves had their plates break or chip, and one of them started randomly burning food, I decided to see if there was anything out there that would be more reliable. We ultimately settled on this one, because even though it's more expensive than even the fancy consumer microwaves it has three important advantages that none (or very few) of them have: 1) It is built to last. Everything on this microwave is purposefully simple and apparently designed to minimize the possibility of breakage. Instead of a plate that will get dragged out with the food and shatter on the floor, it has a glass floor that's fixed onto the body of the microwave. Instead of a push-button control panel whose buttons will inevitably crack or get desensitized, you have an "infinite rotation" wheel that is solidly attached; and because it's not calibrated physically it won't get out of alignment. Instead of a clock that you will continually have to reset, it has ... no clock. The interior is metal all around and all surfaces are easy to clean and seem resistant to scratching. 2) You can intuitively and freely modify cook time while the food is heating. Just spin the wheel, and it does exactly what you'd expect. I can't understand why almost no digital microwave will let you do this, but now that it's easy I do it all the time. 3) Instead of a carousel it has a different kind of heating mechanism that ensures even heating without actually moving the food. This means you can heat larger or odd-shaped dishes without hotspots and without knocking your plate out of alignment. I was surprised at how well this works in practice -- food consistently requires less stirring and has less temperature variation after heating than with any other microwave I've ever owned or used. Naturally you should still be cautious about checking your food before shoveling it in your mouth or feeding it to a small child, but it's nice not to have so many frozen-in-the-middle burritos or ice-cube-like tofu chunks in your leftover chinese food. If you'd like to use variable temperatures or auto-cook, or presets for popcorn, or have another clock or timer, or have something that's also a convection oven, or do anything other than heating food or food-like stuff in an intuitive and foolproof way, look elsewhere. If you are willing to pay more for a microwave that does one thing and does it better than you'd expect, this is the one. Read more
J. Goodhue—July 6, 2022
We bought this as a second microwave because we have five kids who were breaking door push button springs on expensive microwaves from overuse. We were breaking microwaves once a year in our house until this model. We don’t use it for more sophisticated defrosting or sensor cook of vegetables- it really only reheats stuff. If I have a large cold casserole dish it will reheat it when set to the max of 4-6 mins but it’s not super powerful. But it’s perfect for basic reheating, big households, kids- for drinks, soups, oatmeal, potatoes, recipe ingredients, smaller simple stuff. Today it finally died. It may be an internal fuse or a door sensor issue but I feel that getting almost 5 years out of a smaller microwave is probably pretty good for nowadays and we are going to buy a second one before my kids break the door button in the expensive built-on model we have. I like that this sharp doesn’t take up a ton of counter space but still has a large reheating chamber. I like that it has clean brushed stainless steel exterior that looks good in our kitchen and is easy to maintain. The inside is easy to clean as well. It is very simple to operate but gets the job done. Read more
Bob—March 30, 2015
I was tired of microwave ovens that failed prematurely and that had number of zippy "features" that I had to pay for but were of questionable value to me. I had my eye on this commercial unit for some time so, when it went on sale, I grabbed it. It is used exclusively at home. In my experience, the main points of failure of a microwave oven are the door and the turntable. This thing has a rugged door that is designed almost like an old refrigerator door and has no turntable; the food heats evenly anyways. The user can control only one variable-- time-- with an elegant rotary control. The timer control seems to be of the encoder (digital) type that, in my experience with other forms of equipment, tends to hold up to years of use. Even though this microwave doesn't have a lot of fancy fancy features, it is no ugly duckling in a home kitchen. To my eyes, at least, it is a gleaming, stainless steel beauty. The base of the cavity is ceramic and cleans up in a jiffy. The oven chassis is elevated above the counter on feet that are about 1 inch high, making spills around the unit easy to clean up. Having only a timer to deal with may seem like a limitation but, if you think about it, the only important variable in microwave cooking is time. (Only with conventional, convective-type ovens do you need also to worry about temperature.) Ask yourself honestly, when was the last time you adjusted anything on your microwave other than time? There is probably nothing I can do with the zippy units that I can't do with this one. If using at home, please be sure the circuit on which you plan to use it can safely handle the rated current. I've only had this unit for about a month, so I can't vouch for durability. I can tell you that I've enjoyed using the unit and that I do not miss any useless programming features, level features, or blinking clocks. Read more
