Microwave ovens are supposed to last about seven years. Some of ours have done so, or even a year or two longer. I wrote a post about the one we bought in October 2020, a Sharp brand, which - at first - we were very pleased with. Certainly the instructions were easier than our previous Carrefour microwave which, despite its complexity, lasted us for eight years.
I very much liked the straightforward options on the front of the Sharp microwave, and regularly used the ones such as baked potatoes or frozen peas. We also liked the fact that we could enter exact timings when necessary - for instance for warming plates with silicon mats, or making mug cakes. It came with a useful instruction guide, but mainly its use was intuitive, and we hoped it would last us at least seven or eight years.
Unfortunately, within a couple of years the touch-screen 'buttons' had started fading quite badly. It's not all that clear from this photo, but the most-used ones were becoming impossible to read, and sometimes quite difficult to push:
Of course this didn't happen until after the statutory two-year warranty was over. And it wasn't unusable. Indeed, we continued using it for another two years or so.
During that time, we noticed that rust was beginning to form inside. By December 2024, it was looking like this:
It really hadn't worn well. We could not recall any of our previous microwaves having such a large amount of rust. Was it dangerous? We hoped not, although metal is not supposed to be exposed inside a microwave.
And then one day something we had microwaved had a fleck of what looked like paint on it. And when we checked inside, we saw that the roof looked like this:
The enamel was bubbling badly. Not what one wants in a microwave. We have no idea how long it had been like that; I had noticed a bit of bubbling a few months earlier, but it seemed minor and wasn't breaking away.
It was only four years old, but we knew, for safety reasons, we had to get rid of it and buy a new one. We decided to go to Superhome Centre, which stocks quite a variety of microwaves, in various sizes and also costs.
We had a few criteria that were important to us.
1) Digital rather than analogue timing so that we could be specific for things like mug cakes
2) Big enough that we could fit dinner plates in it for warming, but not enormous.
3) Not too expensive.
4) Not a touch-screen that was likely to be destroyed by pushing the 'buttons'.
5) If possible, black/silver colour rather than white, to match other appliances. But that was a relatively minor issue.
In the past, we would often choose a well-known, trusted brand rather than one of the newer ones. But most appliances are reasonable quality nowadays, and quick online checks of reviews suggested that most of the microwaves available would do the job satisfactorily.
We looked at quite a selection, rejecting the analogue ones, and the smallest. And then we found exactly what we were looking for, fulfilling all our criteria, including being a good price. We didn't know the Westpoint brand, but it looked smart, and had little buttons (which, we hope, won't break) and digital timing down to five seconds.
It doesn't have the useful quick choices of the Sharp. Instead, to use a specific baked potato (or other) setting, one has to use the 'auto' button and select from menus, rather like the Carrefour one we had prior to the Sharp. It's too complex for me to remember, so I stick with the basics: cook and defrost. Both seem to work extremely well.
Setting the clock is easy; I've had to do that a few times as we've had brief power cuts more than once in the past couple of months. On the other hand, we had to consult the manual to find out how to actually cook anything. We had to get used to a different way of getting the microwave to work: we first press the 'microwave' button, then the 'start' button, before turning the dial to set the time.
If we forget the second step and turn the dial without pressing 'start' first, it tries to set a different power instead. I don't really know why they have this option. Some recipes specify different microwave powers, but I've never really been aware of what wattage is being used anyway. We just go with the default. Apparently the maximum is 800 watts, and the capacity 25 litres.
After setting the time - and it's easy to move the numbers up and down to get the right time - the start button has to be pressed again. It can be stopped at any time with the 'stop' button, if something has to be stirred or turned.
As for the defrost setting, we can either set a time or a weight; I've used both. Those are also set, by minutes or grammes, with the dial. It's useful and effective, and also easy.
Although I hope that the problems with the Sharp microwave would not be present with this one (we had never previously seen such rust, or roof bubbling on any other microwave), we're being more careful to wipe it out if there's steam after cooking, and also to leave it ajar when not in use.
Some microwaves leave the light on when the door is open, but this one has the excellent feature of automatically turning the light off after a couple of minutes, even when the door is open. But the clocks stays on all the time, unlike some of our previous microwaves. I find this a very useful (though not essential) feature.
It's not quite three months since we bought our new microwave, but I'm very glad we did so. So far, we like it very much indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment