Aarrrgghh! Our microwave bit the dust!

[brisnat81]

Hi Whirlcool,

Have you contemplated the Panasonic stuff? They've been manufacturing in Malaysia instead of Japan for the last few years and the quality still seems to be similiar to that of Mum's 25 year old model. I dont know if they have the range in the US they do here, but they're a great performer.

I highly reccomend looking at a Micro/Convection Combo as in summer you'll appreciate not having to heat a huge oven when you cook. We use ours all the time, it heats up quick, cooks evenly and is just fabulous.

 

[whirlcool]

Micro Convection was a consideration. We didn't think we'd need it since our new range has a convection oven in it. But I see your point about heating up the kitchen in the summer with the range. We also wanted to keep the cost down.

The link is to the GE microwave we purchased today. Since this was the third appliance we bought from HD in 10 days, we got it for $289.00. The store price was $379.00.

This is what we found with our microwave shopping:

Maytag. Flimsy units. The door hinges were fine, but the grill above the door had some razor sharp edges on the top of them. I could just see having sliced fingers when cleaning that area. The bottom of the microwave also had very sharp edges. This would make cleaning a PITA to prevent getting cut again.

Magic Chef. They just look cheap and we didn't see any in SS.

LG. Ha! They DID have the best looking microwaves, but they were really very flimsy. The door hinges on the demo units were very wobbly and I don't think they'd last very long.

The GE's had a nice solid feel to them. The hinges seemed to be the sturdiest of them all. It had features we liked especially the ability to be vented to the outdoors.

So we are hoping that mixing brands in the kitchen won't hurt the resale value of the house. But I feel that not any one manufacturer (well maybe except for Miele) makes ALL appliances well. I always figured that we would buy the better of each appliance so naturally we'd end up with different brands.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100589419&N=10000003+90008+503487

 

[sudsmaster]

A one to ten year life span sounds about right for today's microwaves....

I've gone through two microwaves in the past 20 years or so. The first one was a little 800 watt Amana (really made by Hitachi) that worked pretty good. No turntable, and it didn't really seem to need one. It failed around '97, after about 10 years, and I bought a big Kenmore from Sears on closeout to replace it. The Kenmore is kind of cool: it has a big rotating "fan" on the side that is supposed to help distribute the microwaves better for more even heating, plus a turntable. I used it for a couple of years and then bought a Genius Panasonic from Costco because I thought the Inverter technology made sense. The Panasonic does some things better (like defrosting without constant on/off cycling) but the Kenmore was better at sensor cooking. I didn't care much for the Panasonic keypad, so I got another Panasonic, this one with tactile push buttons, but it lasted just a year and I was able to get a full refund at Costco. So now the membrane keypad Panasonic is the main mwave with the Kenmore relegated to backup duty out in the enclosed patio kitchen. I'm just too lazy to switch them . Oh, and I have a little sensor Magic Chef that I got for a jobsite but brought home when I quit there and got a job in a place with company microwaves in place. I use the little Magic Chef as a backup in the main kitchen when I want to heat two items at once in a hurry (like in the morning for breakfast before work).

I'm tempted to get another pushbutton Panasonic but after the first one had such a short life I hesitate. I might move the Kenmore back into the main kitchen, because I think it's overall a better unit.

I did try to repair the Amana by replacing the internal glass fuse that kept on blowing, but it didn't fix the problem. I did keep the glass plate, though, before I junked it.