4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[LolaLayla]

I have a microwave that is starting to fail. The defrost has given up the ghost completely. I think rather than replace it with the same I would like to get a combination one with a grill. I have decided to get the Panasonic one....I think Does anyone have any recommendations or experience of this make

[snowberry]

I have a Panasonmic 'Inverter' combi microwave. It's the only domestic model that I've seen that has the door opening downwards. I couldn't find a left hand opening one for the space that I wanted it to go. It is very versatile & I probably haven't used it to its' full capabilities. However, I find it differcult to clean the ceiling of it as the wire over the grill/oven bit & the rest of the inside is metal & I can't reach the tube bits at the top.

[yvonne]

I have a Panasonic microwave/grill/conventional oven and love it. We got it when we had to wait ages for our Rayburn to be repaired (another story, don't much love that !). Cannot recommend it highly enough - it does get quite hot outside though so needs to have a bit of space around it.

[LolaLayla]

Thank you. Sounds like going with the Panasonic make would be a good decision.

[bigmommasally]

My Panasonic Combination microwave nearly caught fire a couple of weeks ago - it could have been a real disaster but luckily I was in the kitchen and saw the thick black smoke start to pour out the vents. I was only cooking a jacket potato at the time. It was only about 3 years old.

I had never been that happy with it, it was an expensive microwave (about £250) but nothing seemed to work that well with it. The turntable seemed tempremental and didn't always turn smoothly especially if the bowl was heavy. The defrost was was hit and miss and the grill was useless. In hind sight I should have taken it back in the first few months of having it but never did.

I'm sure I was probably unlucky and had a Friday afternoon product, there will always be at least one person who has a bad experience with a product, so if everyone else is happy with theirs you can probably ignore my experience.

I'm now looking for a new microwave but want a cream coloured and there isn't much choice out there. I'm thinking of the Whirlpool steam one that has a curved back so if fits in the corner better.

[Bramble]

This probably doesn't help very much - but my micro died last week and as I'm somewhat reliant on it I needed a quick replacement. Argos have a Russell Hobbs one on special at the moment - £160 something reduced to £82 (rough figures). I bought one at the weekend, does what it says on the tin - although the instructions are clearly a very dodgy translation from another language!

[LolaLayla]

Bramble - I saw that one too. I did wonder if it would come up to scratch. How good is it at grilling and what have you cooked it it?

[Bramble]

Bramble - I saw that one too. I did wonder if it would come up to scratch. How good is it at grilling and what have you cooked it it?

 

Well ....

I only got one on Saturday so haven't done much at all in it ... I did a jacket potato on Saturday night (I thought I had followed the instructions carefully) but ended up with a solid lump of charcoal and a VERY smokey kitchen ... did a second one and that was fine.

Did a pizza in it last night and that seemed okay too.

It comes with a little metal tray which lifts up stuff you are going to grill, but so far I haven't used the grill so I'm afraid I can't really say how good it would be.

I looked at the reviews on the Argos website and it was the only one about which no one had anything really negative to say. Think the highest oven setting is either 190 or 200 (can't remember which), so that might affect your choice?

Not much help really, but it does look the business ...

 

PS - also "cooked" some Fimo clay in it ... that turned out fine!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bramble]

I've just re-read your posts. if you haven't used a mircro with grill before, I think you might be a BIT disappointed ... I don't think the grill function on any micro is as good as a "normal" grill - ok for a bit of cheese on toast or something, but if you were grilling meat or something, I'd imagine you'd want to use a "proper" grill?

[LolaLayla]

Thanks for the info Bramble Oh... I am now so undecided I am not in a rush to get one as the microwave I has still cooks but as I said the defrost has stopped working. YS quite often makes things that require cheese to be grilled so I thought it would save messing the grill if I got the combo one. It would also be nice to make a cake in it too. I will need to have a think

[bluekarin]

We have a Panasonic Dimension 4 turbo bake 1000w E microwave. It does the grill/baking thing (not that we use it much now). When we first used it we did cook a lot of things, especially pasties and sausage rolls as it was much quicker than in the oven. Also, it does very good jacket spuds with crispy skins. If you do get one, make sure you follow the manual. I do love ours, but it still has a disappointing defrost function. I think ours is about 5 years old, maybe more, and is still going well.

[yvonne]

Much as I love my Panasonic (as I said above) you do have to be careful to remember that it's not a normal over or a normal microwave in terms of timings, covering the glass plate when the grill is on and not using microwave only cookware when it's being a grill or normal oven.

Sounds obvious, but it can catch you out and I still refer to the instructions quite a bit especially when using a combination of the functions together.

I still recommend it highly, but would probably not want teenagers in a rush using it or elderly relatives who might get confused (not being ageist, but I had a mother with Alzheimers and I definitely would not have wanted her to use one) hope this helps.

[LolaLayla]

Now I am wondering if I should go with a combination one at all What with bigmommasally's problems and Yvonne's comments, the possibility of YS, OH or even me( ) forgetting what function is on is quite high . Oh I wish I could be decisive

[Angie]

My Prestige combo is 8 years old and is just brilliant , once i got used to it . They do take a bit of getting used to and i use all of the auto cook facilitiesoften with good results.

The grill will do a steak but takes a few mins longer, will bake a good cake , even yorkshire puddings.Maybe i was lucky and got a mid week model , wouldn't swap it.

[LolaLayla]

I had a look at some yesterday and because they do not have the smooth top inside that the normal microwave has I started to wonder how easy it would be to clean.

I used to be decisive but now I'm not so sure