![]() ![]() The Best Microwave | The Sweethome. Its cooking performance is excellent and dead simple: It’ll expertly “bake” a potato, reheat pizza, and warm up a beverage to hot (but not scalding) with the touch of a button. Its internal sensors reliably eliminate cold spots and overcooking. It performs better at a wide array of tasks than more expensive and “advanced” competitors. And last but not least, it excels in the crucial matter of user interface: With a plainly labeled keypad and intuitive controls, it’s like that Ron Popeil oven—you “set it and forget it.” (One Sweethome editor tested it for two weeks and never needed to consult the user manual.) The value of this cannot be overstated—especially in light of the absurdly complicated interfaces on offer from other makers. To cook something for one minute you simply press the “1” button, for two minutes you press “2,” and so on. Unlike with other microwaves, you don’t even have to press Start. It starts itself. The Add 3. 0 Sec[onds] button tacks on a half minute of heating time with a single push—a so- dumb- it’s- genius widget that, in our tests and in our years of GE microwave ownership, gets more use than any other. Because let’s face it: Dull- witted early- morning or end- of- a- long- day nuking accounts for 9. ![]() GE JVM3670 1.8 cu. ft. Over-the-Range Microwave Oven with 1100 Cooking Watts, 10 Power Levels, CircuWave Cooking System, Sensor Cooking, Active Hidden Vent, Recessed. Class up your cooking space. This Samsung over-the-range microwave has a sleek design and LED display to keep your kitchen looking sharp. Plus, the interior is easy. In a microwave beam directed at an angle into the sky, a small amount of the power will be randomly scattered as the beam passes through the troposphere. A sensitive. 1.6 Cu. Ft. Over the Range Microwave Oven with 1000 Cooking Watts & Night Light. This GE also comes with an attractive price—currently about $1. It is virtually the same unit as our original pick—it’s just a newer model in a smaller size. New for this year, we’ve made an over- the- range (OTR) microwave pick, the GE JVM6. SKSS, for homeowners who are redoing their kitchen or want to spare the counter space. Its sensor- cook options, presets, specs, and interface are similar to those of our main pick. Like all OTR microwaves, it also features a vent fan underneath the cooking chamber, with the option to send the air to a duct or recirculate it through a filter, depending on your kitchen’s configuration. It’s a great value given that OTR microwaves are generally much pricier than countertops. Finally, for those looking to save space and money, we like the GE JES1. SHSS. This is a tiny (0. But it has the same brilliant user interface, and a terrific reputation among owners. Cheaper mini microwaves are available, but at less than $1. Table of contents. Why you should trust us. We reviewed buying guides and ratings from Consumer Reports, Good Housekeeping, and CNET, and read through hundreds of customer reviews on retail sites. We also interviewed product managers at Panasonic and GE, appliance expert Chris Zeisler of Repair. Clinic. com, and microwave cookbook author Leslie Bilderback. I am a Sweethome staff writer and editor, and have tested dozens of products and authored guides to many tools for the site, including air purifiers, knife sharpeners, and shovels. This guide also builds on research and testing by Sweethome executive editor Ganda Suthivarakom for the first version of this guide in 2. Jessie Kissinger this year. Combined, we have 7. How we picked. Though they’re both 1. GE (left) is narrower and shallower (see Our pick for more images) than the Panasonic (right). That saves precious counter space. For our original guide, we spent 6. Given that the microwave field doesn’t generally take quantum leaps, this time around we simplified things. Applying what we learned in the first guide left us with a short list of seven models. Then we spent 1. 5 hours speaking with product managers at the different brands, poring over customer reviews, and polling our staff for input. The result was a pair of finalists made by the same companies that made our winner and runner- up last time: GE and Panasonic. With these two in hand, we ran them through four of the most indicative tests from our original guide (for details see How we tested) and emerged with a clear pick. The most shocking revelation of all our research was the fact that among the hundreds of microwaves for sale today, many have completely identical hardware. Like, exactly the same, except for slightly different keypads and brand- name badges. We’re not just talking about companies with the same owner, either. Out of seven microwaves we called in in 2. After further digging, we learned that nearly half the microwaves in the world are produced by one manufacturer in China. But we also learned that though the housing may look exactly the same, the software can still make a big difference in performance between dupes. That, in a nutshell, is why we ultimately decided to test just a GE and a Panasonic this time: After our earlier battery of tests, they’d shown themselves to have the best combination of hardware and software. They simply worked better than the rest. The most shocking revelation of all our research was the fact that among the hundreds of microwaves for sale today, many have completely identical hardware. In 2. 01. 4, we polled our readers to find out what they wanted in a microwave, and we found that most people wanted a unit that costs between $1. We then focused on countertop microwave ovens because they are the most popular and affordable segment. But as mentioned, this year we’ve added an over- the- range pick, because this is an excellent way for homeowners to invest in their kitchen, save counter space, and create a more cohesive kitchen aesthetic. Reader comments and internal Sweethome conversations made us realize that we also needed a true budget pick—something under $1. Fortunately, those qualities tend to go hand in hand. In our first guide, we reviewed both mid- and large- size ovens with turntables big enough to spin a 1. So this year we narrowed our countertop and OTR search exclusively to midsize microwaves—between 1. That’s still plenty big enough for most things you’ll ever need to cook or reheat.)For midsize models, we only considered microwaves with a minimum of 1,0. Good Housekeeping and Repair. Clinic. com both reported that midsize microwaves with cooking power lower than 1,0. However, just because a microwave has the highest wattage on the market does not necessarily mean that it will cook the fastest or the most evenly; these qualities depend to a great degree on how efficiently the microwave is programmed and how the microwaves themselves are delivered. A smaller machine, by contrast, can potentially get away with somewhat less power; our small budget pick (at 0. Bottom line? Numbers count less than real- world results. We also did not include units with the ability to convection bake—meaning the microwave also has a heating element that bakes the food like an oven—for two reasons. One: Microwaves are primarily used for reheating leftovers, softening butter, and cooking TV dinners, potatoes, and popcorn. Two: Appliances with this feature tend to be well above the $3. How we tested. In 2. GE, Panasonic, LG, Kenmore, and Breville. The first two manufacturers were our clear winners, so this time we tested a single model from GE and one from Panasonic that met our criteria: the GE JES1. SRSS and the Panasonic NN- SE7. S (both 1. 6 cubic feet; 1,1. We repeated four tests from our 2. We tested a single model from GE and one from Panasonic that met our criteria: the GE JES1. SRSS and the Panasonic NN- SE7. S. First, we created a “heat map” for both microwaves by completely covering each one’s platter with parchment paper and a layer of plain mini marshmallows, then nuking them on high until the marshmallows began to brown. Microwave ovens don’t actually deliver heat to a food item, the way a conventional oven does (via heated air); they work by using microwave energy to cause the water and other simple molecules in food to rapidly vibrate, which generates internal friction at the molecular level, heating the food from within. That’s why microwave ovens can heat things so quickly, and why they’re so good at steaming vegetables in their own juices—they don’t rely on the slow and uneven process of transferring heat energy from the air, the way a conventional oven does. But the microwaves aren’t delivered evenly, the way heated air in a conventional oven is. That’s why microwave trays rotate: so that, ideally, every section of the food item gets equal treatment. But the world doesn’t operate on ideals, and neither do microwave ovens. The marshmallow “heat map” reveals their actual heating patterns—as illustrated in Our pick below. The Panasonic’s 1. We then “baked” potatoes in the GE and Panasonic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |