The Basics: Microwave Ovens

Once considered an innovative luxury, microwave ovens are now an essential appliance in just about every American kitchen. Safe, fast and easy to operate, microwave ovens offer a convenience that most of us take for granted. In a relatively short period of time, this appliance has become an integral cooking source in a home.

Despite its importance to our way of life, however, consumers spend much more time pondering the purchase of appliances that will be used far less than a microwave. Thus, it makes sense to do some research on microwave ovens before simply settling for the least expensive model.

How to Shop

The type of oven best suited to your needs is often determined by where in the kitchen it will be placed. Microwave ovens are frequently built-in or placed over-the-range (OTR), but many buyers still opt for countertop placement, especially with smaller units. Although placing a microwave on a cart or shelf was common for a number of years, this configuration is becoming increasingly rare.

Those considering a built-in option have a number of choices. A large number of units sold are OTR models, which eliminate countertop clutter while utilizing stovetop ventilation and lighting. They are affixed to a cabinet that is mounted over a range or cooktop. Most microwaves measure the typical 30 inches in width, but General Electric, Jenn-Air, Dacor and Wolf have all recently added 36-inch models to their collections. Consider these models when installing a microwave over a 36-inch range.

Microwave ovens are also being purchased for built-in uses other than OTR. Generally, this requires the construction of wall-mounted cabinets. This option is usually the most expensive way to go and is common in larger luxury homes with expansive kitchens.

Some smaller microwave ovens even lend themselves to under-cabinet installation. This option requires the installation of a mounting bracket on the bottom of the kitchen cabinet; the microwave is then attached to the bracket. This method leaves only a small amount of space under the microwave, but it can be a solution to space limitations in a small kitchen.

Then newest option to hit the microwave oven market is the microwave oven drawer. Sharp's Insight model is a microwave oven that fits below the countertop and opens like a drawer. It's moderate in size, expensive due to its uniqueness and, thus far, available only in a basic microwave version. Appropriate for those who would rather not lift foods up to the oven, this type of model is yet another option to consider when deciding where best to place the microwave.

Once you have determined where you will place your microwave, you'll need to determine how much cooking you would like to do in the oven. With many microwave ovens now offering the additional features of a traditional heating oven or grill, there are a number of upgrades to consider.

Current upgrades to the basic microwave include microwave grill-and-broil ovens, microwave/convection oven combinations and speedcook/halogen units. Of these, the speedcook/halogen and true European third element convection models will be most expensive. Microwave ovens featuring convection combination cooking will be priced in the middle of the pack. Units outfitted with a grilling or broiling element will be the least expensive of the heat-producing models, and traditional microwave ovens will be the cheapest of all. A simple discussion of each type will help you to identify the microwave oven that's right for you.

Speedcook/halogen models typically offer heat produced by halogen bulbs combined with the traditional features of a microwave oven. This type of unit has the fastest combination cooking cycle and goes by the model names of Advantium, Ultima and Velos to name just a few. You can expect many foods to cook significantly more quickly in one of these speedcook models; in fact, cooking foods in a quarter of their conventional cooking times is not unheard of. We particularly recommend this type of oven to those who plan to prepare large birds (like turkeys) and sizeable cuts of meat like roasts and briskets. On the other hand, this type of unit is not likely to offer as many features for basic microwave cooking as a model that lacks the speedcook feature.

Although speedcook models can be used for baking, we prefer the microwave/convection oven for this purpose. A microwave/convection oven combines a convection heat cycle with microwave energy for rapid baking; as a result, baking times can be cut in half. As with speedcook/halogen models, longer-cooking foods receive the most benefit. A microwave/convection oven is also useful for roasting, but it does not do so as quickly as a speedcook oven. Typically, a microwave/convection oven offers a fairly complete feature package for effective microwaving, defrosting, reheating and convection (heat-only) cooking. We like this type of microwave for its all-around outstanding performance. It is, unfortunately, somewhat difficult to clean this type of oven. Convection roasting can leave behind quite a mess, and these units aren't self-cleaning. You can expect to pay from $499 to $999 for a microwave/convection oven.

Less expensive -- and, frankly, less desirable -- are microwave ovens with grilling and broiling features. These products offer microwave cooking, as well as grilling, toasting or broiling capabilities. Most of the products that we've tested in this category are unsatisfactory, especially for the heat-related tasks. Occasionally, we see these products incorrectly labeled as microwave/convection ovens, but microwaves with added heating elements are not necessarily microwave/convection ovens. A true microwave/convection oven has a hidden element with a fan to push heated air into the cavity.

The most common and the most recognized products in this category are basic microwave ovens. These ovens can be small (measuring less than 1 cubic foot), inexpensive and simple, or they can be fully equipped with a variety of timesaving features. If you'll be using your microwave frequently for meal preparation, you might want to consider a larger model, measuring between 1 and 2.2 cubic feet, with special features for more accurate cooking, reheating and defrosting. For the best results, look for models with one or more sensors -- sensors take the guesswork out of cooking and reheating -- and multi-stage cooking. Multi-stage cooking allows for gradual defrosting and prevents pre-cooking of food edges. If your microwave will be used only for reheating foods, a simple, inexpensive unit with a few preset programs should suffice. In this case, our advice is simply to shop for the best price.

Historically, shopping guides for microwave ovens have fixated on wattage and cubic footage. While these are factors to consider, they are no longer the primary criteria you should utilize when selecting a microwave. Instead, you should determine the type of oven you would like and then figure out where in your kitchen it will be placed. After that, consider features such as sensors and staged auto-defrost systems. Wattage on microwave ovens is largely dependent upon their size; smaller ovens will have lower wattages and larger ovens will have higher wattages. Ovens today vary in wattage from 500 or so watts to well over 1,000 watts. Keep in mind that the higher the wattage, the faster the oven will cook, but a few extra watts do not necessarily make a better microwave. Choosing a microwave oven by type, placement, size and features is far more important than zeroing in on high wattage alone.