I Love My Microwave Oven .... UNTIL YESTERDAY!!!

I have this Sharp Microwave Oven. I have had it for approximately 4 years now and it has been a great microwave for us…until yesterday!

Details
This is a 1.4 cubic foot microwave oven that boasts 1100 watts of power. On the outside, it measures 21.5 inches wide by 12.25 inches high and 17.25 inches deep. This model is black on the outside. The clock on the top of the button panel is simple to set. The numbers are large enough to see from across the room. The microwave door has no handle but there is a button at the bottom of the control panel that you push in when you want the door to open.

Inside, the microwave seems very roomy. I am able to put a 9 x 11 glass pan into this microwave to cook food in (it does not turn on the turntable but it does work out well if you need something this large). It has a glass turntable that helps food cook more evenly. I really like this feature a lot as I don’t have to turn foods during the middle of cook times.

This microwave has special features such as one-touch popcorn setting. It has a button labeled “minute plus.” You touch this button once and the microwave goes on high power for one minute. If you touch it twice, you have turned it on for two minutes and so on. It also has buttons for melting, softening, warm, cook, defrost, and reheating. Of course, it has number buttons so you can select your own timings and power levels as well. The “buttons” on this microwave are a flat panel that can be touched and it picks up your selection.

My uses
I honestly don’t use many of the special feature buttons too often. I was “trained” how to use a microwave with the one I had before this that did not have those features so I just instinctively know how much time to cook certain foods for. Nonetheless, my husband often uses them and finds them to be very helpful since he is never sure how long to cook anything. He has always found that the pre-sets are an adequate time but do not cook foods for too long.

I use this microwave most often for defrosting and reheating foods. I can pull out a completely frozen piece of meat or chicken in the middle of the afternoon and fifteen minutes later, it is defrosted and ready to marinate or cook or whatever I am doing with it. This is great for me since I am not a huge planner when it comes to meals.

I also use this microwave to heat up foods that have already been cooked. This works especially well at lunchtimes as we tend to eat leftovers from the previous night’s dinner for lunch. I can simply put the correct amount of food on each person’s plate and microwave it for several minutes and it looks like I’ve spent all day making lunch!

Steaming vegetables is also a simple task when using this microwave. I simply put fresh or frozen vegetables into a microwave safe dish, add a few tablespoons of water, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and cook for several minutes. I get tender and tasty vegetables every time.

Food Tastes
Everything I heat in this microwave comes out good. The microwave has a lot of power so it heats foods very quickly. With thick foods such as casseroles, you may have to stir the food around to ensure that all parts get heated but that is just the way microwaves are in general. Other than steaming vegetables, I do not actually “cook” too much in this microwave oven. Yet, I use it at least daily and quite often several times a day. My daughter cooks oatmeal for breakfast, I heat up a cup of tea or coffee, lunch gets warmed, and veggies get steamed for dinner. This is a typical day for us.

Ease of use
This microwave is so easy to use that my daughter began operating it when she was six years old. I would tell her which buttons to push and she would heat her own foods. I often had to help her get the foods out of the microwave because they would be too hot for her to handle, but now that she is eight, she has learned how to use potholders and to not cook food for to long.

My husband, who is NOT a cook (peanut butter and jelly or cheese sandwiches are his specialties!) can actually heat up soup or leftovers with this microwave. He has learned how to use the shortcut buttons so that he doesn’t have to remember how long to cook a particular food. He simply pushes “reheat” and a number (which he reads of the front panel of the microwave) and his food is perfectly warmed. Oh, and he has also figured out how to pop the perfect bag of popcorn. It takes only one and a half minutes in this microwave and the touch of only one button and you have the perfect popcorn!

Cleaning
This microwave oven is pretty easy to clean. The turntable is easily removed (it sits on a part that makes it go around so you just lift the glass plate out) and washed in warm soapy water. The directions claim that you can put the plate into the dishwasher but only on the top rack. It is way too big to fit on the top rack of my dishwasher so I find it much easier to just hand wash it! The rest of the microwave can be cleaned with a damp cloth and warm water. I have never had a hard time cleaning the microwave. If done frequently, the spills that my occur are easily taken care of. The outside of the microwave can also be wiped with a cloth and warm water.

The Trouble Began
I really like this microwave…until yesterday that is. Yesterday, I went to heat up some chicken nuggets for my son and I put them on a plate, put the plate into the microwave, and pushed the “minute-plus” button. Nothing happened. The clock was still showing the correct time so I figured I didn’t hit the button hard enough and I tried again. Still nothing. I tried pushing a different button and going about cooking these chicken nuggets by simply punching in the amount of time. That button didn’t respond either. I tried one more time and tried the shortcut buttons. Still nothing. The buttons would not respond to my touch (or rubbing, jabbing, poking, or any other such). I had to toss those chicken nuggets into the toaster oven and it takes much longer to heat them up in the toaster than the one minute the microwave would have taken.

This microwave lasted for three years in my house. I’m not sure if this is an average time for microwaves or not. It seems to me that it should have lasted longer than that but after talking to friends, I have found that many have said they had the same problem at around the same time. My husband claims that that type of touch pad buttons wear out too easily which is a shame because they are on so many of today’s appliances. Many would be very expensive to replace. I have found out from a reputable appliance repairman that it is cheaper to replace the microwave than to fix the panel in our case.

After reading other’s reviews on microwaves, I will be heading out this afternoon in search of a new microwave oven. Wish me luck!

Recommendations
As far as recommendations, I would have to say that I would recommend this one. It gave us three years of every day service. I wish it would have lasted longer but we did use it a lot and my understanding is that this is what happens over time. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you spend on such an appliance because the buttons just wear out over time! I am sad that my microwave no longer works but thankful for it’s tireless service over the time it did give us!