RICH

My 10+ yo micro just about burst into flames just now, so I need a replacement. Black friday tomorrow, so what should I look for. Are there new, must have things or is cheap cheerful?

Thanks

Englishmum

No idea about ‘must have things’ but my son has just driven his girlfriend to Target to buy a discounted microwave..... (she phoned yesterday to make sure they have quite a few in stock, rather than just one ‘doorbuster’)

Pulaski

Lowe's usually has a micro wave or two in their clearance appliances, often for as little as $100-$150, being around half the price of a new one. Sometime they have more pricy ones, again usually around half the new price. .... You do mean "over the stove" microwaves, right?

Personally I'd say microwaves are pretty much in the same territory as toasters and kettles - just a basic applicance, and almost as cheap. Ours can do a few fancy things, but it is very rare that I use it for anything other than 100% power time cooking, mostly of 1-3 minutes, and I use the timer function (nothing to do with microwave cooking, just as a timer clock) when cooking breakfast, to time the eggs, sausages, mushrooms, and even the fried bread (60s each side ).

Steerpike

You do 'fried bread' in the m-wave? How does that come out? tell me more ... you put butter on 'fresh' bread, and then zap it?

We use our m-wave almost exclusively for re-heating, and for us we always use ~50% power for double the time.

zzrmark

Fried bread, pffft, my missus cooks bacon in the microwave (As I typed that out I realised that it would be better off, as a post, in the WTF USA thread!)...

Pulaski

Go read the last two lines again! ... From where I said "I use the timer function", then the phrase in parentheses.

Pulaski

WTF indeed! The only partial mitigation I can imagine is that it isn't real bacon.

WEBlue

Simple & basic is best. The only 'functions' we use are 1.) heating up (or re-heating) stuff at highest heat, 2.) thawing occasional frozen items on the defrost setting, and 3.) re-heating more gently on the so-called 'plated meal' setting, where you cover a plate of varied left-overs & nuke it all till it's appetizingly hot....

(For convenience, I've bought a special microwave corn-on-the-cob steamer and a popcorn maker--those are great, but don't require anything more than the high heat setting.)

Rete

I'm with you. Just use it to defrost, reheat or cook popcorn. On occasion will make scrambled eggs but that is the thing I would cook in there. In fact, I would actually love to get rid of the thing.

zzrmark

True but if we had real bacon in the house I doubt if it would change her habits! Bizarrely enough, it doesn't come out too bad???

Pulaski

Nutmegger

I just stick the unshucked corn on a plate for 4 minutes per cob (flipping over halfway through). We do have a vented container for popcorn though -- makes great healthy popcorn (which I then destroy with salt and butter ).

Nutmegger

I nuke bacon, and it comes out just fine.

Pulaski

You're not helping!

zzrmark

I think it has something to do with a 9/1 fat to meat ratio. The fat melts and then fries the bacon in just the same way it does when I dry fry the stuff in a skillet.