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Every few years a microwave dies suddenly on our kitchen counter and we are amazed to discover that we no longer know how to get through a single day without one. So we go to Costco and buy their model du jour (there is rarely more than one). According to my notes, the last two were Magic Chef, which is actually a pretty terrible brand. The first one broke within 2 years and we forgot that we never really liked it and bought ANOTHER Magic Chef. That one cost only $65 dollars and we kind of hated it, but it managed to survive for 9 years. Well, on Wednesday it finally transitioned to the Great Beyond (i.e., the alley by the garbage dumpsters) and off we went to Costco again.
This time there were no dumpy white Magic Chefs in sight, just a sleek black Panasonic Inverter Microwave. I'm pretty sure that it is a much better appliance than the last two, but HOLY SHIT, is it complicated!! The front panel is nicely designed and deceptively simple, but that's because every button on it has multiple uses or cycles through a long list of cryptic settings. The instruction booklet is 20 pages long!!
I guess I didn't HAVE to RTFM. I could have just used the 30-second / START button combination that is the only thing I ever did with the old one. But I was curious about the Sensor Cook and Sensor Reheat buttons, and about what makes an Inverter Microwave different from a regular one. Well, the manual is long, but amazingly uninformative. The only thing it was really good for was explaining how to set the clock and turn off the F-ing Child Safety Locks (one of which is SET BY DEFAULT, the other of which is very easy to set accidentally). But I had to turn to the Internet to figure out what Inverter Technology actually is and why I was getting no satisfaction from Sensor Reheat.
But now that I have the child locks disabled and figured out that Sensor Reheat will never work if you follow the suggestion in the manual and cover your food with a casserole lid, I think I'm going to like this thing. If nothing else, it is a lot easier to get the glass turntable settled in place than on the old microwave.
What settings do you use on your microwave? Have you ever tried Sensor Reheat?
This time there were no dumpy white Magic Chefs in sight, just a sleek black Panasonic Inverter Microwave. I'm pretty sure that it is a much better appliance than the last two, but HOLY SHIT, is it complicated!! The front panel is nicely designed and deceptively simple, but that's because every button on it has multiple uses or cycles through a long list of cryptic settings. The instruction booklet is 20 pages long!!
I guess I didn't HAVE to RTFM. I could have just used the 30-second / START button combination that is the only thing I ever did with the old one. But I was curious about the Sensor Cook and Sensor Reheat buttons, and about what makes an Inverter Microwave different from a regular one. Well, the manual is long, but amazingly uninformative. The only thing it was really good for was explaining how to set the clock and turn off the F-ing Child Safety Locks (one of which is SET BY DEFAULT, the other of which is very easy to set accidentally). But I had to turn to the Internet to figure out what Inverter Technology actually is and why I was getting no satisfaction from Sensor Reheat.
But now that I have the child locks disabled and figured out that Sensor Reheat will never work if you follow the suggestion in the manual and cover your food with a casserole lid, I think I'm going to like this thing. If nothing else, it is a lot easier to get the glass turntable settled in place than on the old microwave.
What settings do you use on your microwave? Have you ever tried Sensor Reheat?
