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Choosing a microwave oven that's easy to use (view report contents)

Guide to test results

The details below expand on the test result summaries for each model and follow the same order from top to bottom. You can read them straight through or, by clicking on a summary heading (such as ‘putting food in’) you can jump straight to the relevant section of text below.

Size

We give the external height, width and front-to-back depth, in centimetres. Allow some space around the oven for ventilation.

Rating

This is marked as a symbol on the front of each oven. The number is an internationally agreed power rating, and the letter is the oven’s reheating category. These tie in with the labels on packaged food.

Controls

Manual controls are rotary dials or knobs you turn to set the power level or cooking time. Electronic controls are push buttons or touch pads with a digital display showing the settings (touch pads may be less easy to locate if your sight is poor). They also tend to offer a range of other cooking features (see Microwave types).

There are ease of use ratings for using the electronic display if there is one, reading the controls, understanding the controls and using the controls, especially if you have poor sight.

The LG MS 283 TD has braille labelling for some of its controls and a synthesised voice to talk you through the cooking process if required.

The child lock feature allows electronic controls to be switched off so young children can’t operate the oven.

Loading

Some ovens have a handle to pull open the door, others have a push button. Some buttons are small or stiff or must be pushed in a long way. These things are reflected in the opening and closing rating. All the doors opened to the left. The larger the opening the easier loading is likely to be. The door should be wide enough to put food in and to reach in easily, particularly when an oven has heating elements and surfaces that can get hot. This is taken into account in the putting in food rating.

Sometimes the turntable can get in the way if it has too high a lip or slips off its base. A turntable can be heavy and it is sometimes hard to fit your fingers underneath to lift it out for cleaning. The handling turntable rating covers these points. Finally, the seeing food cook rating: there were variations depending on the clarity of the glass door and the light inside, but none was really good enough for you to see milk boiling over or keep a check on food browning under the grill.

Using grill/convection oven

To grill or use the fan you put an extra rack on the turntable. Placing and removing the rack can be fiddly, especially if there is also a splash guard. There’s also a rating for understanding how to set the oven for grill or fan cooking.

Instructions

It’s good if the instruction book is written in clear simple language with helpful diagrams - shown in the ease of following rating. Print size was often too small for people with poor sight.

 

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Table of contents

Introduction
Microwave types
Buying Guide
Finding an easy to use microwave
Test results

Guide to test results
Manufacturers Contact Details