Sizing Up Your Needs in Buying Your Next Oven

In the market for a microwave oven? Your first? A new model?

Before you buy, talk to friends, neighbors and relatives about their microwave ovens. Find out what they like about them--and maybe more important--don’t like.

Then ask yourself these questions. And answer them honestly--you’ll be out anywhere from $100 for a pint-size portable to $1,000 or more for a top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, built-in, piggybacked above a conventional oven.

Why do you want a microwave oven? How do you plan to use it? Do you merely want to defrost frozen foods quickly? Warm up TV dinners? Do you like to entertain? Cook from scratch? Do you have the time and patience to learn to use a microwave oven to fullest advantage. How big is your family? Your budget? The space where you plan to install the microwave oven?

There’s no point in buying a fancy model to heat TV dinners. If, on the other hand, you’re determined to cook the microwave way, don’t waste money on a small low-wattage oven that’s little more than a food warmer.

Generally speaking, the higher a microwave oven’s wattage, the faster it will cook. Indeed, the 1,000-watt models of a few years ago have been phased out because they cooked so fast they gave the cook no control. The microwave ovens now being manufactured range from 350 to 750 watts, but the most popular--and versatile--are in the 500- to 700-watt category.

Which wattage is best for you depends on how you’ll use the oven. If you’ll only be baking the occasional potato or brewing a quick cup of soup or cereal, an inexpensive, low-wattage model will do, but if you intend to cook by microwave, choose an oven of at least 600 to 725 watts (the best wattages for all-round cooking, also those at which the majority of magazine and cookbook microwave recipes are tested). A 500-watter may be OK for simple cooking, but it’s a poor choice for family-size recipes or long-simmering dishes.

Oven Sizes and Shapes

Are you likely to roast a turkey? Bake large casseroles? If so, you’ll need an oven large enough to accommodate them (it’s a good idea, by the way, to take along a favorite casserole dish when you go microwave shopping to see if it will fit into the oven you like best). Here are the four oven categories as defined by the International Microwave Power Institute.

Category/Usable Cubic Feet

Full-Size/1.0 or more

Mid-Size/0.8 to 1.0

Compact/0.6 to 0.7

Subcompact/0.5 or less

Usually full-size ovens are blessed with the highest wattages (600 to 725), mid-sizes average 600 to 650 watts, compacts and subcompacts 500 watts or less, although the latest trend is for more powerful ovens.

Oven Types

Do you have room for a countertop model? Do you need a slim space saver that can be slid into the slot now occupied by a range hood? Would you prefer a new free-standing range with an over-the-cooktop microwave oven?

How about replacing an existing wall oven with a new “Hi-Low” cooking center that boasts an eye-level microwave oven and just underneath it, a conventional oven? Or does one of the new combination convection-microwave ovens appeal? Or a multi-use model that amounts to three or four ovens in one--microwave, convection, conventional, broiler or toaster oven? Your kitchen space, your cooking style and your budget should dictate.

To date, countertop microwave ovens, available in a full range of wattages and sizes, are the most popular, thanks to their versatility and portability. The combination microwave-convection ovens have so far failed to catch on. They’re slower cooking than microwaves alone, yet faster than conventional ones, meaning that most microwave recipes can’t be used in them successfully without major adjustments.

What these hybrids do best are long-cooking dishes that also must be browned or crisped. Most cooks, however, find it simpler just to brown foods on the stove top, then transfer them to the microwave, or give microwaved recipes a fast-brown finish in the broiler.

As for microwave ovens with browning elements, they do brown food thanks to electric coils mounted on top and/or bottom. But these appropriate precious oven space, complicate cleaning and the ovens are frankly too small and limited for serious cooking.

Special Features and Optional Extras

Turntables (carousels) : Standard equipment on some ovens (the best of them can be removed), these rotate food constantly as it microwaves to ensure even cooking. They eliminate the need to turn food by hand, still you must be vigilant because pans of food can shift on carousels and may require recentering. Rectangular containers, moreover, may scrape the oven walls. The biggest disadvantage of turntables is that they reduce overall oven capacity. With the improved microwave distribution now featured on many second generation ovens, turntables are becoming less important. Besides, if you need one, you can always buy an inexpensive portable, wind-up or battery-run model.

Automatic Temperature Probes: Many ovens are equipped with probes, others offer them as an extra and they’re a valuable accessory, especially when it comes to cooking meats, fish and poultry. Probes are programmed to monitor the temperature of food as it cooks, then shut the oven off the instant the desired temperature (or degree of doneness) is reached.

Electronic Control Panels: The greatest advantages of these smooth glass panels with electronic “touch pads” are that they’re far more precise about cooking times than mechanical dials and they’re a breeze to clean.

Removable Shelf: A shelf allows you to microwave more than one dish at a time. But the more food you put into a microwave oven, the more slowly and unevenly it will cook.

Browning Elements: As we’ve already pointed out, these may not be as practical as they at first seem. Most cooks find it easier to use their stove top, conventional oven or broiler in tandem with their microwave ovens.

Variable Power Levels: Sophisticated microwave models give you almost as much control as conventional ranges so that you can boil soups, sauces and stews actively or bake cakes and/or casseroles slowly. State-of-the-art ovens offer 10 different power levels, but four or five will give you all the flexibility you need.