The original microwaves were almost 5 feet tall, weighed over 750 pounds, & cost thousands of dollars in the late 1940s. Thankfully, microwaves have advanced significantly since then. Many households use them daily to reheat or prepare meals. And they may now fit on a tabletop.
Your food should be safely, rapidly, and uniformly heated in a microwave. In order to analyze hot and cold regions, we first put five well-known microwaves through the industry-standard marshmallow test. Then, we tested every model preset while reheating beverages and frozen meals in the microwaves. We evaluated the appliances’ use and cooking quality during each test. Here are more details about our technique. Learn more about the testing and research methods used by Insider Reviews for kitchen products.
In addition to our investigation and testing. We also spoke with Jared Lodico, a research scientist in physics at UCLA, and Bob Schiffmann. A microwave heating specialist or president of the International Microwave Power Institute. To learn more about how microwaves operate and what to look for when purchasing a microwave black friday.
The Top Microwaves on the Market in 2022
Overall best Microwave: Amazon offers the Panasonic NN-SN65KB Microwave Oven
With 1,200 watts of power, the Panasonic NN-SN65KB Microwave Oven can cook meals rapidly and evenly. It features a small exterior but a roomy interior, and it offers convenient preset settings for quick cooking.
Best budget-friendly Microwaves: Amazon offers the Commercial Chef Countertop Microwave
Although the Commercial Chef Microwave seems basic, it is really easy to use. It is reasonably priced, sufficiently small for small kitchens, and moderately powerful.
The Ideal Convection Microwaves: Amazon Toshiba EC042A5C-SS Microwave Oven
The Toshiba Microwave Oven with Convection is an all-purpose microwave that cooks, reheats, and bakes. Or even roasts food quickly and thoroughly.
Best Microwave with a Huge Capacity: Microwave Panasonic NN-SD975S available on Amazon
The Panasonic NN-SD975S Microwave. Which is also installable as a built-in. And has a spacious enough interior to accommodate two plates at once. And a simple dial for heating and cooking meals.
Smart Microwaves: Scan-to-Cook GE Smart Microwave at Best Buy
With GE’s Smart Microwave Oven. You can prepare your meals with voice commands and from your smartphone. Thanks to Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility.
Overall The Best Microwaves
With 1,200 watts of power, the Panasonic NN-SN65KB Microwave Oven can cook meals rapidly and evenly. It features a small exterior but a roomy interior, and it offers convenient preset settings for quick cooking.
Pros:
- A kid safety lock button is among the five handy preset buttons. Which have 1,200 watts of cooking capacity higher than the majority of microwaves.
Cons:
- It has noticeable fingerprint smudges and a light. That is too dim to check the food while it is cooking, is noisy. Cooks frozen foods inaccurately. And lacks Express Cook buttons.
This Panasonic Microwave Oven warms food remarkably evenly and cooks food quickly at 1,200 watts. All marshmallows expanded uniformly during the test. And only the very centre of the marshmallows burned slightly at the conclusion of the two minutes.
The Sensor Reheat function of this microwave is effective for reheating leftovers. After the meal has begun to cook, it determines the amount of humidity present. And begins to clock the cooking process. The preset buttons on the more specialized microwaves I tested. Such as the Popcorn and Coffee/Milk presets, performed better than the defaults on those devices.
This microwave overestimated the time required to cook frozen macaroni and cheese. Therefore I was less pleased with the Frozen Food setting. Another minor drawbacks are the limited lighting within the microwave. Which makes it challenging to watch the food as it cooks. And the control panel’s prominent fingerprints. This microwave blends size and power with user-friendly features, making it an excellent appliance overall.
Budget-Friendly Microwaves Oven
The features of the Commercial Chef Microwave are few, yet it is extremely user-friendly. It is reasonably priced, sufficiently small for small kitchens, and moderately powerful.
Pros:
- It’s easy to operate, small, quieter than most versions, and it heats uniformly.
Cons:
- Lacks a clock, and only allows a minute-by-minute setting of cook time. And is only 600 watts of power. And is too small to handle large dishes and plates larger than 10 inches in diameter.
The Commercial Chef Microwave has compact & perfectly scaled for small kitchens. And dorm rooms at less than 18 inches long & 11 inches deep. It mimics a traditional toaster oven in many respects or even “dings” once cooking is finished. Two rotating knobs serve as the controls: one controls the power level and the other the cooking time. Unfortunately, there are no preset buttons and you cannot set particular seconds if you are zapping anything quickly.
However, if simple is what you are looking for, this model is simple to use, intuitive and warms fairly evenly. When I performed the marshmallow test. I found a few spots that were unevenly cooked but no significant hot or cold patches overall.
It’s a touch underpowered at only 600 watts. I prepared the frozen mac &Â cheese following the directions on the package. It was warm but not hot after the suggested four minutes. When cooking for this microwave, you’ll probably need to add a couple of minutes to the instructions on the package. However, this is a fantastic choice. If you want a basic microwave that only takes up a small amount of room.
Best Convection Microwave
Toshiba Microwave Oven with Convection cooks, reheats, bakes, or even roasts food fast and completely. If you’re seeking a microwave that can do it all.
Pros:
- A multi-purpose appliance with multiple quick-touch preset cooking controls, the ability to bake and roast, and a child safety lock.
Cons:
- The convection function quickly heats the kitchen despite being heavy and large.
With the multipurpose Toshiba Microwave Oven with Convection, you may reduce the number of kitchen equipment you have. It is a conventional microwave, as well as a baker, roaster, and toaster. The only microwave we tested with the Express Cook feature. Which enables you to start your microwave by pressing any of the numbers from 1 to 6, is also that appliance.
The Toshiba microwave oven’s 1,000 watts of power were readily apparent during the marshmallow test. After two minutes, the marshmallows in the centre started to burn. And a lot of moisture accumulated on the tray beneath the parchment paper. There were no other hot or cold places that I could see besides the searing in the centre. It also thoroughly cooked the frozen macaroni and cheese.
I heated up frozen French fries, which usually come out soggy in a standard microwave, to test the convection oven. I had to use the cooking chart in the manual to determine what level to use. Because the heating features were unclear. Although it took twice as long and required more intricate settings. The fries came out just as crispy as they are in my air fryer. For toasting bread, I don’t suggest using the convection setting. The outcomes were irregular and compared to bread from a typical toaster, this bread was paler & flabbier.
The buttons on this microwave are user-friendly and smudge-proof, and it beeps loudly and clearly. Overall, it heated food effectively. The only significant drawback is that this huge oven requires a lot of countertop space. And is difficult to move because it weighs almost 50 pounds.
Best Huge Capacity Microwaves
The Panasonic Microwave. Which is installable as a built-in. And has a spacious enough interior to accommodate two plates at once. And a simple dial for heating and cooking meals.
Pros:
- The dial is simple to use, has handy preset buttons, and a child safety lock, and can place as a built-in microwave. It also has a powerful 1,250 watts.
Cons:
- The dial only increases by 10 seconds at a time. Making it difficult to observe the food as it is cooking.
The Panasonic Microwave Oven has a 16.5-inch turntable, making it perfect for cooking for a family. It is the most potent microwave we tested, with a 1,250-watt output. You’ll probably need to reduce the cooking time from any package directions by one or two minutes. It did, however, heat uniformly. During the tests with marshmallows. It gave the best results about any microwave. There were no hot or cold areas, even in the middle.
The cooking duration is controlled by a single dial, which can only adjusted in 10-second intervals. Despite this slight annoyance, it functions quickly and smoothly overall. You can enter the weight of the food you’re defrosting on the dial as well. The display screen will notify you where you are in the three phases of cooking that you can program. The Maintain Warm setting can use as the last step if you’re cooking in multiple stages.
It is a strong microwave with many useful functions. But because of its size and bulk, it is suitable for large kitchens and households. That will benefit from its greater capacity. Although I kept it on my countertop for simpler testing, this microwave can easily integrate into a cabinet and another stationary piece of furniture in your kitchen.
Best Smart Microwaves
With GE’s Smart Microwave Oven, you can prepare your meals with voice commands. And from your smartphone thanks to Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility.
Pros:
- Heats meals quickly, is roomy yet able to fit in a small kitchen. And has scan-to-cook technology at a fair price.
Cons:
- Doesn’t cook food as evenly as the other microwaves we tested, lacks a trim kit for mounting above the stove or beneath cabinetry. And has difficult-to-understand voice commands.
The sleek and small GE Smart Microwave Oven’s smart connectivity is its distinguishing quality. With the help of a virtual assistant or your smartphone, you can make adjustments and monitor the state of your food. I was able to start/stop, pause/resume, schedule the microwave for a specified length of time, add time (although I couldn’t decrease time), and inquire how much time is left using voice commands with my Google Home Mini.
Although this microwave only has 900 watts of electricity, it heats up very quickly. After two minutes of microwave cooking, I discovered several hot spots: the marshmallows’ edges and centres had cooked faster than the rest of them. With the help of your smartphone, you can use the scan-to-cook function on this model to automatically display the cook time or settings after scanning the barcode on a food package. Simply touch the button or say “start.”
Sincerely, the majority of folks don’t require a smart microwave. However, because you are using the microwave less, using hands-free technology can make cooking while multitasking easier and more hygienic. For pricing and dependability, this microwave is excellent compared with other smart microwaves on market, which may cost upwards of $300.
