Combi Microwaves -again!

[Celibin]

Is it really worth buying one of these? Any experiences to report? Some state you can actually cook real stuff in them but there must be some limits?so I thought it might save space to have the 2 in 1 ? Currently use old micro for reheating etc and the idea of doing normal cooking at such speed feels a bit ... new? Maybe I am behind the times and just feel more secure with a proper oven? Any suggestions welcome

I wouldn't be without mine, Celibin! I had a Panasonic Dimension 4 Combi for over 20 years, but decided to retire it 6 months ago, although still in perfect working order.

I saw this www.laskys.com/kitchen_and_home/cooking/microwaves/panasonic_nn_cf778sbpq.html In John Lewis at nearly £300, but bought from Laskys much cheaper.

This has the newest technology, flat-bed, so NO TURNTABLE! A bit strange to begin with. It also has a drop-down door.

There are 5 m/w settings, the highest is 1000w, very fast, it cooks my morning porage in 90 seconds. It has Convection. Turbobake, and Grill, which can be used in many permutations with the m/w settings, will cook jacket spuds in 30 minutes (they come out crisp), casseroles, even roasts if you want. Very useful for heating ready meals, instead of main oven, and cheaper to run. It has a shelf, so you could bake cakes too if you want.

Larger than the standard m/w, it takes the full depth of your work surface, and needs air curculation around it.

It has excellent reviews, and I believe Which? recommendation.

I love it!

HTH

I have the same Panasonic combo microwave as the one linked. It is great although, as nanthewiser says, quite a lot bigger than a traditional turntable one, which is what I had previously.

I used the previous microwave oven (turntable one) to cook all our food for a family of four because we were without an oven for two and a half years!

I cooked most things in it, the only limitation was in terms of how much I could cook at once I.e. Only one thing at a time with the turntable microwave and using dishes that were small enough to allow the turntable to rotate. With the new one, it is possible to cook using two levels and with larger rectangular dishes but not as good as using an oven (which I now have. Yay!).

I even baked dd's birthday cake in the new microwave a few weeks ago and it came out fine.

I have successfully done roasted vegetables, potatoes, chicken pieces (not a whole chicken), casseroles, pizza, oven chips. The one thing that didn't seem to work well in it was a crumble which just burnt on top because it was too close to the heating element.

So, all in all, even though I now have a shiny new and working oven , I still use the combo microwave a lot because it heats up so fast and cooks quickly.