Microwave combination oven - stick with Lamona?

[whichmicrowave]

The previous owners of our house had had a full kitchen renovation during covid, however our lovely integrated combination microwave has now gone to appliance heaven, waaah. We do need a combi one due to us hosting Christmas, so I was wondering if anyone can help picking our next one:

From Howden's, we can get the Lamona LAM7004, £760, 48L capacity
We had the LAM7002 and it's through no fault of its own that it's baked its last spud (DH has broken it and is a write off unfortunately). Pros are it's pretty much identical to what we had, just the up to date version; I'm just not sure if we should be using this opportunity to look at other brands

On AO, we've seen:

1. Neff C1AMG84N0B, £799, 44L capacity

1. Bosch CMA583MB0B, £698, 44L capacity

1. Zanussi ZVENM6K3, £579, 43L capacity (not many reviews on this one though so this is a wild card)

Basically just want to know if the grass is greener, if we've missed any glaringly obvious options, or if we should stick with Lamona!

Dimensions required are (up to) 45.5 x 59.5 x 57

Thank you!

All the brands mentioned are better quality than Lamona. I had a new Howdens ktichen last year. Fitter was keen for us to use Howden's and equally keen to advise us not to buy their appliances.

@AudiobookListener good to know, thank you!!

I've had lamona, Siemens and neff.

Out of 100 I'd give

Neff 90
Siemens 80
Lamona 20

Lamona is a pile of shite. Go with the Bosch or the Neff. Have a look at AEG as well.

@Houseplanter @LuckysDadsHat thank you so much, along with the message from @AudiobookListener. I'm so so glad I posted on here.

Did a bit of digging and managed to find the Neff one on B&Q for £648 and then we get discount through my work so a further 5% off, ~£615 in the end with free delivery and not a Lamona in sight. I'll report back when it's here!

Well it's here and it is bloody brilliant - thank you all very much 🌟

Hi OP,
I'm glad you love your combi microwave. I hope you don't mind me asking what you use it for?
I inherited one, but have only ever used the microwave function. I have a normal oven. What am I missing out on by not using the combi?

Bump re above poster’s question? Not sure if we’d use a combi

Love our Howdens kitchen but the Lamona appliances are rubbish. Brand new oven "popped" the first time we turned it on. The first fridge freezer was not cold, the one they replaced it with was even worse, we then replaced it with a different brand. I would go for an alternative.

@GreyDuck @Newname1989 sorry for only just replying! We've used it a lot, mainly at Easter and Christmas as we normally have around 10 to cater for and the (Lamona!) oven isn't massive so it was a proper panic when the combi went bust. Roast veggies/cauliflower cheese/gratin come out great, hubby has also used it to make various meats (I'm veggie so can't comment on how nice the end result is). This Neff one can apparently bake so I'm going to have a go at that next time we need a cake

Combi microwaves are amazing.

Firstly, the oven-only function makes an airfryer unnecessary, from what I can work out - it's a fan oven that is much smaller and therefore much more efficient.

The combi-microwave-oven function is for anything that you'd like to cook quickly but which also needs to crisp up - basically anything beige and delicious (oven chips) but also roasted potatoes and root veg.

The trick is often to turn it to oven-only once the microwave has done it's work and the food is only-just-cooked in the centre, so the oven function finishes the 'cooking' of the thing, and crisps it up.

Our Smeg one is still going strong-ish after 11 years (the buggering timer display is borked though which is annoying. Can't afford to fix or replace!)

@whichmicrowave @thestudio
Thanks both. Currently looking as our old microwave is coming up to 9 yrs! No idea yet do this is really helpful.

No problem - I forgot to say that I think you can also do more complex things like roast a chicken v quickly, but we tend to stick to basic stuff like the above, partly because not brave enough and partly because we're vegan now... but when we still ate dairy, pommes dauphinoise were amazingly quick and easy!

@Newname1989 completely agree with @thestudio that combis are great and definitely worth it - happy shopping!