We purchased a convection microwave about 2 years ago now kind of on a whim. We needed a new microwave and had been shopping around for them when we came across the Kenmore freestanding Convection microwave, which we had not even considered. It was a floor model and had a ding in it so we got the price down lower than most normal microwaves would cost and took it home. We run on propane at our house and it's not cheap, the price fluctuates like gasoline. Since buying this we have been able to do so much more baking for just the three of us without having to preheat our big oven and use up our precious propane. Not to mention it does not heat up The House as much in the summer either. So far I have found that there is a bit of a learning curve to baking with it, you have to bake everything at least 10 degrees over the recommendation for your recipe and sometimes a little bit longer as well. It's just big enough to fit a medium sized pizza and most 8x8 bake ware. It also has a function that allows you to combo bake using part microwave and part convection which gives the best of both worlds, the speed of a microwave with the crispy finish of an oven.
Oh, that's awesome! I didn't even know there was such a thing as a convection microwave. I've always felt awkward with recipes that call for "10 minutes in the oven" to finish a meal off after being microwaved. And sometimes I feel like just one baked potato each. Turning on the oven for half an hour for just a little food is so wasteful. If you don't mind my asking, roughly how much did it cost up front (with the ding and all)? You mentioned pizza-- have you tried it with those? How'd they turn out? Any difficulty with cleaning it, or is it straightforward like a regular oven?
Originally it was $299 but after haggling with the manager we paid $199. It was stainless steel so that made it a little more expensive and not what we wanted. Pizza turns out great in it, a pizza stone generates the best results. It's really easy to clean, just like a microwave, but easier than an oven since it's up at counter level. No awkward bending! This is the model I have if you want to look at itLog In I also likeLog Inmodel too it has a built in Pizza tray at the bottom, probably going to be our upgrade in the future.
We have a Kitchenaid convection microwave oven over our stove as well, but I've seldom used it for baking. I didn't pick it out at the store, some other members of my family did, but there is a big drawback to this particular model we have - it's super confusing and tedious to use it as a real oven. The control panel is fine for microwaving, but for baking, it forces you to sit through tons of scrolling messages on the LED screen to select a bunch of options such as the cooking temp and cooking time. Why on earth they made this so cumbersome is beyond me. You literally have to stand there for several minutes waiting for the options you want to scroll by, and if you miss them you have to start all over again. It is much nicer though baking with a smaller oven in general. I hate how our regular stove heats the place up too much in the summer. I used to have an Oster toaster oven that I used like crazy - not only did it heat up much faster, it conserved much more energy than running my gas stove and didn't heat up my whole place.
I was in need of a convection oven, but I didn't know there are convention microwave ovens, and therefore got a GE convection electric oven that promised to be the next wonder on earth. It has served my purpose and has rotisserie, a big plus in holidays time, but sadly GE is not longer the great company my parents and my grandparents used to talk about. Just after the first use, the trays began to stain, as all the interior walls. I tried to make valid the guarantee, but they said it's no applicable for refurbished ovens like this. What? I got it from Walmart and it says nothing about being refurnished, and was sold for the price I would pay for a microwave but, indeed, it says "refurbished" in a very imperceptible transparent sticker in the rear part, but I only looked at how pretty it is, at least pretty to me
Wow I had no idea Wal-Mart was selling refurbished items like that! They should be more up front about that on their signs and price stickers. At least places like Big Lots and Sears outlet stores clearly label the item as refurbished. Big Lots even has their stuff re-packaged in generic packaging. That actually looks like a rather nice oven, glad you were able to get a good amount of use out of it. That is one drawback to the smaller ovens though - they are often near impossible to keep clean. Many of them don't come with hard enameled surfaces inside of them like traditional ovens do. It's usually just plain uncoated metal that attracts grease and stains. Plus with the heating elements being so close to the food and the grease splattering, if you put something in there like BBQ ribs, or chicken wings, they're inevitably gonna splatter and make a permanent mess in them. That happened with my Oster toaster oven. It was fantastic for baking pizzas, but I got carried away cooking greasy food in it uncovered and made a mess of the interior that would not come off. It would be nice if they made the interior like some sort of detachable cage that you could take out and soak it from time to time to clean it out.
Yes, I have no problem to buy a refurbished item as long as the label states it and the price is right. I remember to have bought a refurbished answering machine before the end of the past century and still works despite I'm not longer using it. This oven came with its original packaging and user manual, no mention of the refurbished fact. Probably grease splattering is what has ruined all the oven interior. Okay, this makes no difference and still works great, but looks terrible bad, particularly because I have it on a counter over-the-stove shelf that reveals the problem to whoever get closer enough to the place it lies. However and now that you mention it, I had a very small Black&Decker toaster oven with a special interior coating that wouldn't matter to get some bacon fried inside because it was very easy to clean, never stained, and has a drop-down crumb tray, which doesn't only allowed to retire crumbs quickly, but also to clean the inside with ease.
I have been wanting a convection Microwave oven for some time. During the summer I think the convection oven can also keep from heating up the house when you use the oven to bake, which is a good thing. I appreciate the great review on the even it has helped me to make a decision on getting one soon.
I have a friend who also likes using a convection oven. He got rid of his actual oven years ago as he never used it, and it was taking up space. He now exclusively uses a convection oven and microwave to do all his cooking tasks he finds that the two of htem do jus fine for handiing the choking he does and he doesn have to worry about he expense of a large, traditional gas oven.
I've heard of microwaves and convection ovens, but not convection microwaves. It might be something I want to look into though. I am definitely not happy with the quality of standard microwave "cooking." My microwave pretty much just dries out everything, so there is no way I could successfully cook something from a totally uncooked state and have it come out with decent texture and flavor. I wonder what makes these convection ones so different?
That's a crazy story. I wonder if it's even legal. Selling you a refurbished microwave without letting you know they was refurbished. Sounds super shady to me. Well, I guess even Wal-Mart needs to compete.
