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Daewoo KOR8A0R
by Zmugzy
I've never been a great fan of microwave ovens and detest microwaved pub meals, but one can't deny that they do come in handy now and again. My black Daewoo KOR8A0R certainly looks the part. Its has a reflective black finish and probably seems more expensive than it actually cost. Neatly positioned down the right hand side are the blue ... LCD timer display, 8 touch button controls, large silver time/weight quantity knob and 2 start and stop buttons. The window on the door conveniently allows you to inspect your food whilst it's cooking. At 12.5kg it is quite a heavy item. I just about managed to shift it about myself but you may need someone to help you. I also wouldn't describe it as compact - with dimensions of 465 x 279 x 366mm it will take a lot of your work space if you have a small kitchen.
The touch buttons consist of auto cook - for using set programs, auto defrost, chilled meal (used for reheating meals), soup sauce, quick defrost and clock (for setting clock/timer). I found the auto cook button very handy and it's the one I use most of the time. One press allows you to cook fresh vegetables, you push it twice to cook frozen vegetables, 3 times for jacket potatoes, 4 times for rice/pasta. The dial knob then allows you to set the weight of the food. I cook pasta quite a lot and the results are always satisfactory although with past and rice you have to keep switching off or pause the cooking in order to give it a stir. The appliance can be switched off and the door opened at any time during cooking/defrosting.
Cooking with the microwave is quite easy, you simply position your food in a suitable container on to the glass dish in the centre. A bowl of pasta for 4 people will take about 10 minutes. Most meat and fish dishes take less than 10 minutes whilst most vegetables cook in under 5 minutes. I've yet to use a Microwave oven that cooks a decent jacket spud and this one is no exception - they either come out too mushy or with hard uncooked lumps in them. As such I usually just use the Microwave to soften them up for two to three minutes before transferring them to a gas oven.
As mentioned earlier the microwave has an auto defrost mechanism that can be used to defrost foods by weight. You set the weight of the food to be defrosted and the microwave automatically sets the defrosting time and power level. I've only used it once but it seems to work effectively. An alarm sounds with a short ring at the end of cooking/defrosting time.
There is a clock on the oven that shows up in blue LCD numerals. The clock appears when the timer is not being used. I never used the clock because you have to reset it every time you switch on the oven and I don't believe in leaving appliances switched on. It should also be mentioned that the microwave comprises a useful child safety lock to stop children interfering with your cooking.
The microwave is simple enough to clean. The interior consists of an acrylic surface which is easy to wipe with a damp cloth and the circular glass tray can easily be taken out washed with your other dishes.
The Daewoo KOR8A0R is a little noisy but not too invasive. When it's switched on I do find myself having to turn up the TV or radio if the news is on, but I do live in an echoey flat with the kitchen adjacent to the living room.
The users manual is simple enough and avoids the unnecessary technical jargon. There are lists of typical microwave foods such as baby food, baked beans, baked spuds etc. There is also a selection of recipes such as French onion soup and honeyed chicken. Alongside each food/dish type are the weights, cooking times and special tips. There is also a utensil guide informing you of the utensils that are safe to use inside the microwave.
I bought this Microwave when I was in the process of moving into a new flat and I still hadn't got round to buying a 'proper' oven. It was purchased over 2 years ago on Amazon for £58. It still works fine but I am a light user and would say I've used it once or twice a week on average. All in all it seems a reliable appliance and one which I would recommend.
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Daewoo KOR-63F7
by Abski2001
I haven't owned a microwave in years until six months ago as I did not feel that we needed one or were missing out. We make a lot of fresh meals and I generally like cooking foods in an oven if given an option, it takes longer but I find tastes much better from an oven. However we were offered this microwave from a friend at work who had ... barely had chance to use it before their builder father got them a fancy new one. It is the Daewoo KOR-63F7 model.
To Look At
The microwave is not much to look at and it won't win any style competitions! It is white all over with the typical main door ¾ of the size of the front of the microwave and the remaining ¼ is the dials and options for cooking. The glass door of the microwave has a white netted piece behind so that you can't see all of the way through the glass to inside but light can came through it.
The microwave has approximate dimensions of 46 cm width x 28 cm height x 36 cm depth and a quite heavy weight of 13 kg. I would say it is a regular sized microwave. The Daewoo branding logo is subtly written on the front of the machine, along with the model number KOR-63F7. It is very simple to set up, you simply plug it in and go.
Use
The microwave cooking dials consists of two circular handles on the right side of the front of the machine and underneath this is the large push button to open the microwave door. The top one is the heat/cooking options, with seven selections available.
This is a 700 watt microwave and the cooking power you set it to will alter the percentage power that the microwave cooks with as follows:
High - 100 %
Med High - 88%
Medium - 73%
Low Stage - 59 %
Defrost - 44%
Heat - 26 %
Gentle Heating - 18 %
The second dial is the timer and the maximum time that this microwave is capable of in one sitting is 35 minutes. The timer goes from one to ten minutes in minute intervals, then 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 minute options. The dials are very simple to turn and it is a swift one movement to get your microwave working. However the times are not very accurate as the dial does not click or stop on the different time options and so you have to judge as best you can whilst turning the dial. I don't particularly mind this as I tend to use my microwave most often for reheating food which has no accurate time needed. I am aware however that digital microwaves are much better for more accurate timings.
This is a very plain and bog standard microwave with no frills or fancy options. There is no On/Off button; as soon as you turn the timer dial the microwave starts working. Similarly there is no stop or start button. It is all controlled by the timer dial or by opening the door which obviously immediately stops the microwave from working. The open door button is quite big and easy to push and releases the door catch lock inside.
Inside the microwave is the usual plain white interior, with a plastic roller guide and the glass cooking tray on top of this. The microwave has a 20 litre capacity and is pretty big, though I do struggle getting my dinner plates in it and have to tilt them slightly to fit in. Just a millimetre or two bigger and it would be a perfect fit. Sometimes when I do get my dinner plates in I worry the door could pop open as it doesn't feel the most secure of kitchen equipment.
When the microwave is in use it is offensively loud, with a large reverberating humming coming from it that I can hear throughout my entire flat! As I have said we do not use this very often or for long periods of time so I can live with it. I couldn't imagine having it on for the whole 35 minutes though! It would drive me crazy. To make up for it the microwave has a nice chirpy bell 'bing' when it has finished.
The microwave is very easy to clean, with it being white it attracts dust and dirt but is easy to wipe down after use and the glass cooking tray can be removed and washed up separately.
Final Thoughts
This would not be a microwave that I would have picked for myself. The majority of my kitchen equipment is black and I would in an ideal world have a black stylish microwave to match, but I cannot complain as I received this for free. It is simple to use and simple in nature. The microwave does what I want it to do and has thus far been very reliable so I don't want to be too harsh on it.
The RRP for this microwave is £59, though I am not sure when this was first available, secondhand microwaves are available for around £25. I would say for that kind of money you could definitely get a nicer and perhaps digital microwave.
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Daewoo KOR3000DSL
by KennyG5000
Okay, so I'll come out and say that I've never spent too much on microwaves before, I always feel that this appliance is something of a one trick pony and that you really don't need a lot more than the basic ones you'll find on offer in the supermarket. However, after our Tesco bog standard all-white model packed in, we thought we'd try ... and at least buy a microwave that would fit in with the other stainless steel appliances we already had in the kitchen. So this is how we originally came across the Daewoo KOR3000-DSL, although during our online search we found there were a few more criteria that we had to consider too.
First point to note then is that although this microwave is quite often advertised as having a 'stainless steel' finish (and the online pictures appear to validate this) on purchasing the model we were slightly dissapointed to discover that only the door and front panel are in fact stainless steel, the remainder of the microwave is sort of a greyish plastic. So if you are looking for an appliance that looks really high end I'd recommend searching a bit further than this model. However, all is certainly not lost here as there are a couple of really useful features on offer. The first thing that I appreciated about the Daewoo is the clear and uncluttered front controls; there are no baffling menus to trawl through or needless multiple buttons, all you have here is 'power', 'clock', 'cook' and 'autocook' (which has for simple presets displayed on the front on the machine). Other than that there is the obligatory big silver dial to set the time and a 'start' and 'stop' button. In short, you are not going to be returning to the manual of this particular model often. Another thing that was an absolute must for me is the digital display on the front to tell the time (on default) and show how long you are cooking something. I've found that microwaves that lack this feature are often quite dubious when it comes to exact timing (especially for times under a minute) and when you are heating baby food ten extra seconds can be really critical!
Other useful features of the Daewoo are the additional shelf that you can optionally place inside it if you want to cook two dishes at once (which can be useful as with 20 litres of capacity you might not get loads in at once otherwise). For the compact size of the microwave (it hardly takes up any bench space) the internal oven is rather generous in its proportions; certainly the last microwave we had seemed huge yet you could fit a lot less in, so this one definitely scores points here. The last feature that really stands out for me is the 'beep' it gives you half way through defrosting to let you know to stir the dish before continuing.
So, all in all, this is a well thought out model; not feature packed, but good at the functions it can carry out and we've had ours upwards of two years so it also seems like quite a reliable model. The stainless steel finish at the front definitely looks the part, it is just a shame this finish wasn't carried on around the whole machine, but it is a budget model at the end of the day and this would have bumped the price up considerably. I'm one happy customer with KOR3000DSL as it meets all of our families needs and it didn't cost the earth; I would look elsewhere for more features but this basic model will get the job done for most.
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