My all singing all dancing microwave! (Panasonic NNV659)

Member Name: Flindy

Product:	Panasonic NNV659
Date:	14/03/01 (1063 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Saves energy, convenient, defrosting very useful

Disadvantages: Maybe the price at £140 and I got a discount from Comet

Well, I have finally been dragged into the 21st Century! I now have a microwave, a Panasonic Inverter with a grill facility. The inverter system improves the cooking performance of the oven, and also means you have the benefit of more space inside the oven, without taking up more space on the worktop. I have found it to be very versatile!

The appliance is 900 Watts and is rated E, which I am, told is very efficient. My model is white, it has a grill tray, which I have used to successfully cook lamb chops, and in fact I did the whole meal in the Microwave! Hardly any washing up, what have I been missing all this time??

It comes with a very informative Microwave Cookery Book, with some good recipes inside. Excellent advice on the do’s and don’ts of Microwaves, and takes you through all of the programmes available with this model. The control panel is nicely laid out, and is pretty clear to fathom out. There is the time panel, with minutes and seconds, the micro power button, grill button or combination button. It also has what is called a “Chaos” defrost facility, this made me smile as I thought of all the Sundays I have spent cursing because I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer the night before! Chaos defrost is a system of a random sequence of pulsing (!) microwave energy, which can speed up the defrosting process by up to 40%. The defrosting is made easy, by the auto weight system, where you select the type of food and the weight, the oven does the rest. It beeps while defrosting to remind you to check the food, and tells you when to turn the food over, it uses a cyclic method of defrost which involves some standing time when the microwave power is turned off automatically but the light stays on and the turntable still turns.

There is a delay start facility, you can delay it by up to 9 hours, and then it will begin the cooking programme. I have not tested this yet as I probably won’t h
ave much need for it.

The grill has three settings, high, medium and low, it can be used on it’s own or with a combination of grill and microwave. The combination is great for joints of meat or meat portions!

The other really useful facility is the Auto Weight Cook Programme, this asks you to select a food type, such as oven chips, chilled meals, chilled crispy top, jacket potatoes etc, and sets the cooking time for you.

I think it will save me on washing up, and on electricity. As a regular porridge eater, I have found it so useful, no porridge pans to clean, just bung in the dish with your porridge and water or milk, set it to a couple of minutes and hey presto! Scrambled eggs are great done this way too.

Cooking appliances don’t usually excite me, but this is my first microwave and I am pretty impressed :-)

Summary: