Russell Hobbs has become one of my favourite brands for household gadgets, and so we decided to get this microwave from Currys for £50, on sale at the time. We have had it for two years now and it has been working beautifully without any problems.

The specifications of the microwave are as follows:
Size: 26.2 cm height, 45.2 cm breadth and 39.5 cm depth
Power consumption: 1200 watts power output: 800watts
capacity : 20 litres
size of the turntable: 24.5 cm diameter

The oven is a silver-gray colour and the door has a mirror effect. The oven is quite compact and I like the sleek design with neat sharp lines. The handle is a vertical cylinder at the right end of the door. The controls and display are arranged in a neat vertical pattern to the right side of the door, with a little digital display at the very top and six control buttons below. The circular knob at the bottom is for setting the time or weight of food.

The door easily swings outward on pulling and shuts with a click. The oven automatically stops working when you open the door, and there a light always comes on when the oven is working so there is no way you can doubt whether the oven is on or off. Also you can see inside the oven when it is on with the light inside.

The inside is white, so you can clearly see food spills and splatters. There is a glass turntable on a roller mechanism. It is big enough to comfortably hold a standard sized dinner plate, and the oven is high enough to hold most utensils and dishes I have. The turntable can be cleaned easily, and is dishwasher safe. The insides and outside are cleaned easily enough with a sponge and soap, but the corners are quite sharp and a bit difficult.

The oven comes with an excellent manual that gives detailed instructions on what you can and cannot do with the oven, what you can cook in it and how long you need to cook it for, caring for the oven, the various functions etc. There is hardly any setup required, just the simple matter of putting in the turntable and its roller. Both these can be removed for easy cleaning. The cord is quite short, so you do need to keep it quite close to a socket. I usually keep it at the corner junction of my worktop, which is an area I might not otherwise have put to good use.

The small digital display usually shows the time, you can set it to 12 hour or 24 hour pattern. It also shows the cooking time or weight of food inside when in use.

Following are the six control buttons:

1. The POWER button sets the microwave cooking power. It is shown in percentages as 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100. You can select the required power by repeatedly pressing the button. I normally use 80%.

2. The CLOCK button is for setting the time, again by repeatedly pressing the button.

3. The AUTODEFROST button is, obviously, for defrosting frozen food. After pressing this button you set the weight of the item with the knob at the bottom and the time is automatically set by the oven.

4. The AUTOCOOK function is a series of set programmes for cooking various items. There are eight autocook options, which are shown to the left of the control buttons (milk, rice, potatoes, pizza etc ). You choose the option number by repeatedly pressing this button, and further there are time options which you select using the knob.

5. The STOP/CANCEL button stops any currently running program and resets the oven. Eg, if you set the oven for 1 minute and decide to take the food out at 30 seconds and shut the door, it will start running again unless you press this button or leave the door a bit open. It is also used for setting child lock.

6. The START/QUICK START function is for starting a set program after selecting the time or weight. With the quick start option, you dont have set the time. When you shut the door and press quick start directly the oven starts running for 30 seconds.

I mostly use the microwave for reheating and defrosting food and making tea or some milk drink. For these purposes, I find this an excellent gadget. It takes me one and a half minutes to make tea ( at which point it will be bubbling up to the top of the mug) and two minutes to heat food from the refrigerator.

The only thing I have cooked in the microwave are things like carrots, potatoes and beans for making stir fries or soups. I normally use the Autocook Potato option and the time taken depends on the size of the pieces, but has never exceeded eight minutes.

Another thing I must mention is the beep noise it makes once the food is done. It will keep on making this noise every couple of minutes or so until you go and open the door,which is great if you are always distracted like me.

It would be really bothersome to heat up food and make tea on the stove, especially when you are rushed and a microwave makes things really convenient. This oven has really worked for me and I would be happy to recommend it to any one.