The microwave often happens to be an item with a secondary importance – that’s why you should choose whether or not you really need it.
Nowadays it’s really difficult to choose anything for the home, because there’s wide choice of quality and even a wider choice of low quality goods. Plus, there’s almost no way to differentiate between the two at the time of purchase.
That’s why, when we pick a microwave oven, we have to bear in mind a number of factors, such as functionality, convenience and price.
Before you pick your new domestic “pet”, answer yourselves the following questions:
Where exactly do you plan to mount the microwave oven?
Pick the right sizes (width, length and depth) of the place, which you allocated for your appliance. Bear in mind that you have to have a little more space from both sides. Think about the way you want to open the door. If you don’t have enough space on the sides, choose a microwave whose door opens in upward direction.
See if you have enough workspace for the rest of the kitchen activities. Because sometimes we bury ourselves with all kinds of kitchenware, which we often use once a year, whereas we don’t have enough space to spread a butter on a slice of bread. Make sure to see how many utensils you need to buy for cooking and heating.
If you are just starting to furnish your apartment, you have the possibility to think about building in the microwave oven – something you wouldn’t be able to do, if you are only up to small changes in the home environment. The advantage of the built-in appliances is that the space can be used to the maximum extent.
It might seem ridiculous, but the height at which you plan to put the microwave oven does matter. If you wave your hand and you just randomly pick a place, the microwave could end up either too high or too low, because the people who produce the cupboards or mount the appliances don’t always care about the convenience of the hosts. Sometimes, for them is completely enough if they’ve assembled what they needed to, whereas later they excuse themselves that you haven’t mentioned your requirements.
Bear in mind, that if you have little children it’s strongly advised to put that and any other electric appliance at a height that’s unreachable for the naughty little hands.
What’s the role of the microwave in your household?
Whether you will use it just to reheat food or you plan to turn it into the main cooker of your whole family, the microwave oven’s size and functions will vary. If you will only reheat and defrost, you can choose a standard microwave oven, whereas if you plan to cook meals, too, you’d better buy a microwave oven with a grill. For those who have a small household or prefer to cook only in a microwave, there are combined options, too. This type of combined microwave you can quick and easy cook all kinds of dishes, but in smaller amounts.
The price, the brand, the design and the power
The microwave’s place should be carefully picked.
Those parameters are in a close relation to each other. Since a lot of ladies are interested mainly in the design and colour of the microwave oven, we have to point out, that the power of the appliance is measured in watts, and the more the watts, the faster the dish cooks. Here you have to ask yourselves the question once again, what you will use the microwave. Don’t buy too powerful and expensive appliance, if you will only use it for reheating.
You’d say that all microwaves seem almost the same. If you really think so and you don’t happen to be very pretentious, then the choice is easy.
But, on the other hand, if you are looking for an oven with a stainless steel cover, you should definitely check whether it has one. If you want it to clean easy, you have to check whether you can take out the plate or not. The combined ovens have a few plates in and you should see whether you like their position.
It’s good to check whether the microwave has a display function and how it can be used, whether or not it has pre-set regimes or not. Make sure to consider all that before the purchase, so that you don’t end up with something that will do only half of your job. Let’s think about it – how often we pay a lot of money for things whose functions we don’t use completely?
Here are the most common functions, which, if you don’t use, you won’t need to pay for:
- Key-lock for children – it’s comfortable for families with small kids and impractical for families without any or with grown-up children.
- Possibility to brown the dish – again impractical, unless you’ll use it as your main oven.
- Pre-set programmes – you can cook certain foods, without setting manually the timers and temperatures – a press of the button is enough.
- Cooking according to the weight – again quite unnecessary for those who never know how much the chicken weighs. That function predisposes to buying an additional kitchen scales. In case you decided to change your perception of the world and suddenly become quite strict and organised, you don’t need it.
- Turn-off sensors – that’s quite appropriate for absent-minded hostesses, who constantly forget, that they have something cooking at the moment.
Of course, there are many other regimes, which you can find in the manual of every microwave, but our advice is just research the possibilities of the different microwave ovens, before you choose and buy one. It’s important to see whether its functions answer to your needs. Because there can come the moment when, after answering those basic questions, you don’t actually need at all a microwave. A little more organisation and you’ll be able to defrost the products in advance or you don’t often reheat food at all after carefully thinking – that means you won’t need a microwave.