Microwave – replace or go without?

After an egg-splosion in our this weekend (de-shelled but not pierced) it seems we have a dead microwave. Wife wants to reclaim the worktop space, I’m less sure, but I really can’t be bothered to buy a new one. So what’s the STW opinion, live without, replace with an (Air fryer, I shudder at the term), something else?

For reference as an IBS-er I tend to batch cook and re-heat a lot during the week, for which I use said microwave. Could use the hob/cooker/other thing in future though.

We’ve never had one and don’t plan to get one, so I’d say do without.

Saying that the ninja we got after lots of procrastination has been an ace buy.

I often reheat leftovers or microwave meals in the ninja, just put it in the little tub things.

For reference as an IBS-er I tend to batch cook and re-heat a lot during the week, for which I use said microwave. Could use the hob/cooker/other thing in future though.

Replace. That reheating without a microwave will get very irritating, very fast.

Wait a fortnight and see how pissed off you get without one.

Wait a fortnight and see how pissed off you get without one.

this! If you actually need one, you’ll realise soon enough 😂 I use ours virtually everyday, it’s just quicker/easier/more efficient than hob or oven sometimes. I’d soon get very annoyed without it, I’m sure. That said, ours is built-in above the oven, so doesn’t actually take up any counter space!

I went without for a long time.  Ditto electric toaster and kettles. It was a small kitchen so space was a premium.

On the one hand it’s easy enough to do without if you’re organized, it just means batch cooking into oven proof dishes (e.g. buy a couple of hundred foil takeaway trays unless there’s a re-useable version now) and accepting that a 4 minute re-heat now takes 40 + warming the oven unless its something that can be done on the hob (which means being organized enough to get it out the freezer 12h in advance to defrost).

And obviously the microwave is far more energy efficient than an oven.

I still don’t have a kettle or toaster despite a big kitchen, but do have a microwave.

Replace. That reheating without a microwave will get very irritating, very fast.

This. But also this:

Wait a fortnight and see how pissed off you get without one.

The convienience in being able to just zap some things in a few mins rather than firing up the oven/hob is too much of a convinience to lose for me. (I’d avoid microwaves that are less than 900w, or too small a capacity though…mines 23litres and I wouldn’t go any smaller than that or you wont be able to fit a standard size dinner plate in it.

I’m tempted to get an air-fryer, but my counter top real estate is at a premium, it’s one or the other, really, so microwave wins, although it is a 900w combi microwave/oven/grill.

I hardly ever use the oven and grill features, but it’s a nice to have backup.

I still don’t have a kettle or toaster

Toaster is essential to me, toast in 3 mins or crumpets in 4 mins… it would take that from the oven grill or microwave grill to even get up to temp.

**** no to going without.

My next kitchen will have one in the oven and possibly if it exists airfryer built in because they DO take a load of space. But reheating is a psin in the hoop without one.

Replace.

1000w convection/grill/microwave here; neither the convection nor grill functions have ever been used.

replace.

Go big. Go powerful.

We use the combi microwave (ie micro + convection) plenty. Does decent baked potatoes nearly as good as a real oven but in an hour less and 5% of the energy

I’m tempted to get an air-fryer, but my counter top real estate is at a premium, it’s one or the other

Stack the fryer on top of the microwave?

Stack the fryer on top of the microwave?

Would that be safe? even so there’s only about a 40cm gap between my microwave and the bottom of my cupboards, so I’d have to get a small one and it would look ghastly!

Toaster is essential to me, toast in 3 mins or crumpets in 4 mins… it would take that from the oven grill or microwave grill to even get up to temp.

Gonna be fun when you want grated cheese on top of the crumpets…

Plus, I buy crumpets in packs of nine, and often have five in one go – having said that, my toaster will take four, ok if I’m just buttering them.

Also, hell to the no regarding doing away with the microwave! Not. Gonna. Happen!

Got a microwave that’s a cooker and Air fryer and a Ninja. If there’s a time saving gadget I’ll buy it.

Ours broke, it took a week to source a new magnetron and another few days for me to find time to fit it.  I had no idea just how much we use the microwave!

Gonna be fun when you want grated cheese on top of the crumpets…

You shouldn’t spoil crumpets with cheese… butter only.

Ours was left unsupervised and turned a bread roll into an incinerated bit of charcoal.

The stench was terrible so it got put in the garage for a few days, when we bought it back in it was making some scary noises and pops.

Been without for a couple of years now, loving the extra space and it turns out it only got used for baked beans, cheats cheese on toast, (bread in toaster, spoon molten cheese over toast) and the odd random pudding/ready meal that is microwave only.

More recently it’s become annoying as we’ve been batch cooking and freezing, and trying to stir-fry frozen veg chilli when you haven’t planned ahead is tiresome (although we have been using the defrost function in the oven but it’s still more like an hour than 10 minutes in the microwave).

I tried to find a combination oven as our regular one has rusted through it’s ceiling, if anyone knows of a low level built in combi twin oven (top oven with a grill) please shout! I could only find eye level single combi ovens 🙁

Couldn’t do without a microwave.

Heating soup in a cup, beans, reheating coffee, the occasional mac and cheese ready meal.

Very handy. Far more so than an air fryer

Ours was left unsupervised and turned a bread roll into an incinerated bit of charcoal.

You know they have a built in timer on them, right, they don’t just run forever 😀

Just don’t get the bloody stupid crap one I got from Ikea, which looks very smart but a) is only 750W (my fault, I didn’t check) and b) is a needy b*****d that beeps incessantly when it’s done heating stuff up.

(TBH this is unlikely to be a problem for the OP as it’s a built-in appliance, which I will admit I do like as it frees up counter space).

You know they have a built in timer

Every now and then in life I learn to not ask inflammatory questions 🙂 I’m guessing it was a button mix-up ‘defrost 1kg of beef’ rather than ‘cook for 1 minute’ 🙂

I do a lot of batch cooking and always reheat on the hob, only takes a few minutes and I just prefer it.

However, I wouldn’t like to be without my microwave for doing bags of rice and ready meals.

Mine’s a nice Panasonic with a built-in convection oven which is incredibly handy. Would recommend.

buy a couple of hundred foil takeaway trays unless there’s a re-useable version now

There is a reusable version, it’s called a washed foil takeaway tray.

But yeah, I’d go with the “don’t replace for a bit and see how you get on”

I’m tempted to get an air-fryer*, but my counter top real estate is at a premium, it’s one or the other

We did this and moved the microwave to the garage.. I ended up plugging it back in and using in the garage now, for our infrequent, but so bloody useful reheating requirements

* we love the airfryer and use it more than the microwave ever was.

Are you sure its dead? You can get spares like waveguides etc pretty cheap. A bit of googling could get it up and running again without too much effort.

I do a lot of reheating, often from frozen (batch cooking). Also defrosting when I haven’t planned sufficiently far ahead. So it’s an easy decision for me.

Stack the fryer on top of the microwave?

Cougar’s kitchen

Are you sure its dead?

Fuse in the plus seems fine, so likely fuse internally that’s gone, it was the mention of a potentially fatal hit from the capacitor that made me back away from a self repair!

Got rid of our 10 years ago, only time we’ve missed it was when the kids wanted to make mug cake recipes from some book that had microwave recipes only. Can’t say it’s been a great loss, very small kitchen though, YMMV.

Ironically for not having a kettle of toaster, we do have a deep fat fryer.  Oven chips are just a compromise too far.

Toaster is essential to me, toast in 3 mins or crumpets in 4 mins… it would take that from the oven grill or microwave grill to even get up to temp.

Morning routine is coffee machine on, grill on, kettle on, grind coffee and make espresso, bread under the frill, froth milk, flip bread, make tea, get toast out and add peanut butter.  It’s a well rehearsed dance!

But yea, I’d probably get a toaster too.

only time we’ve missed it was when the kids wanted to make mug cake recipes from some book that had microwave recipes only.

I’ve done these with my daughter. Absolutely disgusting, you had a lucky escape.

Mine’s a nice Panasonic with a built-in convection oven which is incredibly handy

You’re the first person I’ve ever heard buy such a thing and use the ‘oven’ part more than once, myself included.

Cougar’s kitchen

That’s phenomenal. And not wildly inaccurate.😁

On top of our microwave oven is… another microwave oven. I didn’t intentionally buy two, but I had one when we moved house and the previous owner left another behind. Day-to-day it’s largely pointless, but it’s an absolute godsend when doing things like Christmas dinner for extended family with various dietary quirks.

Ironically for not having a kettle of toaster, we do have a deep fat fryer. Oven chips are just a compromise too far.

I have a traditional chip pan, of the “blink and burn the house down” variety. It’s not the same, but when starting with actual potatoes parboiled and frozen the air fryer makes a reasonable facsimile, far better than oven chips at any rate.

I cannot fathom not having a kettle, outside of the USA.

You’re the first person I’ve ever heard buy such a thing and use the ‘oven’ part more than once, myself included.

They are perfect for a quick tea, pizza, tray of chicken, that sort of thing.

Quicker to heat up and cook better than my oven.

I’ve found fellow fans of them on here before, I think.

Maybe I should’ve given it more of a chance, or maybe technology’s improved?  The one I had seemed to have all the downsides of a microwave oven with all the downsides of a conventional oven, a bit like a combo washer/drier.

When it died I had little desire to replace it with another oven/grill microwave, though to be fair I originally bought it when my actual oven packed in, and I’d replaced the cooker in the interim.

I have a gas oven, so I don’t really use the microwave oven feature, as the gas oven pre-heats really fast.

If I had an electric oven, for smaller things I suspect the microwave oven would really come into it’s own as it will pre-heat a lot faster being smaller capacity. I think. I really wouldn’t have a clue how to go about doing the maths on that!

I think mine even has a combi microwave-convection mode, so you can cook your food twice at the same time 😀

I Should really RTFM and figure it out properly.

I cannot fathom not having a kettle, outside of the USA.

We have a kettle, it just goes on the gas hob.

I’ve found fellow fans of them on here before, I think.

We had one of those Panasonic ones in work (small office with 2-4 people in it usually) , it was great for lunches because you could cook/heat something a little more interesting like a jacket potato or just cook your pasty / readymeal in an actual oven which was always nicer.

My parents had something cheaper as they only have a Reyburn that they don’t want running in summer, but it was rubbish so I think they’ve just bought an air fryer for crispy food.

I Should really RTFM and figure it out properly.

Whoa, steady on now mate.

My mum just shows me how to use mine (she has the same one).

‘Show us your Kitchen’ thread incoming 😂

Ours mostly get used for reheat coffee from the pot. We could just turn the pot back on but it would take about 5 mins to reheat

Same as you OP, IBS suffer that batch cooks and reheat in the microwave.  If mine went bang tomorrow i’d get another straight away.