Darn! Did I miss the timer ringing again???
Written: Apr 30 '04 (Updated Oct 12 '04)
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Pros: Attractive, versatile, easy to use.
Cons: I never seem to hear that timer go off. Exhaust fan is wimpy.
The Bottom Line: This is a good microwave with a wide range of options and is perfect for over-the-range applications.
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| mothra3's Full Review: Maytag MMV5186A 1000 Watts Microwave Oven |
Sometimes I wonder if I've somehow become deaf to the tone of microwave timers. That's why, annoying as it was, it was good that my last microwave's timer would continue beeping until I would turn it off. That's what this microwave does when it's done cooking. But for some reason it doesn't when the timer is done...
Oh well, if that's the biggest problem I have with this microwave, I'll settle for that. [I have had one other problem just a few days ago, but I'll get to that later.]
The Microwave
What do you say about a microwave? For an appliance so useful and so well used, it's not one that inspires passionate praise. And since I object to the taste of microwaved meat, I basically own this appliance for the dual purposes of heating water and reheating leftovers (those without meat, that is...)(Oh, and as a timer...)
The first thing I would say regards microwaves in general. Why, oh why, can't they figure out some way to standardize them, at least for the main cooking function?!? You out there know what I mean (and you know who you are...). It's nearly impossible to go to a friend's house and intuitively know how to work their microwave. Each one is a little different! I mean, we might as well have ourselves a Tower of Babel Microwaves--each one speaking a different language, defying their users to figure it out without having to resort to the users manual...sheesh...
Now that I've got that off my chest, I can say that if they ever do standardize them, mine's not a bad prototype. (With the exception of the timer thing...)
Once you've broken the cover of the owner's manual and discovered that you don't need to press a "cook time" button before entering the time you require, using the microwave is quite easy. By simply entering a time and pressing start, you're off and running.
In fact, my husband stumbled across an even quicker way to start the microwave--by pressing a button marked Add 30 Seconds. When pressed, the microwave immediately begins cooking on HIGH power, even without the need to press the start button. By pressing the button several times, the 30 second intervals add to the aggregate time until you reach 3 minutes, after which it adds a minute each time. (But at that point, I think you might as well just enter the time and press start.) The reason this function is ideal for me is that I heat the water for baby's bottle in the microwave (yes, I know, "they" say not to do that, but you know you do it anyway...), and 30 seconds is just about right to get it warm but not too hot. (And if I need a little more or less time, there are two buttons labeled more and less, which will add or subtract 10 second intervals...)
And in addition to its usefulness as a microwave, this is a "Home-on-the-range" microwave...wait, that's not right..."over-the-range"...there we go. It is meant to be installed above your range or cooktop so that it can double as a ventilator hood and light. Ours vents outside, but it can also vent indoors (though we found, with our last one, that blowing smelly cooking fumes around the house wasn't what we had in mind). Nowhere in the information I have could I find what cfm (volume of air--cubic feet per minute) the fan moves, but it's pretty weak. When pan-roasting vegetables, which tends to give off a little smoke if you want them to be really good, the fan is rarely able to pump out that smoke fast enough to keep the smoke alarm from going off.
The nuts and bolts:
Let me go into a little more detail about the features of this microwave by introducing you to the keypad. At the top we have 6 buttons called Sensor Controls. By pressing the button and following the helpful instructions on the display panel, you can automatically cook or reheat using a sensor that shuts off the microwave when the amount of humidity present in the food is appropriate, signaling that it is done. The six functions are:
Popcorn
Baked Potato
Pizza slice
Cook--for frozen entrees, casseroles and rice
Reheat--for casseroles, dinner plates and soups/sauces
Vegetable--for fresh, frozen or canned.
The next two buttons on the keypad are the Add 30 seconds button I already described and a Custom Recipe button that allows you to recall a function that you can store in the memory.
Moving forward, you can see three buttons for defrosting. They are as follows:
Auto Defrost--defrosts meat, poultry and fish by weight
Time Defrost--just like it says
Rapid Defrost--for defrosting 1lb. of ground beef.
Next are the number buttons, including the more and less buttons I mentioned.
(A brief note about the more and less functions: Nowhere does it say so, but this function can only be activated to add time in 10 second intervals while the microwave is running and only after at least one second has elapsed.)
Along the right-hand side of the numbers are four buttons:
Kitchen timer--yes, the one that only rings once, unlike the postman...
Clock--for setting the clock function, of course...
Light timer--yes, you can actually set the light on this sucker to go on or off at a particular time of day...
Help--touch this before touching another function on the keypad for information about that feature. Like talking to Onstar, but not quite.
Beneath this are the Stop/Clear button, the Start button, and an Option button that allows you to set defaults such as lbs. vs. Kg., clock on or off, Sound on or off...(that last one doesn't sound like the best idea...)
On to the next three buttons (We're almost done, hang in there...):
Power Level--yep, you guessed it, this allows you to set the power level for the cooking function from 1 (10%) to 10 (100%, although that would be redundant, since that is the power level it automatically uses).
Custom Programs--the full explanation of this feature is conspicuously absent from the manual, and from using the help button and following the instructions, it seems somewhat useless. You press it, enter cooking time, power level (if desired) and start. Pressing it again does not recall the last setting. If anyone knows what the benefit of this function is, let me know.
Hold Warm--keeps your food warm. It can be used on its own, or can be programmed to follow cooking by pressing this button before pressing start when using any cooking function.
Lastly, at the bottom, three buttons control the:
Fan--High, low, and off.
Turntable--did I mention there's a turntable inside this microwave? :)
Light--High, low, and off.
There you have it. I wonder if it resents me for underutilizing its talents, forcing it instead to slave away at boring tasks like boiling water...
I haven't found anywhere in the user's manual where it says so, but I found (quite by accident) that you can actually use the kitchen timer at the same time as any cooking functions. The only thing you have to remember is which one is ringing... But this way, you can warm water for tea while using the timer for the cookies in the oven...without having to turn off the timer and risk burning them. When using both functions, the display favors the cooking function time display, so you won't be able to see how much time is left on the timer until it finishes cooking, or you turn it off. (Or it rings...once...)
And I promised to tell you about the recent problem I had: keeping in mind that this is designed to be installed over your range or cooktop, I had used my pressure cooker on one of the back burners of my range, because it's the only extra low burner. (See my review of the range here.) After I was finished cooking, I noticed that the clock display on the microwave was fogged up. Unfortunately, it was fogged up on the inside, which meant that the entire keypad was gummed up and refused to work properly for the rest of the day. Fortunately it had cleared up by the next morning, but I'm a little nervous about it...
All in all, it's a good and useful appliance. But it won't be starring on Passions anytime soon.
Other Maytag reviews:
The Maytag Gemini Gas Oven/Range
The Maytag Wide-by-Side
The Maytag Jetclean II Three-rack Dishwasher
The Maytag Neptune Washing Machine
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 400
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Epinions.com ID:
mothra3
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Location: oblivion, awaiting a heroic rescue
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
Loss of mind now complete. I am, however, feeling much better...
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