General Electric Advantium SCA1001HSS 900 Watts Convection / Microwave Oven

Pros: Cooks extremely rapidly when in nuclear-blast mode.
Cons: Terrible design resulting in multiple replacements. Noisy. Smokey.

We had one of the early Advantium models installed in our house when the house was built in early 2001. It failed. GE replaced it. It failed. GE replaced it. The third one has worked for the past few years, but (1) the plastic grills above ...

Pros: Stylish Fast cooking, lots of cooking method choices. great quick service
Cons: Noisy venting,confusing dial time and cooking settings poor interior lighting.

We bought the Advantium because we were replacing our double over & under oven which had worn out. the Advantium is a good fit with the companion gas stove and does a great job of venting the heat and smoke if routed to the outside it also is a good ...

Pros: Cooks as a standard oven and as a microwave.
Cons: Quality is poor. Service is expensive. Exhaust fan ineffective and loud.

We primarily use the oven and microwave features and they work OK, but we have not been impressed with the speedcook. We haven't found the speedcook to be that much faster than microwaving alone. This oven has a exhaust venting System to quickly ...

Pros: flexibility of using as microwave or as speed cook oven
Cons: the need to change trays for different cooking functions

We bought this to use while our kitchen was being remodeled, and to install in the kitchen after the remodel. It was my sole oven for several months this past winter (temporarily installed in another room) and I feel that I could not have survived ...

Pros: Microwave works OK.
Cons: Service from GE is terrible and things do break.

We've had this microwave for just under 4 years. So far the microwave funtion and what oven funtions we've used are OK. The fan is very loud but seems to do what it is supposed to do. The microwave functions are very easy to use. Some of the other ...

Pros: Looks good, when working, clock is accurate
Cons: Fails rapidly, doesn't brown, weak microwave.

WE now have our second dead Advantium in less than 4 years. Our first one died and we succeeded in getting our warranty company to replace it after 3 months of failed repairs.

Basically, the same deal as the first one. The cavity light stopped working within a couple months of installation and now nothing works. It is dead.

The Advantium 120 is by no measure a good product. It does not brown, and the microwave is far too weak. We rely on our inexpensive countertop microwave which has always been superior to the Advantium.


Found in looking through records that we were fighting about the first one dieing in May 2005. Our warranty company replaced the first one after at least 3 months of fighting. This one didn't last as long as the first.

UPDATE: We're having a party, the Advanitium is forever banished from our house. The Kitchen Aid Speed Cook is so far superior it it not even funny. It actually works as a microwave and the speedcooking is great. Love the grill function. And it is so much easier to clean.

Pros: Looks great and offers practically endless features.
Cons: Convection oven can cause total system shutdown, requiring expensive service call.

I've enjoyed using our Advantium 120 for almost 2 years without any problems at all, until a few days ago. About twenty minutes into using the convection oven (at 450F), it suddenly shutdown completely and without warning--blank display, no lights, nothing. There was absolutely no power. We soon discovered after a bit of online research that this is not an uncommon occurrence w/ the Advantium when using the convection oven. Basically, the oven overheats the system and then shuts down to protect the circuitry. I called a few of the larger repair shops (Boston area) but no one was willing to work on it; all recommended I contact GE. I did and two days later a very nice technician replaced the oven cavity thermistor (TCO-thermal cut-off switch) in about 15 minutes for $189. He suggested I run the vent fan in the future when using the convection oven. Not sure if I dare (use the oven). Despite this flaw, I still love my Advantium 120 and am happy to have it up and running again!

Pros: Pretty to look at, great technology.
Cons: Reliability, tricky warranty.

We've had our Advantium for about 10 months, and it performs as promised and looks extremely nice in our self-remodeled kitchen. In general, however, I'd say that one does not use the fancy heating features as much as you might think, since it takes effort and time to get the hang of them.

Reliability has been a problem, however. Both light bulbs in the unit burned out after only 5 months. From what I can tell, they were simply of poor quality. Too much penny pinching among their suppliers is my guess. Turns out neither light is technically covered by the warranty, which excludes "bulbs". Fortunately, our Sears tech ordered the parts under warranty anyway (mistakenly) and I replaced them myself after partly disassembling the unit. I'm pretty handy and it was no problem.

If you get this unit, you may want consider the extended warranty or at least look very closely at the warranty language. The Sears field warranty repair folks were easy to work with, but beware the parts dept.