Panasonic 2.2 Cu. Ft. Microwave Oven Review

Home ownership is not what it’s cracked up to be, especially now that my home is 17 years old and starting to fall apart (mostly due to neglect and abuse, but that’s a different story). To fully understand my review you have to know how badly my appliances get abused. Doors get slammed, or left open or both, things get overfilled, I personally have thrown a chair at this house’s first electric oven (which destroyed it by the way). Ask yourself, how many times have you replaced your garbage disposal? I’m sure a survey would come up with a number less than 1. I have replaced my 3 times in 17 years. Each time I’ve upgraded to a more powerful one hoping it could withstand the punishment it will most certainly go through (we’re keeping our fingers crossed because this is the most powerful one they make).

So I’m hoping you have the image in your mind that you need as I turn to the point of this review: Our counter-top microwave oven. Six years ago we upgraded from the Amana Microwave we got for our wedding. You know the ones with the dial on it. That thing could have withstood WWIII, but alas even the best of things have to come to an end.

The replacement microwave we bought was a Panasonic 1.6Cu. foot 1250-Watt with exclusive Inverter Technology (whatever that is). This thing worked like a champ despite being slammed around, pushed around, spilled on. I think at one point it even survived a fall to the floor. Last night I got the craving for some oatmeal, stuck it in the microwave and blue lightening started flashing inside the oven, followed by a very loud humming noise, then the smell of smoke and then the whole thing powered down.

Now, I could have troubleshot what was going on and perhaps fixed it but I’ll be honest, the possibility of it achieving self-awareness and killing me in my sleep was right at the forefront of my decision to just replace it. Being 9:30 at night, I went straight to Walmart.com (as opposed to Best Buy), found what looked like the exact same model, found the closest Walmart that had it available, drove out to the store and took a look at it. The 1.6Cu. foot one was quite a bit different and it just looked stubby, but the 2.2Cu. footer, now we’re talking. It looked just like my old one but bigger. It was only $155, which is way more than I wanted to spend (I’ll discuss that in a minute). I bought it, took it home, plugged it in and cooked me up some oatmeal.

I was hoping that it would start doing the exact same thing as before and then I would discover metal shavings in my Quaker Oats and I would put it back in and let it and set it for an hour and burn my house down and then the insurance would buy me a brand new one so I could start all over with the maintenance of it and such and then I would sue the pants off that chubby Quaker bastard for trying to kill my family with his metal shavings in my oatmeal. Then I would have been rich and never would have to work again. Wouldn’t that have been neat? But it didn’t do the same thing, and my Quaker brand oatmeal came out super good and tasty as our Quaker friends intended. Delish!!!!!!!!

Now about the money. It’s a good price, it really is, but who the heck wants to spend money to replace something. You upgrade from a 24” Sony Wega to a 55” wall-mounted Plasma Screen TV well Ya!!! That’s awesome. I spent $155 last night and all I have is the same thing that now takes up more room than before. whoopee……. It’s absolutely irksome and goes back to what I said earlier about home-ownership being a total kick in the nuts. OK, I said it nicer earlier but I’m getting a little worked up now.

Anyway, I highly recommend this microwave oven. It’s proven to be a reliable workhorse, and lasting 6 years in my home is equivalent to about 10 years in yours. We got the stainless steel model which looks very attractive on top of everything else. It cooks food quickly and evenly. This new model has a option that keeps food warm, that I’m very excited to try out. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because, well, it could still become self-aware and kill me in my sleep.