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The best countertop microwaves
There is no denying the fact that countertop microwave ovens are super-convenient and easy-to-use when it comes to heating your food. As compared to conventional ovens, microwaves can evenly cook or heat food much more quickly. Also, it cooks food entirely from the inside out. The microwaves with a common 2450-megahertz frequency penetrate water, sugar, and fat molecules and converted into heat or thermal energy when absorbed. Plastics, glass, and ceramics don’t absorb these waves. This also makes it convenient for you to put a ceramic dinner plate or glass serving dish inside the microwave to cook or heat food items.
Since waves penetrate deeper into food, it’s cooked evenly and faster with less nutrient loss. The convenient touch buttons let you set the desired heating time or choose from the easy preset menus to make cooking effortless.
Best overall for the price & best for popcorn
Toshiba EM131A5C-BS countertop microwave
This 1100 watt microwave with 1.2 cubic feet capacity and sensor cook technology ensures easy cooking and defrosting in no time.
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This is the best option for those who want a reliable, powerful yet user and budget-friendly microwave oven. It combines basic as well as advanced features for fast heating performance. You can simply press the keypad control to set the desired heat time or choose from the sensor menu. Plus, it’s great if you want a power-saving microwave oven.
Best for cooking food & meals
Panasonic NN-SN966S countertop microwave
This high-power 1250 watts microwave not only offers shorter cook times but also maintains nutrients and flavors to provide healthy delicious meals.
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It’s a great family-size microwave that incorporates the latest inverter technology. All kinds of food are evenly heated and cooked. With 14 auto-cook options, you can easily cook a wide variety of delicious meals for a family feast. Gravies, soups, and other foods are kept fresh and warm until served.
Best speed
Samsung MS14K6000AS countertop microwave
It’s an efficient 1000W microwave for almost all your cooking needs.
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If you want to evenly heat leftover food in less time, this is the perfect choice for you. It ensures the meal is properly heated from the inside as well as the outside by distributing optimal heat. Easy to operate and clean, it looks best on any kitchen countertop.
Best stainless steel
SHARP Carousel ZSMC1132CS countertop microwave
Easy one-touch cook controls and sensor cooking makes it a reliable choice for everyday cooking or reheating meals.
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This is the best thing if you’re a big fan of making popcorns in a microwave. You get the perfect popping results by just touching a preset button. It allows you to cook fast and more quantity in a full-size plate. Loaded with user-friendly features, reheating and cooking is simple and straightforward.
Best cooking programs
Farberware Classic countertop microwave
It’s a compact high-power countertop microwave oven to heat your everyday dinner/lunch meals.
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This countertop microwave works with any kitchen/office décor. You don’t have to worry; it’s a perfect fit with a large easy-clean interior. All the common microwave features are present such as 6 preset programs, defrost options, digital clock, etc.
Best in cabinet
COMFEE’ EM720CPL-PMB countertop microwave
700W of power is enough to reheat a daily meal of 2-3 people serving. It’s best suited for those who want to save counter space since it fits easily in a cabinet.
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If you’re looking for the most budget-friendly option, this is the right pick for you. Size-wise, it’s very compact to save more counter space but offers all the intuitive cooking features. It brings more cooking convenience to meet your daily reheating or cooking needs.
Best multifunction in a shelf
Walsh WSCMSR09BK-09 countertop microwave
0.9 Cubic feet capacity is fairy spacious and 900W power is enough to give a boost to cooking or heating food effectively and fast.
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This is a microwave for people who prefer to cook many versatile dishes. With power adjustment levels and easy-cook menus, everyone can make their favorite dishes in no time.
Best with convection oven combo
Toshiba EC042A5C-BS countertop microwave
Its fully-featured microwave oven that offers versatile and quick cooking methods; cooks, bakes, roasts, reheats, and defrosts.
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It’s the best choice for chefs or people who want to buy a single unit to meet all their cooking, baking, grilling, and reheating requirements. This appliance will do the job perfectly. It can roast, cook, defrost, and heat meals with an eco-save mode to cut the costs of your electricity bills.
Best classic design
Nostalgia RMO4AQ Retro countertop microwave
This retro-looking compact appliance can cook or heat all ranging from casseroles to any leftover food.
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An excellent option for retro lovers; this classic style microwave becomes the center of attraction or focal point of your kitchen. Not just style, it’s a fully-featured microwave oven that performances great for cooking or heating food thoroughly.
Best features
BLACK+DECKER EM720CB7 countertop microwave
It’s best for heating or cooking foods conveniently.
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A simple stainless steel microwave with almost all the latest features; this mid-sized microwave is a reliable choice for your kitchen. Though it has a smaller footprint but inside capacity can easily fit a dinner plate.
What to look for in a good countertop microwave
The countertop microwave is the most popular type because of its easy installation as it plugs into a standard outlet. Consider the following things before you pick one for yourself.
Size & counter space
The first and foremost thing is to consider how much countertop space is available and what size microwave will fit best. Less counter space means you need a microwave with a smaller footprint or is overall compact in size.
Internal capacity
Whichever size or style you pick, checking internal capacity is also important. Sizes range from 0.5 to 2 cubic feet. Check if the food you cook or reheat regularly will fit inside easily. If you’re not sure what internal capacity would work best, bring a large platter, bowl, or plate from home that you regularly use to make sure it fits.
Power
Wattage is another essential element to look at. It’s the amount of power running through the microwave. It ranges anywhere from 600 to over 1200W. A rule of thumb is that the more wattage a microwave has, the more the food will be cooked evenly and quickly.
Style
When it comes to style, countertop microwaves have a modern stainless steel finish to match contemporary settings these days. They generally come in white, black, or grey, but they are some retro-style and colorful ones on the \market as well.
Features
Microwaves can be loaded with features. Some offer convection cooking to bake and roast, while some also have grill options. However, the key uses for most of us are defrosting and reheating. This entirely depends on the features you want and what are you going to use it for.
Shortcut keys take the guesswork out of cooking some most popular foods like potato, popcorn, rice, pizza, etc. Another feature newer microwaves have is the sensor. It automatically detects moisture in the food. Sensors are convenient; the microwave is turned off when the food is done. It prevents over or undercooking.
More high-end features mean a higher price tag. Consider whether you’ll need convection cooking, inverter heating, grilling, and browning, before paying extra money for those features.
A Solo microwave is perfect for reheating purposes but not so suitable when it comes to actual cooking. If you want to replace the existing oven, then a full combination microwave is great.
It’s essential to look at which evenly a microwave heats your food. Cheap smaller microwaves with less power don’t do the basics of defrosting and heating so well. Besides, microwaves with advanced features like convection, sensor, or speed cooking may also not do the heating job well.
Eco-mode
As we all know that power consumption is a big issue when it comes to electronic kitchen appliances that need to be plugged in all the time. Hence, this results in a higher bill cost than expected. Almost all conventional microwave ovens consume power to sustain essential functions when at rest. That’s why we recommend microwaves with energy-saving eco mode.
Microwaves are also differentiated on the basis of heating technologies used.
Inverter technology
With the inverter technology, the temperature is constant regardless of any power level. This makes heat spread evenly. Plus, it’s energy-efficient and doesn’t kill the food cells when you heat the meal, keeping it nutrient-rich and healthy.
FAQ
Can selected utensils be used in microwave oven?
Yes, although we have a range of utensils made of steel, ceramic, plastic, glass, paper etc, only few utensils are safe to use in a microwave. Since microwave waves are used for heating, any metal utensils or having metal lining and metallic paint should be avoided. Also, ceramic cups or bowls with silver/golden lining shouldn’t be used. There are plastic and glass dishes, bowls, and plates in the market that are 100% microwave safe. However, when using the grill or convection heat mode, paper and plastic utensils are a big no.
Do countertop microwaves decrease food’s nutritional value?
A lot of people are concerned that microwaving their food damages the nutritional value by sucking all the nutrients out. The short answer is yes! They use microwave radiations to warm up the food. The molecules of water in the food vibrate, and generate the heat, which spreads through the surrounding molecules. But what happens in a microwave is no different from what happens on a stove, conventional oven, or cooking methods. Heating or cooking via any method changes proteins, vitamins, and other compounds. Boiling vegetables on stove looses more nutrients and freshness since most of the nutrients dissolve in water. To best preserve nutrient, what you need is shorter cooking time that limit the exposure to heat and a cooking method that uses as little water as possible. Luckily, microwaves heat up food much faster than appliances. Your food might be more nutritious when heated or cooked in a microwave.
Final verdict
If you need a convenient quick way to heat up plenty of foods from frozen meals to leftover dinner, then a countertop microwave is what you want. It’s designed to make heating and cooking more convenient and fast than using stove ovens. Equipped with microwaves emitter and heaters, it cuts the cooking time into half. Easy button-dial control panel allows user to set time and heat settings depending on the food type.
It’s the most convenient cooking tool in any kitchen!
