Breville - the Smooth Wave 1.2 Cu. Ft. Microwave - Stainless Steel

I've been using microwaves for over 40 years and this Breville is by far the best I've ever experienced. I've owned it for over 10 months now and it gets used many times a day in my household. The smart/sensor functions work incredibly well. It cooks, reheats, and defrosts evenly. It takes a little longer than other microwaves when using the smart/sensor settings, but I think Breville programmed it that way to run at lower power levels in order to heat things more gently and evenly. The "soften butter" and "melt chocolate" settings work brilliantly--no more scorched chocolate or sticks of butter that are melted in the center and still hard on the outside. I LOVE how quiet this unit is!! The fan seems about half as loud as other microwaves on the market, and you can silence all the beeps for button presses and the end-of-cycle chime. Amazing! And the soft-close door is the best! I no longer get woken up by the slamming of the microwave door in the kitchen, which is close to my bedroom! The stainless steel interior is bright and beautiful. I was afraid it would be much harder to clean than a typical plastic interior, as stainless steel often shows fingerprints and sponge smears, but this one cleans up so easily and looks brand new with a simple wipe of a sponge! Splatters wipe right off. And I know looks are subjective, but I feel like it has one of the best looking exterior designs on the market with two knobs and just a few small buttons and a large, informative LCD display. Aesthetically speaking, it pairs very nicely with our Cuisinart Chef's Convection toaster oven, which is sitting on top of it. Speaking of those knobs, I was concerned that it might be a slower and fussier way of inputting times than a standard 10-key numeric keypad, but it's actually quite intuitive and quick. The default operating time is 30 seconds which can be started with a single press of the timer knob. Each additional press adds 30 seconds to the timer. Turning the knob left or right decreases or increases the time (in finer increments as you get closer to zero and larger increments as the time increases), so once you get the hang of it you can dial in the desired cooking time very quickly. The other knob allows you to quickly change the power level, even while in use. However, with all of the smart settings, I typically don't even have to specify a cooking time or power level. I haven't had a single quality issue with this microwave. It's performed flawlessly for almost a year now and I hope to be using it for the next decade or more. It costs a little more than other microwaves, but I think it's worth it for the benefit I get out of it every single day.

This is the best microwave I've ever owned. It's so quiet, sturdy & loaded with cool options I'm still learning to use. I got sick of buying low end microwaves that broke down in a few years. Nothing I've owned comes close to the quality of this. I love the soft close door function & inner controls hidden from outer view. You get what you pay for folks.

Very good microwave. Quiet both in operation and the door close. I also own a Breville toaster so I was familiar with the dial style controls. The first time you see those it takes a second to understand them but not much more than that. There’s a bit of a learning curve too with the smart cook/reheat options. Generally I have been satisfied with them but it required some trial and error. Example: I covered my food with a paper towel and tried the smart reheat. It didn’t reheat the food all the way. Using similar food I tried it with a vented plastic food cover and it worked very well. The other possible negative would be the cost, but this is Breville we are talking about here. They are more in the higher end and it is noticeable in the features like quiet close and the design aesthetic. In my view it is worth it and I would recommend it if you have the money. I have owned it for almost a month now.

Wore out two Samsungs with the rotary dial for setting cooking time, which is a feature we really liked. Decided to switch brands and happy we did. This is by far a better looking microwave, quieter and easier to clean. It has the same convenient dial but so many more features. The only complaint my husband has is that the clock is not illuminated when not in use—a very minor feature considering there is a illuminated clock three feet away on the stove.

We have owned our Breville Smooth Wave microwave for a few weeks. It is a nice looking unit and is a welcome update to our kitchen's appearance. I won't say that overall the materials and operation feel like high quality, the material seems thin and the button operation does not feel robust, We'll see how the mechanicals hold up. So far it is fine. Other microwaves from other manufacturers may be similar. Could be just a "don't make 'em like they used to" thing. The only smart cook we have done so far is a family sized ceramic pot of rice with the glass lid on. The smart cook rice feature cooked it perfectly. The smart heat feature on this works well and so far has heated everything to a perfect hot off the stove temperature. The one time it didn't work perfectly was on me, I covered (but not sealed) my meal with a dome type cover that did not allow the steam to escape well. Smart heat senses the steam and the dome trapped a lot of the steam. Make sure your cover allows steam to escape soon after it is formed. The next topic was almost a deal breaker where we considered returning the microwave. One of the favorite snacks in our household is popcorn and not the store bought paper bag kind. The instructions tell you to only use the pre-bagged popcorn and I think they state this because they cannot control an infinite variety of popcorn popping scenarios with their smart pop feature. We make popcorn in a silicone popper bowl. This worked great for years in our old microwave. We tried it in the new microwave and the smart pop feature did not look so smart. Instead of taking about 2-1/2 minutes like our old microwave we stopped it at around 5 minutes. The silicone popper was hotter than we ever experienced and many of the kernels were not popped. Some of the popped kernels were on the verge of being burnt. The next time we tried it manually, as in not using the smart pop feature. Same thing happened. This new microwave was popping popcorn worse than our old dying microwave did. Apparently there is a big gap between the platform and where the microwaves shoot across. We put a microwave safe lid on the platform and put the popcorn popper on top of that. This raised the popper 1" above where it would have been. This worked perfectly and people are happily enjoying their favorite snack again.