Ed Okie has done a good job in presenting the plus side of the new (or
hardly new) 'Inverter' technology but there is another side that one should
be aware of before buying one of these units.
I went from an old (about 18 years) 80 watt Panasonic to a new 1200 watt
Panasonic with the new technology and I have regretted it since. First of
all, I would have expected an increase in speed going from 80 to 1200
watts, in fact when reading recipes I was made aware of this fact as time
given for various operations allowed for this difference. Well it was not
to be ..in fact my micro runs a lot slower, almost half again as long to
defrost bread for example and everything else falls into place. Even the
10% that Ed mentions annoys, I find it too quick for some purposes. To sum
up, what I have is an oven annoyingly slow for doing most things I would
use it for, and too fast at the low end for keeping warm.
Interestingly, I have always used my MW to warm up ingredients for baking
.. including eggs, with never a problem. I never used a bowl (of water?)
but just placed my eggs on the glass rotator and let them go. Always worked
with no cooking. Now I don't seem to have the same control.
Another thing very important to me. I originally chose the Panasonic those
many years ago because I found it the most evenly heating oven which is to
say, the variation of heat edge to center was better than others I tried. I
could bake a cake (I did this often) in my old oven with no difficulty (I
couldn't do this in a Sharp I tried). Today I hesitate to even try, it's
very clear from what I do that the even application of heat is a thing of
the past .. is this the fault of the new technology??...I can't say. I can
say however that the oven is a poor choice, I have the large model and the
platten shakes (uneven support) and the door ... oh well, lets not crucify
the thing. Maybe they are all bad.
I do want to thank Ed for one thing and that is explaining the new
technology in a sensible way. I asked several times at the store where I
bought the oven to explain the meaning of 'inverter' and no one could. I
contacted Panasonic (and had the store do so), still no luck. No literature
accompanied the oven explaining it either .. so much for today's service.
Remember when you got a cookbook and other stuff along with your oven?? I
guess you have to be old ...
Bar.