Panasonic Cyclonic Inverter Countertop Microwave Oven 1250W

El producto si me gustó. La forma de comercialización no me gustó pues me ofrecieron MSI , y a la hora cerrar la venta, ya no se respetó los MSI

Hasta ahorita funcionando excelente

The Panasonic NN-SN75LW 1.6 cu.ft Cyclonic Inverter Countertop Microwave Oven is touted by many as a high-quality pick amongst moderately-priced microwave ovens, and in our approximately one month of experience with it, one can see that the reputation is rightfully earned. It’s powerful, compact enough for countertop placement, and full of features—some expected, others less so, and some, at least for us, simply extraneous.

In order to bundle all those features in one machine and a small surface area for the touchpad controls, the designers and engineers had to get a little creative. Which in turn leads to an interface that isn’t always as intuitive as one might expect or wish for. (Disclosure—I come from the school that believes that all microwave ovens should be of the sort that one can walk up to any microwave, anywhere, and pretty much instantly be able to do the basics—warm up coffee, heat up leftovers, “bake” a potato, boil water, etc.)

This isn’t a microwave one can simply walk up to, look at the control pad for a moment, and proceed without further ado. Some things will work just fine that way. Others will not. And there’s at least one potential trap that could yield a rather bad outcome if one falls into it.

Examples:

1. The Coffee/Milk button. Pressing this button once, one sees a message on the display: “1-1”, with a 1 or I in a square diamond, flashing. [I now take this to mean there’s more information to be gleaned about what one is seeing—that information in the Instruction Manual. I hope you didn’t throw it out.] It’s not clear what “1-1” means. Press the button again, and it changes the message to “1-2”. Press a third time, “2-1”, and a fourth, “2-2”. Pressing again begins a recycling of these choices. Whatever they mean. [Yes, it’s explained in the manual. Relatively simple, but still, certainly not fully intuitive.]

2. The Power Level button. This one reads “Power Level (11 levels)”. Which made me wonder if this was designed by the same engineers that produced the amps for Spinal Tap. If you press it once, you get Level 10. Press it again, Level 9, and so on, down to Level 0. Which isn’t for zero output, of course, but instead is intended to keep warm food warm whilst waiting for something to happen, someone to arrive, etc. This is odd, but acceptable. However, there’s another quirk to be recognized here. And this one is potentially dangerous. When I saw the Power Level button, I figured one could follow my usual modus operandi for power levels on microwaves: press in the time, select the power level, and press Start. So, I give it a try. I decide to cook popcorn for two minutes at level 9. Press in the time, press Power Level, change to 9, press Start. Nothing. Huh. So, I guess I need to put in the time after the Power Level—I press 2, 0, 0 for the time, then start, and ta-da!—it’s off and running. At the end of two minutes, the popcorn is popping very, very slowly, indicating it’s about done. And the microwave beeps, indicating it’s done, and..then it starts in one the SECOND phase of cooking. Thankfully, I realize what is happening before the popcorn is on fire, and I stop everything, remove the popcorn, sort the slightly charred bits out, and move along. But that necessitated a visit with the manual, wherein I learned that on entering the time first, I was also telling the oven’s brain that the power level for that two minutes was the default—level 10. The two minutes I pressed in after selecting level 9 told the teeny little brain—AI this is not—that the second cook time was to be two minutes at level 9. Had I not been paying attention, I could’ve set the kitchen on fire. Granted, we’ve been talking about a kitchen re-do, but a torch-the-room demo isn’t a good method by which to start.

3. Sensor Cook (Reheat). The oven has a “Genius” moniker added on the front, and it applies to the automatic sensor cooking. Which, really, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It really does require reading the manual, and, well, one hopefully gets the idea.

I’ve learned the basics necessary to achieve what I desire from the oven, though, and it does a good job at doing the one job I ask of it—applying some microwave energy at some chosen level for a given period of time. It also does some other stuff. We’ll seldom if ever use most of those things, and almost certainly won’t get much use out of the Genius Sensor Cook feature. But it looks to be dependable, powerful, and it’s thus far been easy to clean, too.

Four stars, with Five-Star Performance Rating reserved for those microwave ovens that are a little less likely to be able to produce a kitchen fire while still being adequately intuitive in their use.