Sharp R270SLM Touch Control 20L Silver Freestanding Microwave, 1500 W, 20 liters [Energy Class A+]

When I was looking for a microwave - our first microwave after over 10 years of non-microwave living - I never knew that the item i was buying would send our 5 1/2 year old son into such a frenzy of kitchen productivity, and yet I have to hand it to the Sharp Solo, it did just that. He is now eager for our tea to get cold, so that he can press the easy 'Reheat Tea/Coffee' button. He longs for porridge in the mornings because it can be blasted by the easy couple of presses of a button that sets it at 2 minutes. He even plans dinners with us that can only be done in the microwave, so that HE, the youngest human in the house, can cook for us.This is a great microwave, it has the little frills you need, its easy to clean, it has a high power, it looks sturdy and classy, and the price is perfect.After the micro hiatus, this is a perfect kitchen friend to welcome in.Oh, and our son calls it 'Mike'.

Why reinvent the wheel? Second one I've bought as my first one died because I was using it to warm plates! My first one had a perfectly usable rotating guide which the oven plate sat on and which was kept in place by being connected to the centre spigot, my new oven just has a circular guide connected to nothing, a real pain trying to position it centrally under the plate and keep it there when you put the plate back in place. Very frustrating and completely unnecessary, once again, why reinvent the wheel?

This is a compact little microwave which is powerful enough to meet my large families needs. The delivery was much faster than quoted which I was extremely grateful for and the communication was excellent from the sending company Hughes Electricals.I would definitely buy this product again it is great value for money and much better than some of the more expensive microwaves I have owned.

100% happy with this microwave. Even though it took a while to arrive, it was definitely worth the wait. It looks very slick and stylish in our kitchen and is perfect because it doesn't take up much space at all. I am very pleased with this model and so far so good, no problems at all. I especially like the buttons and the layout of the buttons. We have had problems in the past with microwaves that have the twisting knob feature so this microwave is just simple and therefore hopefully won't breakdown after just a few months!One small criticism is that it does not have a clock on it when on standby which is unusual for a microwave as I thought that was standard now for all models but apparently not. Not a major issue but takes a while to get used to one not being there.Overall, excellent product and we are all very happy with it. If you are looking for a small, stylish, hassle-free microwave then this is for you.

NB: this microwave has a technical fault that makes it blow an internal fuse from time to time, which is the only reason for the bad score. I bought it in June 2013. In May 2017 it blew its internal fuse for the first time for no apparent reason. The oven has not been extensively used and is placed in a dry place. After ordering a pack of fuses with the right specifications, taking the cover off and replacing the fuse, everything worked as normal until December 2017, when the glass fuse actually 'exploded' (see the photo) with a flash and a bang when I pushed the button to open the door, so I had to vacuum the 'shrapnel' inside. This happened again in July 2018. After replacing the fuse, the microwave continues working as normal – until next time the fuse blows. Since this happens exactly when I push the button to open the door, it may be a badly designed door switch that in a few cases causes a short circuit. Each time the circuit breaker was triggered too. Fortunately the fuses are not very expensive, and I still have seven left of a pack of ten.What I wanted was a basic microwave of average volume and power, of a recognised brand, and where I can adjust the cooking time as precisely as ten seconds. I would have liked an oven thermometer to plug in, as my old microwave had, but not many models offer this handy feature that stops cooking when the temperature reaches a pre-set temperature.My old oven broke down a few years ago, and the reason I didn't renew it immediately was that I could find no models allowing me to set the cooking time to the precision I wanted. The numeric keypad the old model had, allowing me to set the time down to the second, had gone out of fashion to be replaced with an inferior design of only allowing the user to choose between pre-set times such as 10 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 1 min 30 sec, 2 min etc., insufficient precision if I know that a mug of milk starts boiling after 1 min 50 sec.The precision problem has now been solved by certain manufacturers, Sharp included, by using three buttons to add respectively 10 min, 1 min and 10 sec to the cooking time. That means I can set the cooking time to a precision of 10 seconds regardless of the total cooking time.There are more than cooking and defrosting programmes enough for my needs.I like the design.The price is about right. Good value for money.The manual is easy to understand.Downsides:The buttons are not very sensitive. You have to apply a good deal of force to activate them. If there isn't anything behind the oven to stop it from sliding back, the entire oven may slide back by the force needed to activate the buttons, depending on how smooth is the surface it is placed on. The reason for this is possibly to prevent accidental start of the oven, something that could damage a microwave oven.When not in use, the display just shows ":", as it has no clock. The clock programming guy was probably sick the week this model was designed. It's not a big deal. If you need a clock, you can buy one for a couple of quid. At least it has a kitchen timer.

Has made potatoes the number one hit in my home. Sometimes of an evening I just settle down and watch them rotate for anything up to 5 minutes at a time. Happy days. Sometimes I even switch the microwave on for extra thrills. In that capacity it's perfectly functional. You have to play the timings a bit by ear as with all microwaves, but it does the cookin' and the defrostin' and the warmin'-up-o'-the-coffee-o just fine.(Beware heating fluids, they can once-in-a-while explode when you 'puncture' the surface tension. Speaking for myself I am happy to undertake the suicide mission of applying 7 seconds of zap to a cooled cuppa, but, yknoe, be carefuls.)