The World’s Best Mini Microwaves
The Top 3 Most Popular:
- BLACK+DECKER EM720CB7 Digital Microwave Oven with Turntable Push Button Door, Child Safety Lock
- Commercial Chef Countertop Microwave Oven 0.6 Cu. Ft, Black
- Countertop Microwave Oven with Sound On/Off, Eco Mode and Easy One-Touch Buttons
1. BLACK+DECKER EM720CB7 Digital Microwave Oven with Turntable Push Button Door, Child Safety Lock
As far as it’s clear to me from reading other reviews & product descriptions, this Black + Decker microwave oven has all the features that one could desire from a basic consumer electronic product — portable, simple & convenient to use, relatively low cost, etc.. It is very sleek in its design, fits nicely on my counter top, and simply clicks together the metal parts using only a few screws.This unit does not have a rotating dial like some older microwaves which makes for ease of cleaning. The inside of the cavity looks shiny stainless steel through the translucent front; there are no visible wires or panels. Power consumption is quite reasonable at 300 watts while operating at 1,000 watts seems more than sufficient. I am pleased with the high quality components used in this machine including an excellent quartz bowl with a black plastic cover that captures any spills and keeps dirt out. This same component is also used under the heated platen below. A nice feature is that there is a locking button to prevent little ones from removing the hot platen in case they get curious. There is also a non-slip base which prevents slippage when the cavity is tilted during cleaning.The display consists of 6 rows of numbers, each number representing a temperature setting. You can select your favorite temperatures by clicking on the row with the corresponding pointer. Each click changes the displayed number(s) by multiples of ten. For example, if you choose 120 degrees, the numbers would change 60 times (10×6), starting at 60 – 120 = 60. If you were to adjust them to 140 degrees, the numbers would change 40 times (10×4), starting at 80 – 140 = 20. Pretty clever display! To enter any value less than 10, just add a zero before the decimal point.For cooking, the preset buttons do pretty much what you want. Popcorn comes out with about the perfect texture every time. Soup mixes well enough although you might want to experiment with the duration of the cook time depending upon the soup mix. Frozen foods need to be cooked longer than fresh foods but even then, the end result is acceptable. Meatballs simmer away perfectly without burning though.Cleaning is super easy. Just remove the dishwasher rack and clean the outside of the cavity with a damp sponge, wiping gently across the surface. Wipe dry with a paper towel and apply an oil spray to finish. That’s it.I’m really happy with this unit since we don’t eat a lot of meat and I’ve found that meats created via charcoal broiling in our outdoor grill taste great in this microwave.
2. Commercial Chef Countertop Microwave Oven 0.6 Cu. Ft, Black
This little gem could be one of my best appliances (I do like this one) if I had not already owned another brand that is much like it but also has clear plastic instead of black on the inside!First off you have to heat it up from zero degrees Farenheit (use a flashlight to check it out when it arrives since there will be no lights on your side) to about 60 degrees – give or take depending on how long it takes to get hot. It doesn’t start working until it hits around 120 degrees. So don’t set it at 140 degrees because it won’t fully cook for at least an hour!You want to put your food in while the machine is preheating so walk away from it and stand aside until it does its job. A timer works well here too. You can even program it.When it cools back down to whatever temperature you chose, you can turn it on again and finish cooking. Don’t just leave it running because then what happens is that it heats up through conduction which isn’t very efficient. The energy lost is wasted. Also, it might burn something or melt something as temperatures fluctuate quickly during use.It is easy to clean although nothing really gets stuck on byproducts.Pros- Small footprint. This thing is tiny yet powerful. Has small waveguides that cause less reflection than bigger ones. This makes for a nice tradeoff between more output and better penetration. For example, this would be perfect over top of a larger microwave such as a big non-commercial unit.Cons- Food must be placed on tray or plate. There are pros and cons to this. On the pro side, placing food on a metal tray causes severe splintering due to condensation and steam created when the water in foods boils. However, having food on a metal tray also gives the microwaves power to generate more heat. The result is a hotter environment within the microwave creating more problems. To avoid all these issues, they supply you with a PAPER tray. Any paper products should work nicely with this. I tried a few glass plates and found some did not sit flat under weight, thus making the glass fall into the heated area.Others may have different results based on their food and desired outcome. But overall, this product works good.A quick note on wattage. They only recommend using this in a commercial setting where 1 WATT equals 200 Watts RMS. In a standard household, this is usually equivalent to 1000 Watts peak. Remember, this is dangerous, so please don’t get anything over 1500W unless you know exactly what you are doing with it and need to ventilate the house, etc.Overall, this is a decent little microwave. Some people will find it to be a weakling. But remember, it is designed specifically for small areas. If you need something stronger, go with a true commercial unit.
3. Countertop Microwave Oven with Sound On/Off, Eco Mode and Easy One-Touch Buttons
We’ve been using this microwave for a little over a month. It’s not big at all but very stylish looking and much quieter than our old bulky one that finally died. I like the large LCD screen which makes it easier to read as well as see the cooking progress. The buttons are very easy to use – simply press them and they do exactly what you’re told! We haven’t had any problems with it so far though there is only one thing I wish it could have…and that is a locking door for the food after it has cooked. You really don’t want an accident happening in there while it’s still hot. Luckily no accidents have happened but just a warning for those who aren’t used to this type of appliance.It heats up quickly from 600 degrees fahrenheit down to 200 in about 15 seconds and then takes around 2 minutes to heat back up to 600 again. As other reviewers mentioned we found out the hard way that if your pot isn’t ready when the microwave starts beeps setting will automatically cook for another 3 minutes before starting yours. So make sure your pot is done before calling it. If you need something quick to cook something small like a burrito? This works great for that. Overall it’s a good product from Comfee’.
4. SabotHeat Smart Portable Oven with 6 Adjustable Heat Levels & Timer
UPDATED REVIEW 10/26/2021My family recently went back to spending some time in our hometown during winter break. Unfortunately we forgot to bring along one of our favorite meals… pizza! Luckily I had purchased this earlier in the year when my son was starting his summer job as well as classes at culinary arts. We used it to make pizza over several nights while camping. My husband and I were able to have freshly cooked pizza whenever we wanted thanks to this little wonder machine.The unit is very easy to use once you put everything together. However, figuring out what temperature to start at may require a few tries before you find the right setting. You basically need to follow the instructions after each step to see if you’re getting closer to the ideal temp. After several attempts, I found 65 degrees to be the best temp for us.This unit does come with a lot of options but it took me a bit to figure them out. There is a button next to the power cord that turns on the fan, makes the heated area larger, and also changes the temperatures. There is a similar button near the top of the unit changing between large areas and small areas. Pressing both buttons simultaneously changes the temperature even quicker. There is also a button above the heated area that allows you to increase or decrease the amount of time you want to cook something by 5% every 15 seconds. You can hold it there until the desired time elapses then release it and reset the timer. To change the temperature again, press the big button first then follow the rest of the process.While this device certainly could stand to lose a few pounds, it works wonderfully. Since we didn’t have many pies to bake this spring, we just used it to reheat leftovers and occasionally cook fresh pasta. In fact, we probably wouldn’t buy anything else to eat directly from the store since we prefer making things ourselves. If we run into any issues, such as accidentally leaving the door open, we simply restart the timer instead of having to disassemble the entire unit.
5. Emerson Radio .7 Cu Ft Digital Microwave Oven
I’ve had this microwave for a little over a month now. It’s big (which is good) solid and well built. I like the chrome buttons and it has a rotating knob to adjust the power output which is really useful in smaller kitchens where you don’t want to have an open door into your oven but need more than just high or low setting. The screen is nice and large and easy to read. There are two settings that use less power – standby and sleep mode. Using these modes my unit seems to last about 3 weeks on full power before needing to be rinsied. One of the reasons for using lower power settings is so that it doesn’t heat up as much. This does make me wonder how hot it gets during cooking. On one hand, I love being able to choose whether I’m heating food or warming popcorn. However, since there isn’t any kind of indicator light to tell me when the system is fully charged I find myself running it on full power all the time.This microwave is great for big families or small apartments. You can program it easily and store different settings for each user. It also works well with a lot of counter space because it is relatively tall.
6. Aotto Portable Oven for Cooking and Reheating Food
So I’ve had several different ways to heat leftover pizza on my trips. Some were good, some not so much.. but all of them would have been nice if they were wall mountable. So when I saw this Aotto portable oven I thought let’s give it a try.When I first got it set up and tried it heated up pretty quick.. maybe 5 minutes? And that was fast because even though we are talking about 50 degrees Centigrade here in South FL, but it still took a little while before the temp stabilized at around 200 Degrees F. At which point I turned it off and then started testing other foods. I made some breadsticks from scratch and those came out awesome! Then I warmed up some frozen lasagna noodles and guess what .. everything came out great! Lasagna is one of my favorite dishes and now it will be super easy to make ahead and just throw in the oven when needed.Next Day I recharged it using the charging station that came with it. That went really well and I’m sure it will last for quite sometime. Then I tested it again by cooking some eggs and bacon the next morning and once again the results were fantastic! Eggs are one of my favorite things to fry up and bacon is just plain delicious right after being freshly cooked!Then I cleaned it up and stored it away until it was time to use it again.Overall I am very happy with this product and would recommend it to anyone who wants to eat fresh and healthy while traveling or as part of their RV lifestyle.
7. Nostalgia Retro Compact Countertop Microwave Oven with LED Digital Display, Easy Clean Interior
We bought this microwave because we had to have a microwave on hand when my son was hospitalized overnight. They wouldn’t let us have his little baby monitor near him due to radiation exposure. So we got this as a substitute.It is very similar to many old fashioned microwaves that people would’ve been familiar with back in the 1970s & 1980s. It has no rotating plate inside. Instead it has an outside rotatable glass shell/casing. There are numbers around the edge that represent times to rotate the glass cylinder. You select your favorite number(s) then it will automatically advance through those steps before going into hyper mode.You could actually remove the cylinder if you’d like and take it somewhere else. I imagine that you could probably put another one inside which is made out of plastic or ceramic, but they might not be compatible with the other electronics inside? Plus, there’s no vent holes in the bottom so it won’t likely cause problems with any internal components. The only thing different between this and older microwaves is the lack of handles on top.As far as its operation, it works exactly like any other microwave oven I’ve used. You push buttons to enter your choice of programming. You press the start button next to whichever button you want to use. For example, if you’re making popcorn, you’ll hold down the start button until it blinks red. Then you’ll say “2” while holding down the OK button, and it will go into hyper mode for 2 seconds. When it comes back out, it will blink blue instead of red and tell you what it’s done. If you were saying something like “bake cookies,” you would hold down the Start button until it went into hyper mode and say “5.” After it came back out, it would blink green instead of yellow and tell you how long it took to bake the cookies.This model does not come with a lot of presets or features. But it does work well. To see what the various preset programs do, after choosing one, it goes into that program and starts ticking off from zero. So if you’re doing something complicated like eggs, it will begin counting down from 60 seconds as soon as you hit Start. It stops counting down once it hits 00:00:01. You can also pause it anytime you want to. This is great for things like scrambled eggs where you don’t necessarily want it to cook for a set amount of time.
8. Toshiba EM131A5C-BS Countertop Microwave Ovens
My wife and I live in an Arts and Crafts house that has had a wood burning stove for years so my hobby is cooking from scratch. With five people eating at least three meals a day plus snacks we have been looking for some kind of help with making quick healthy meals since going vegan. In addition to using fresh ingredients there are times when simple can do all the work involved. For example steaming vegetables or cleaning beans makes a huge mess but no cleanup required! This is one feature that I love about this microwave oven. There are tons of presets that will get you started each day with just a few minutes needed to select the meal then hit start. No need to dirty up many dishes only those involving the food being cooked. Another great feature is the variable temperature controls that allow you to make adjustments for any type of food without having to guess what temp might work best. It also does other things such as reheating quickly if you forgot to turn it off and need something warm fast.The next model down from this one allows for even larger boxes to be placed on top of the unit and it turns out very nice solid state box that looks much fancier than the normal bulky electromechanical units normally found in counter top models. One drawback is that removing the plastic outer housing results in quite a bit of dust getting inside the unit so clean-up could become messy. Also moving the plate around requires lifting it along with the whole weight of the plate.For anyone who wants to try and cook beef stew on the standard plate found on most counter top microwaves this model may not handle it well due to the small size of the cavity. My personal preference is to always use a rotating plate so the entire mass of the plate goes into the oven instead of half sticking out of the cavity. Using a rotating plate also avoids splattering the walls of the cavity. If you don’t want to deal with cleaning a typical non-stick coating on a plate or dealing with plates made out of glass there are several brands of plates designed for solid state operation.One thing I would like to see improved on is the noise level when the door opens and closes. To me it is loud enough to hear over the TV but my wife finds it annoying. A quieter opening and closing would require more complicated mechanisms which should result in higher prices. Since everything else seems to be high quality why not improve on the quietness of the door? Most mechanical doors in office buildings seem to be pretty darn quiet. From the outside these look like expensive appliances so adding better insulation to block sound would not affect their appearance.With the features described above I think this is a good value compared to its competitors.
9. COMMERCIAL CHEF Small Microwave with Digital Display
My wife and I live in an Arts and Crafts house that was built in 1988; we’re renovating the basement into a full bed and breakfast. To accommodate up to 6 people, we bought a larger Commercial Chef microwave for $450 from Amazon ($75 more than comparable models). Unfortunately, that unit proved to be too large to fit safely inside the renovated basement. After much searching, we found this model–the smallest available commercial chef microwave–and were delighted by its compact size, stainless steel exterior, and elegant simplicity.Installation was very simple. Because there’s no rotating plate inside, installation consisted mainly of sliding the machine into place between wall studs and then flipping it so that the front face would be flush against the wall. The rear handle swung out to allow hanging curtains or other decorative items.The machine works perfectly. It provides uniformity and consistency in terms of temperature, as well as a significant time savings over conventional cooking methods, especially when reheating leftovers. And because it doesn’t take up any more space than our old unit, it fits quite nicely on our countertop.We’ve only had it for about 3 weeks but have used it at least twice a day for several hours each session, without any problems. We’re happy with this purchase!
10. Sharp KB-6524PS 24-Inch Microwave Drawer Oven
I’ve had this microwave drawer oven for about three weeks now and I really like it so far. It’s not too heavy to handle but is high quality stainless steel construction throughout. The inner mechanism is metal as well, which helps it stay shut more securely than some plastic ones that you see on cheaper microwaves. Guessing by the picture, we have an original Panasonic GECKO 1775WN here, although it doesn’t say so anywhere on the outside. We replaced our previous microwave (Toshiba) because the buttons were in different places, the Toshiba has one set of power/unlock buttons on the front while this Sharp unit has them upstairs near the ceiling. Also, sharp seems to be a much higher quality company than Toshiba, they don’t just want to sell you a cheap product, they seem to care about their customers’ satisfaction.This unit is large enough to fit larger dishes such as pizza pans, rectangular dinner plates, etc. Even though there isn’t any locking tabs at the bottom, it still stays closed pretty well if you put it away empty. However, once loaded with food, it will not close all the way under normal circumstances – only after applying pressure to the inside. This is good safety measure so you can’t accidentally leave hot food in there without knowing it. There is also no indicator light telling you that the cooker is heating up, but there is a steady hum along with the flashing red lights on the control panel indicating that something is going on.
