1 Doing Fine So Far
We bought this unit about a month ago to replace a microwave, small electric oven, and George Foreman grill (the latter was good but we'd used it so much in a year we had completely worn the teflon finish off the grill plates) because of our small kitchen. Unfortunately we got the floor model which had the cookbook swiped from it and Sharp wants $22 for the 48 page cookbook, so we are using the manual and cooking by guess and by golly. We have broiled both steaks and pork chops in the oven and they come out wonderfully in about 15 minutes. Microwave-wise, it takes a few more seconds to warm up things than with our 1.3 cubic foot 1000-watt old unit, but it's not much of a bother. I love the "minute plus" feature. Haven't tried baking in it yet.
2 Sharp is the worst for small appliances
We had this model for 3 years and the turn table and magatron went out. The turn table is not covered by warranty it cost $95 to replace the magatron is under warrantey but even to have the repair done it was going to cost us a total of $291 which is only $65 dollars less then what we paid for this. What a joke. I also wanted to mention I bought my parents a small Sharp microwave and the display blew a month after we got that for them. Because of these two events I will never buy another Sharp applicance.
3 Stopped working, unreasonable carry in warranty
I have the same unit in black, which is a little more expensive, just for the color. This unit is extremely heavy. It took two of us, and a chair with wheels, to move it 15 feet and get it onto the counter. I've had it one month and it stopped working. If I want in home service I have to pay. It has to be carried to a service center. It weighs more than my 32" TV. Sharp did give me the phone number of the only two service centers in my general area, one was Sears. But when I got it there, after talking to Sharp 4 times about service, Sears asked where my letter fro Sharp was, authorizing them to do the repair... aaahh.. letter?
Before it broke, it heated unevenly and isn't as powerful as the 1200 watt unit I gave away to have the combo micro / convection. It does't pop corn very well at all, but it does heat my coffee. What a mistake. The Sharp sales info line was every helpful BEFORE they had my money. Now that they have it, their attitude has completely changed. They have a very "business like" attitude and basically could care less. It's disappointing.
The unit is huge on the outside but not nearly as large on the inside as my old microwave oven which was so much smaller on the outside. I made a huge and costly mistake. If you have to have a convection oven, get one with a reasonable warranty for service for such a large, heavy appliance.
On the other hand, Amazon has been WONDERFUL! At least I did something right when I made this purchase!
4 This is nice!!!
After much researching, I purchased this combination unit about 6 weeks ago. I cook small amounts, use frozen foods much of the time, and disliked having to heat the large oven for this. The dual function rocks, and so far, the unit has met my expectations 100%: the 900 watt microwave is faster than my old 600 watt; the convection is about 25% faster than my regular gas oven; and it browns and makes things crispy just like the regular oven. So cool!!!!
I haven't tried "real" cooking, like roasting meats or baking, but I don't doubt that it would perform just fine.
It is big, and that is ok with me. If I need to do larger amounts, there is plenty of room. There are two round racks, one for broiling and one for baking, which are removed when using the microwave. One curious thing is that the instructions say that when popping microwave popcorn to put the bag on top of an overturned glass pie plate or dish. They do mean this!! I tried just putting the bag on the turntable and about 10 kernals popped in 4 minutes!!! When I did as they instructed, it popped just fine. Also, since this is counter-top level and the door swings out, it is much more convenient to use than the regular oven.
So far I have no complaints. The free shipping from Amazon was great and it got to me in just a few days. I haven't needed to contact Sharp for customer service so can't comment on that.
One final note: I suspect that I won't be using my gas oven again. If not for the burners on top, I'd probably not need the range at all.
