Combi Microwave Problem

[thelewisgang]

A few months ago I bought a combination microwave oven. As I am on my own, I thought it would save heating up the built-in oven when cooking in the conventional way.

I have only recently started to use it & realised straight away (as the food wasn't cooking properly) that the temperature wasn't right. I have an oven thermometer & used this to test it. I set it for 180 degrees & it barely reached 150 degrees after pre-heat. I tested it at other temps too & found it too low on all of them.

To make sure my oven thermometer was working ok, I used my built-in oven the following day & the thermometer registered correctly.

I contacted the company I bought it from & it was replaced on Sunday. Tonight, I have used it again & the same thing is happening. After pre-heating, I set it for 20 mins but the temperature was well down on what it should have been. I have had one of these combi ovens before (different make) & it worked fine & served me well.

I will obviously have to contact the company I bought it from again. Surely it should be accurate within just a few degrees??

[boxtops]

Yes, it should - pre-heating brings ours up to temperature in a few minutes. Your new one will still be under warranty - get them to send out an engineer so he can test it in situ.

[thelewisgang]

I will do just that. It is annoying having to heat the built-in cooker for just me!

[boxtops]

That's why we have had a combi oven for some years - little things can be cooked much more efficiently than in the big oven. I wouldn't be without mine.

[ethandron]

Well, you could get the engineer out as boxtops says. Or you could just accept that the particular model you have had twice now, needs you to adjust the control and timings to take into consideration that it's just the way it is, if that makes sense.
I have a combi microwave and it heats up very quickly but to too high a temperature so I always have it ten or twenty degrees lower than I would in my fan oven, and cook food for less time. Unless you're doing a lot of baking in it then it's not crucial is it?

[thelewisgang]

I will get an engineer to come round. Ethandron, the oven setting only gives a max temperature of 220 degrees but there's no way it would get close to that. I will try it on different settings later but think 220 would only reach 190 max.

[237SJ]

Have you tried googling the make and model to see what other people say about it on review sites? It might just be a design fault.

[thelewisgang]

thank you 237SJ. I hadn't thought of doing that but have now checked. The reviews are mixed. Some people say they are happy with the combi oven but others are saying exactly the same as me so it would appear there's some fault with them. I appreciate your posting