Product Review: Oster 1.1 c.f. microwave

Before we even bought this microwave I read in a review from someone that it stopped working within days of purchase. After we bought it I read similar reports. Since we've had this one for about 5 1/2 weeks, I guess it's enough time to write my own review, although I suppose it could break down tomorrow.

The wife bought this one at Target for less than $80.00 after our other microwave finally stopped working. The price was right, but how well does it work?

Ok. Not as powerful as our old one, but no one ever said it would be. It has one of those rotating plates in it that save you the trouble of turning your food. It also has those generic food setting buttons where you just press a button for popcorn, or whatever. I have no idea how well those generic buttons really work. We've never used them.

Overall a decent appliance for the price. Just a couple of annoying things about this one I don't like:

• It has a reminder beep that goes off if you don't remove the food from the microwave after 30 seconds or so after it's done cooking. We both find that annoying. Hey, there might be a reason we're leaving it in there!
• It doesn't hold the cook settings more than about 30 seconds. If you set the power and cooking times, then walk away without starting the cooking cycle, it loses the settings and you have to come back and start over again. I find that annoying.
• Our last microwave would show both the elapsed time and the power setting as it's cooking. This one doesn't show anything but the time countdown. I don't like that as I've burned food before when I inadvertently cooked something at 100% power rather than 50%. Granted, I burned the food even with the power showing while it cooked, but with this one I don't even have the option to check the power setting. I don't like that.

So far, though, I wouldn't have a problem buying this one again, especially for the price.