Sharp R-308KW 1-Cubic-Foot 1100-Watt Microwave Oven, White
From Sharp
Sharp R-308KW 1100 Watts White Microwave
- Amazon Sales Rank: #222638 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Color: White
- Brand: Sharp
- Model: R-308KW
- Dimensions: 11.88" h x 20.50" w x 17.75" l, 38.00 pounds
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!
We bought this microwave as a replacement for our old Sharp Carousel II, which finally quit working after more than twelve years of trouble-free daily use. With such a stellar track record, we naturally chose to replace our old oven with the nearest current model of the same brand. Unfortunately, during those dozen years or so that we were enjoying our little workhorse of a microwave, the engineers at Sharp were busy "improving" the design of the carousel II, evidently under the guidance of some ill-advised focus group or warranty questionnaire data. The end result of this re-engineering is a miserable failure; let me ennumerate:
1. Despite having the same wattage and internal dimensions, the new model has substantially larger external dimensions; thus our new model hangs over the edge of the same shelf which accommodated our old microwave with room to spare.
2. Numerous "features" have been added to the controls (melt, soften, warm) which seem at first glance like they would be useful, but in actual practice are needlessly complicated. If you buy this oven, you will want to have the owner's manual laminated, because you will need to refer to it often if you want to use these "features." For instance, to soften cream cheese, you press the "soften" key, then the "2" key (for cream cheese), the the indicator next to "Qty" begins to flash in the display, at which point you indicate the quantity by pressing "2" once for 3 ounces, or by pressing "2" twice for 8 ounces! Confused yet? Read on! To use this thing to melt butter, press the "melt" key, then "1" for butter, then "1" once for 2 Tablespoons, or "1" twice for 1/2 cup. In the time it takes to do key in the sequence to melt two Tablespoons of butter, you could just hit "start" and watch the butter till it melts! Actually, that was the old model; this one has a separate button marked "minute plus" which does the same thing, but has the added advantage of being a separate button.
3. Power levels are no longer easily adjustable; on our old model (remember, same manufacturer, same price point), to cook food for two minutes at 50% power, I would enter "200" then "power" then "5" and hit start. On the "new and improved" model, I have to enter "200" then press the "power level" key SIX TIMES (or press and hold "power Level" and wait for the display to slooowly count down to the desired level) then hit start! I used to occasionally run our old microwave for a few minutes on zero percent power after cooking something like a casserole that produced a lot of steam; it was an easy way to dry out the interior of the oven and remove lingering food odors. With the asinine design of the new model, though, this procedure requires 15 keystrokes instead of the 6 used by the old model. Needless to say, I don't consider this to be a design improvement.
4. FOUR settings for POPCORN?!? Give me a break! You stop the oven when the corn stops popping; it's not rocket science!
5. Quality assurance on this thing is (how can I put this diplomatically?) sub-par; within three months of purchase, our oven has become possessed, and will randomly start running without being touched, and without any keypad entry. Careful experimentation has shown that gentle upward pressure on the closed door will cause the oven to start and run until the pressure is released. We just leave the oven door open now.
In summary, had I known what a POS this thing was going to turn out to be, I would have just put a new magnetron in the old microwave! If anyone in the product development dept. at Sharp is reading this, please tell everyone at work to dig up the design from 1990; you had it right back than, and you shouldn't have messed with success! My next microwave will be an Emerson.
Fabulous microwave
I don't know what happened with the 1-star person's microwave, but we got this microwave 2 years ago as a wedding present and have been very happy with it. My husband was a little confused by the settings at first, but I wasn't confused by anything. Maybe I'm just warped enough to understand 'complicated' appliances.
The special cook/defrost/reheat settings all work well. We use this microwave to soften butter (40% for about 20 seconds), defrost chicken, and reheat leftovers. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you understand how the settings work it's really, really easy to cook things and use the special settings. We've never used any of the "shortcut" buttons, nor have we ever cooked popcorn in the microwave.
Timer: Enter time, hit "timer/clock"
Clock: Hit "timer/clock", enter time, hit "timer/clock again"
Add a minute: Hit "minute plus" and it will either add a minute or start cooking for a minute on 100% power.
Adjusting the power level: after you enter in the cooking time, hit the "power level" button. It starts at 100 and counts down by 10s.
Cook something: Select "cook", press number that corresponds with option, press that number again for qty or whatever.
Defrost: Select "defrost", press number that corresponds with option, enter weight.
Reheat: Select "reheat", press number that corresponds with option, press that number again for qty or whatever.
If you're not sure what you're supposed to be measuring (cups, lbs, qty) a little black bar shows up on the right side of the screen that tells you what information you're supposed to be providing.
The one thing I did not like about the microwave is you can't adjust the power settings while the microwave is running. You have to cancel it and restart it (unless there's some kind of special setting I don't know about. I never read the manual.) I just pulled out my operation manual and it specifically lists out how to do all of the automatic features if you don't want to do everything manually. If the 1-star reviewer had read the manual, they might not be so confused about the microwave's special settings.
This microwave seems to have always done everything right when I know how to use the features. Like I said, we've had this microwave for 2 years and have been very happy with it.
Very Good Microwave!
We've had this unit for several months now, and I see why people talk about the user friendliness of Sharp Microwaves. Everything is easy and obvious except lowering the power setting. That stumped me until I broke out the manual. Now I like the way that works, too.
The unit has more power than we need and a surprising amount of room inside. My only critique is that the display is black lettering on white background with no backlight. It is hard to read, sometimes.
