A good basic microwave for non-fussy folks

Author's Rating:

Pros: It does everything a microwave should, with no problems

Cons: It isn't huge and its buttons aren't perfectly ergonomic, but so what?

The Bottom Line: 
A good basic, inexpensive microwave for people who aren't afraid to actually push buttons (because pushing buttons is not really hard work, folks).

Author's Review
When I bought my last microwave, ten years ago, I had just graduated from college, and I took the decision seriously. It seemed like a big deal to be getting my own microwave oven. I ended up getting a Panasonic, and I suppose I made a good choice, as it lasted me an entire decade in perfect service before abruptly dying last month.

Shopping for a new microwave, I found out that, over the last few years, microwave ovens have become commoditized, meaning that they are pretty much all alike. Oh, there are some exceptions. There's a microwave that comes with a coffee maker, for instance. That's great for some people, I'm sure, but these sorts of things are features I just don't need.

There are differences in power, too. You can get, for more money, microwave ovens that are more powerful than the Haier MWG10051TSS. But, practically, what does that power do for the typical owner of a microwave oven? It really doesn't matter to me if my coffee gets reheated 15 seconds faster, or my plate of leftovers gets warmed up 30 seconds faster. To tell the truth, I like using a lower power microwave like the Haier MWG10051TSS, because there's less risk of a quick, unexpected overheat. There is safety in restraint.

When I talked to the Best Buy salesman about microwave ovens, and explained what I needed, he started showing me several different brands and models, but couldn't really explain why I should pick one over the other. So, I pointed to the Haier MWG10051TSS, which was marked down from its ordinary price to just under 40 dollars - the least expensive microwave oven of them all.

"What's so wrong with that microwave?" I asked. "Nothing really," he replied. "It's just that some people don't like the buttons. They think they're too hard to push."

Yes, American kitchen laziness has grown to this level: Consumers are now complaining that the buttons on some microwave ovens are just too difficult to push. It's enough to make me roll my eyes. Twice.

I've owned the Haier MWG10051TSS for two months now, and I can report that, yes, the button to open the front door does not pop open as smoothly as some other models. But, it's really not that difficult to operate. You just push it with your finger with an ounce more of pressure than normal, and it works just fine.

Some people I know also have complained that the Haier MWG10051TSS is not large enough for their needs. I suppose that this would be so if you are used to cooking whole turkeys in your microwave, or reheating 20-layer lasagnas. However, for the ordinary requirements of a microwave, this model is just dandy.

In short, the Haier MWG10051TSS is not a deluxe microwave oven, but it does absolutely everything that we expect a microwave to do these days. So, if you're not picky, and you don't need special features like toasters or garlic presses to come on the side of your microwave oven, and you're tough enough to actually push a button instead of just gliding your fingertip over it, then the Haier MWG10051TS will be just fine for you.

In fact, the Haier MWG10051TS does have one simple feature that makes it far superior to my old Panasonic microwave oven. It beeps at me every minute or so until I remove whatever I've heated up. This makes a huge lifestyle improvement for me, because I often get absent minded while I'm focused on my work, and before I got my Haier microwave, I was often confronted with mugs of cold, day-old, forgotten coffee first thing in the morning. Now I'm wasting less coffee, and feeling more perky, and any microwave that can do that for me is well worth 40 dollars.