Panasonic NN-SN973S Stainless 2.2 Cu. Ft. Countertop/Built-In Microwave with Inverter Technology

I needed to purchase a replacement microwave for a built-in 10 year old Dacor microwave costing about $1000 new at the time (including trim kit). We have a gourmet kitchen and I was concerned about making sure the quality of the replacement would be adequate given the other higher end built-in appliances. A search of ratings on the web led me to the Inverter Technology in Panasonic microwaves, and I really liked what I learned about it. Before buying this microwave, I read all of the negative reviews here on Amazon in order to understand the possible risks. It seemed like there were a lot of them. Some people didn't like the way this microwave beeped. Somebody else thought the display wasn't bright enough. Somebody complained about the way you set the clock. Someone thought the thing had inadequate power despite being 1250 Watts. Several people seemed to think the quality was poor and the thing would fail in a few weeks or months. Lots of people complained about the door latch being poorly designed and prone to failure.Well, I bought the thing anyway. After installing the microwave and using it for about a week, here is my initial response. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the purchase. The Inverter technology is indeed really good: it's quiet, it heats the food evenly, and it seems to provide comparable power to our 1200 Watt Dacor microwave. I'm also very glad that I opted for the digital display in this particular model rather than using an analog knob or analog touch wheel. Our previous model was also digital so it was an easy choice, but I really like the added control of being able to quickly specify exactly how long something cooks. I can easily imagine that spinning a knob or using a touch wheel could become rather annoying to me.Most of the complaints I read about seem completely overblown. The microwave beeps at a very reasonable loudness level - I have no problem with it at all. It also doesn't repeatedly beep every 15 seconds as someone suggested it would. It beeps 5 times at the end of cooking and then it's done. The brightness of the display seems perfectly appropriate - what I'd choose if I had control over it. Granted, ours is a built-in microwave at shoulder height, so I'm looking right at it, and it's not in sunlight, but no complaints from me there. I had no trouble setting the clock, although I admit it helped to know that someone else accidentally started the timer instead, so the button had to be pushed twice instead of once to set the clock. The quality of the touch pad is fine, the door seems like a normal microwave door, and I don't see any reason to suspect anything is about to fail tomorrow. In fact, it is easy to imagine that there are trolls from competitors trying to make this thing look bad given how good the Inverter technology itself is. As of now, I'm very satisfied. Of course, there's no way for me to know yet about longevity, so I'll update this post if anything breaks in the near future.Update: After about 11 months of very high use (family of 7 using it dozens of times per day), everything still works fine. No problem at all with the door latch, the number pad, etc. I'll update again near the two-year warranty date.

GOOD NEWS: Panasonic has fixed the door latch issue! If you have read the reviews, you know that the weak link in Panasonic's microwaves has been the door latch mechanism. Specifically, the door latch bracket that holds the micro-switches has been made of very thin metal that bends easily. The mechanism itself is fine, but the thin strip of metal bends over every time the door closes. Eventually (usually in 3-18 months, it seems) it is bent far enough that the micro-sensor anchored to it is out of place. As a result, the latches on the door will no longer activate the micro-switches and complete the "door closed" circuit, which of course renders the microwave inoperable.I called Panasonic to ask why they haven't addressed the problem, and they assured me that they have now done so. They told me they now use much heavier metal for this bracket. I cannot speak to all models, but they assured me that this model (NN-SN973SAZ), which is a new model, does have the heavier metal bracket. As a result, and since 5 decades of experience have taught me that Panasonic generally makes reliable products, I have ordered this model and now believe that it deserves 5 stars. When it arrives, I expect to get at least 7-10 years of carefree service from it, which is the expected useful life of a Magnetron. If I do not, I will return and update this review. For the record, the Jenn-Air microwave this is replacing gave me 35 years of service (although it did require repair 3-4 times along the way).For those of you who suspect the door latch problem is somewhere in your Panasonic microwave's future, following is what others have done to attempt to repair their own microwaves:"Slamming the door might help for a while, but it actually contributes to more bending and more misalignment. Fortunately, I found a fix on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWVbHDMbl7QIt takes about five minutes to fix (probably temporarily, as the sheet metal tabs might eventually bend out of alignment again.1- Remove the cover (five screws on back, two on side), need a special screw bit.2- Remove the door latch mechanism (two screws).3- Bend the flimsy sheet metal tabs toward the microwave cavity (i.e. inwards) in order to re-align the door latch mechanism.4- Reassemble.I also added two wires to support the door latch mechanism: one ties the top of the latch to a hole on the top of the microwave cavity, and the other ties the bottom of the latch to one of the circular vent holes at the bottom of the microwave. Now that the latch mechanism is all tied up, hopefully the sheet metal tabs won't bend as easily as before. It works like a charm (at least for now), and is much better than throwing a perfectly good microwave away."Another reviewer wrote that, after bending the metal back into place, they glued two dowels along the outside of the metal to give it additional support in the future.Finally, another reviewer wrote that they occasionally apply some WD40 or similar product to a cotton swab and then apply it to the plastic door latches in order to help the door open and close more easily. Considering how often we open and close our microwaves, this advice appears to me to be a good idea regarding any Microwave's door latches.