Panasonic Microwave Oven NN-SN686S Stainless Steel Countertop/Built-In with Inverter Technology and Genius Sensor, 1.2 Cubic Foot, 1200W

I absolutely LOVE this inverter microwave!! I used to sell appliances, and we also sold these (in a larger size). I always knew that when my old GE microwave crapped out, that I wanted a Panasonic inverter microwave next. FIRST, an inverter microwave is SUPERIOR to a regular microwave. It’s more powerful, cooks faster, doesn’t change the texture of your food (ie- frozen bread can be thawed in it and it comes out soft and not ruined), it does a great job with defrosting overall, and doesn’t turn hot dogs into rubbery sticks. Time to heat a cup of coffee to a perfect hot temperature is only slightly more than a minute.I have a small shelf built into my kitchen cabinets on which a microwave sits. It really only can accommodate a small microwave with a small interior. But this fits and it has a nice big interior in which I can put full size plates and casserole dishes.Now let me address some negatives. The sensor technology, which senses steam, doesn’t work the greatest. You have to leave the food uncovered to get it to work its best, which means the possibility of food “popping” and getting all over the interior of the microwave. If you cover the food, even loosely, the steam sensor can’t pick it up. With foods that I can put in without any cover, I often find them not hot enough, even with the additional time feature, but sometimes it’s perfect. So the sensor is hit or miss.One disadvantage is that the directions on frozen foods don’t work with this, so you have to learn how long to cook things. So if your Marie Calander’s meatloaf dinner says 4 minutes on high in a 1200 watt microwave, that’s going to be too long in this one!I did buy the extended warranty (through Amazon) because when I used to sell the larger version of these, I had more than one customer who told me theirs died after a couple years. But the inverter technology is so superior to a regular microwave, that I wasn’t discouraged by that. If it dies after my extended warranty, I”ll just buy another!This was made in Communist China for Panasonic, which is a Japanese company.

Finally. A big but surprisingly lightweight microwave that performs perfectly. Loud, but that is not unexpected. Remember to disable safety lock immediately. Directions are clear and design is intuitive. Leaps and bounds better than my old Toshiba.

I was looking for an inverter style microwave that was powerful, feature rich, and did it's job. This hit on all of those points and except for one flaw would be a perfect 10/10.Pros:- Microwaves food well. I know this should be obvious but with some of the reviews I'd read I thought I should make this clear. It does its job well with no uneven heating.- Sense reheat works awesome. Coming from a microwave that didn't have this feature, this makes warming up food easy. No more guess work or babysitting the food while it reheats. Put it in, press Sense Reheat, start it and walk away. You'll come back to fully warmed up food. It errors on the side of too warm than too cold so you don't have to worry about those odd cold bites. Just be sure not to cover it.- Cleans super easy. Whatever material or coating they are using is perfect for wiping out any mess. Compared to my old microwave this is world's better. You won't realize how awesome this is until you try wiping dry spaghetti sauce from the top of a microwave. I could never go back one without this coating.- Ability to turn off sound. As someone who has a toddler who naps/sleeps in the room next to the kitchen this is a huge feature for me. No more loud beeps whenever you're pressing buttons and no more alarm going off whenever it's done.- Build quality feels solid and I have no worries about its longevity. This wasn't the cheapest microwave but it feels like it hit the sweet spot between features and quality. You could spend a lot more on a microwave that wouldn't work any better.So with all these positives what is the flaw that single handedly takes an entire star off the rating?The most annoying flaw:After heating something up and checking it, if you need to add additional time you can't just press the number keys. Your options are, use the 30 second button to add time in 30 second blocks, press the add time button then hit the number keys, press clear then hit the number keys, or wait 1 minute for it to lose its memory and then press the number keys.Now let me be clear, I understand why they have the additional time button. It's so you can add time without having to go through re-entering all those additional settings again. But the amount of times I actually use the advanced heating options vs just throwing food in there and hitting it full blast aren't even close. I've had this microwave for 2 months and I haven't once set the power level or used it to make dough or bake a cake or any ofhat other stuff.But you know what I do basically every single day? Throw my kids food in there and then have to keep checking it to make sure it's not too hot then adding more time. And every single time I run it for 10 seconds then have to check it, when I need to add more time guess what? I can't just press the number keys and hit go. I've got to hit additional time then 10 seconds.Doesn't sound like a big deal right? It only adds an extra second of time. Sure, you're right, except I've got 20+ years of microwave muscle memory built in telling me once you open the door to check the food you can go right back to pressing the number keys and hitting go. So every time I use it I naturally close the door and then go right to pressing numbers only to remember, "oh that's right they've added an additional extra unnecessary step before allowing me to add additional time".I don't care about giving us an extra minute of time after heating up food to decide if we want those same settings and to add additional time. I want to check my food, press numbers, and hit start.I'm sure some engineer got paid a lot of money to add more features to a microwave that wasn't needed simply to check off something on a checklist somewhere but they sacrificed flow of use for it.Yes it's a minor thing. Yes it doesn't take away from the overall product. Yes it still pisses me off every time I need to add an extra 10 seconds to something. Yes I'm removing an entire star because of this.

after being opposed to a microwave in my house for quite some time i must say we love this microwave. the design is very nice its a good size heats up my food precisely great durability and functionality, no foul smells