Solo Microwave

Well our faithful microwave of 7+ yrs died after great service. The Model was: LG MS-1927C (700W, Mechanical Rotary Dial, Solo) All it could do was heat food and all we wanted from it was just that. It was a perfect harmony, until recently when its Magnatron (suspected) failed. The Turn Table would turn, the Bulb would light up and timer would tick fine too, but food wasnt getting warmed

A few calls to LG Authorized center revealed, Cost for the Magantron would be approx 1205/- + Installation Charges (350/-) There would be 3 months parts warranty.

But was the repair justified ? When a newever microwave is available strating from 3500/- I had made up my mind, repair aint gonna be.

Also I had 1500/- Reliance Digital vouchers languishing with me which had to be disposed off promptly. These vouchers added 90% more impetus towards getting a newver microwave v/s repair

All the while we were clear, we didnt want a newver microwave with Convection or with Grill or for that matter all those fancy features We just wanted plain microwave (Solo as its called in Marketting terms)

The next decision was to be made was do we want a Rotary mechanical dial v/s Digital touch button display for controls ? Our old microwave was Rotary Mechanical dial which served us great to be honest. But folks at home wanted to try something new, something different. So digital touch button display it was





Then a courtesy call to our trusted Reliance Digitial store revealed they had only 2 Solo models, one from LG and other from Samsung LG was expensive by 1500/- over Samsung, yet LG had slightly smaller cavity area compared to Samsung. Both had digitial displays with Touch controls



Thus the decision was made in matter of 20mins and deal was sealed The Model : Samsung MW73AD (Black Colour, 20lts, 700W, Digital Display with Touch buttons, Clock and 5 quick preset modes)



Once the microwave was home: Review:

1) The Bulb doesnt illuminate the cavity well enough. The Dark Black screen on the front cover doesnt help the cause either. WE have to lean close to the microwave to see if the food hasnt overheated

2) The touch buttons are stiff. Again the case of having bought an entry level microwave , you get what you pay for. There were high end microwaves for 13000/-

3) The 30+ button doesnt work in combination with other incremental buttons (10min, 1min can be mixed and matched)

4) There is a built in clock which you can setup and leave the Mains power on and it will happily display the time for eternity, until you switch off the microwave when it resets to 12:00. It has a power save mode, but we prefer switching off the mains. So the clock functionality will never be used.

5) The microwave takes a moment or two to initialise when powered on from the Mains. Perhaps all the digital circuitry within takes that time. Who knows. The impatient me was so used to the instant turn on that this moment or two wait is annoying.

Apart from the above, no complaints. It does the job well.

As a personal recommendation:

I strongly urge folks looking for a Solo Microwave cheaply is to

1) Consider a Non Branded Microwave (All these stores Chroma, Reliance, etc have their own brands which are OEMs from Korea)

2) Consider a Mechanical Rotary Dial for controls. Trust me, after having used the Digital touch dial, we seemed to have got over its beauty and qucikly realised Rotary dial is the best. It will perhaps last longer too over Digital touch

3) Shop around on Internet, but at the same time, visit the Brick-Mortar stores, they usually match the Online Prices.