By Belinda Castles
Researcher | Kairangahau
When you’re short on time, a microwave oven can be a blessing. With the push of a few buttons, you can reheat a meal. It’s also good for defrosting – a bonus if you’ve forgotten to take out the meat for dinner!
You don’t need to spend big money on a microwave oven. Our test of 44 currently available microwave ovens found five models that cost less than $300 and are excellent performers. One of these cheap microwaves is actually our highest-scoring model.
All these models are standard microwaves. We’ve also reviewed microwave ovens that can grill and combination microwaves that can bake too. However, because of their versatility, these microwave ovens tend to be more expensive.
We test the performance of standard microwave ovens by cooking broccoli, defrosting mince and a whole chicken, and reheating quiche.
Best microwave ovens for less than $300
What about a combination microwave?
The microwave ovens we’ve profiled are standard microwaves. But we’ve also tested three microwaves that can grill and 10 combination microwaves (also called convection microwaves) that can both grill and bake.
Combination microwave ovens may be good in smaller kitchen spaces, such as in studio apartments or caravans. They can also be useful in a full kitchen if you often use more than one oven at a time. A combination microwave oven is more versatile than a benchtop oven, because a benchtop oven cannot microwave.
To find out how these versatile microwaves performed in our tests, visit our microwave ovens test results.
