Sharp R-953M

Our family purchased two Sharp R-953M microwave ovens on 16/07/03 (one for our meat eaters plus one for our vegans) for £178.97 each from Curry's, plus £49.00 insurance cover (3 years, including first year). Their sales assistant assured us that one insurance policy would cover both machines as no-one kept check of serial numbers!

Both machines have done everything which they were designed to do (namely every form of cooking) and their 1.4 cubic feet of space and output power ranging from 900W for the microwave to 1400 watts for both grill and convection heaters, have proved to be more than adequate. They are so effective that we never have needed to use our conventional oven.

About two months ago the digital read outs on the main machine became faulty. I telephoned Curry's; they passed my message onto 'Mastercare' (the repair company); the engineer came out quickly; inspected the faulty machine; ordered a new full computer panel; and returned a few days later to fit it free under the extended warranty. I guess that everything took 7-10 days, and we were satisfied as the machine has consequently operated faultlessly.

As a casual Cook I preferred Sharp's earlier similar model with which I could simply press 'Bake,' '20 minutes,'and 'Go'in order to bake a couple of potatoes. This new model does a lot of the thinking for the Cook if you programme in either the number of potatoes or their weight! I prefer to think for myself and be able to operate a machine without two or three hours of instruction manual study, or two or more years of experimenting and failing to get the machine to work most of the time, simply because I programmed the instructions in an incorrect sequence.

Two and a half years later I have been able to get this model to do the things which I want, but in fairness, I have been successful for about the last six months.

My wife (our family's main cook) absolutely loves this model, but would never admit (not even to me) that it took her about a year to familiarise herself with it; but I remember her struggles and curses!

No, we are not thickies (we are both professionals if that means anything) - simply very busy people who are easily daunted by a substantial instruction manual for a machine undertaking simple tasks.

But, this model DOES come with what looks like an impressive instruction manual and a useful cook book.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this model to a professional cook; or a serious domestic cook; or to someone with time on their hands (in retrospect - time saved in the long term).

It is computerised engineering brilliance, but sadly reflective of an age where largely unnecessary technology is foisted onto a bemused populous who, on the whole, prefer to keep things simple.