LG MG-395WA

Last Year when I thought of buying microwave, I asked

my friend I got mixed responses

’’It is very good for reheating’’

’’I feel Oven Toaster Grill OTG is more useful’’

I was confused. Should I buy it or not? I went to the

shops and was even more confused as microwave comes

from 3990 - 30, 000 Rs. I bought LG’s Smart Grill

MG-395WA last year and I am very satisfied with it. Let

me tell you about how I decided to buy this particular

model.

Kind of Microwave:

There are three varieties of microwaves:

Basic Microwave: Only simple cooking, heating and

defrosting. Price Range 3990-14000.

Microwave with Grill: Simple cooking, heating,

defrosting and grilling. It has a heating element at

the top so one can use it for making paneer tikka’s.

Price Range 8, 000 - 32000

Microwave with Convection & Grill: Simple cooking,

heating, defrosting, baking and crisping. Price Rage

10, 000 - 30, 000 Rs.

How may electronic gadgets would you buy after all

space in the kitchen is limited, so I thought the that

why not go for Microwave with Convection and grill.

’’Ek hi aar mei kissa khtam kar dete hai’’.

But my friend told me that cake in microwave oven with

convection is not as good as one baked in Oven Toaster

Grill. My husband who is reluctant to buy anything new

also said, ’’It would be cheaper ad better to buy a

suited for their purposes.’’

With all these considerations in mind I decided to go

for the middle one “buy one with grill’’. And I must

say that I have no regrets.

Programmer Panel:

The other confusing factor about the microwave is its

Program Panel. It is a control panel, which allows one

to control the function of microwave. The main

parameters that one can control in microwave are:

Power Setting: This is similar to gas stove knobs to

increase or decrease flame. In Microwave it is

available in discreet steps( 5 in lower end models and

10-12 in higher end). It increases-decreases the

cooking power of the Microwave.

Note: Microwaves operate at different powers ex: for

some max power output is 750 watts. That is the power

it will give when used at 100% power.

Time: It controls the time for which microwave will be

on. This is one feature that I like most in microwave.

To heat my daughter’s milk I just need to switch the

microwave at 80% power for 20 sec.

Time can be set in discrete intervals. For example

till 3 minutes I can control or set time in intervals

of 10 sec after that it is in interval of 30 sec.

Different microwaves allow different levels of

controls. There is some difference in how much is the

max time, which typically is around 90 minutes. I have

not used microwave continuously for more than 30 mins.

As one goes for higher range there are more

sophisticated parameters like auto cook, defrosting,

combination cooking.

There are two kids of program panels:

Mechanical Controls: It has knobs like the electric

fan. It is better for wear ad tear. It is recommended

if persons other than you, like domestic help would e

using the microwave.

Touch Pad Controls: It looks cool man. To operate one

must touch a particular place or pad. The readings are

precise and accurate as compared to mechanical. But

note that if it fails the one needs to replace the

whole pad, which is costlier than mechanical panel.

I liked mixed knob and touch pad control. As I would

be mostly using it so I thought I can go for it and

paid Rs 1000 more. But no regrets.

The Capacity:

The capacity of microwave ovens defines the size of

the oven and the amount of food hat it can cook at one

time. It depends on the size of family. Bigger the

family, bigger the capacity. The other factor that

affects the choice is usage, whether it would <KIRTI>e

supplement or would <KIRTI>e used for actual cooking.

If you just need to reheat the smaller size is

sufficient. (This is what I saw in the bakeries and

shops, they had around 20 liters for reheating

purposes).

For all cooking, the family size and capacity is given

as follows:

For a family of size less than 4 15-20 litres.

For a family of size less than 6 21-30 litres.

For a family of size more than 6 31-42 litres

As my family is small, taking decision on this aspect

was easy. I choose 19 liters capacity.

Freebies:

I found that the features offered by different brands

were similar. As a woman the freebies offered by the

company is also deciding factor. Till this time I had

narrowed down my choices to LG and Samsung. Both were

giving cookbook, free cooking classes ad microwave

utensils. Samsung was giving borosil utensils while LG

was giving microwave suited plastic utensils (of

Cutting edge).

As the variety of utensils was more in LG, I got idly

stand, two pans with cover, a glass etc I settled for

LG. After a year I felt ’’Yehi thi right choice baby!’’

One of the reasons why I use microwave is because I

have different kids of utensils.

The other thing that helped me in using my microwave

was, the ’’Microwave cooking book’’ by nita Mehta. I

used her recipes and except Khandvi, they came out

well. Though I got recipe book from LG also but my

investment in nita Mehta book turned out to <KIRTI>e

great.

The microwave that I bought was SmartGrill MG-395WA

from LG for Rs 8100: a 19 litres, one touch preset

Indian menu, Combination cooking. I am happy with it

after one year of usage. Only regret is that I have

still not attended the classes and I am not using the

grill effectively.