Breville BMO850BSS1BUC1 Smooth Wave Countertop Microwave Oven, Brushed Stainless Steel

A lovely, quiet microwave
Three years later, I’m still very happy with this microwave. I live in an apt bldg with flimsy floors, and the microwave that was already installed in the kitchen had an incredibly loud exhaust fan, a loud beep and no mute button. The Breville is as quiet as a microwave can be. The fan tends to keep running after you’re done nuking, but I think that’s part of its quietness – the fan runs longer so it doesn’t have to blow as hard.I remember reading reviews that said the door auto-close function may not last – mine lasted for about 2 years. It’s not a big deal having to give the door a little shove to close it the rest of the way, and it still closes very quietly.This microwave has lots of functions for smarter cooking but I’m not using any so can’t comment. Cooking times are about the same as with other microwaves – instructions on packages tend to be spot-on. I do think the Breville does a better job of heating food evenly than I remember with my last microwave.

Nice piece of equipment
Great microwave, works as it should, looks good, relatively quiet and fast. We’ve had it for about a year now, and it seems solid as a rock. The door closes nearly silently once you find the trick. We haven’t used most of the complicated menu functions, and don’t care about them. The overall impression is very high build quality. Hopefully, I’m right about that.

HIGH VISIBILITY, permanent silent mode, analog controls are fantastic
1. FANTASTIC VISIBILITY WHILE COOKING:You can watch the progress of the brightly-illuminated contents through the window. This is the #1 most important feature that I was looking for, especially after limping along for a couple of years with a model that provided zero visibility. It’s hard to shop for microwaves with this feature. I don’t know why. Ads for products don’t mention it, customer reviews don’t mention it, and when I asked the question, people launched into explanations about how microwaves require a protective mesh that cuts down on visibility, or gave non-answers like “I think so but I’m not sure.” You’re not sure? You looked through the window, but you’re not sure whether you could see your soup bubbling up and flowing over the edge of the mug? Doesn’t anyone else want to catch their cup of tea or bowl of soup before it spills over? No? Just me? OK.Well, for those of you who don’t like cleaning up spilled liquids every other day, I’m providing details about visibility. The light inside the machine is very bright, remains lit during the entire cooking operation, and is placed between you and the cooking material so that you can see when the first bubble arises in the liquid or when the butter or chocolate first begins to slump in the melting process. The interior is shiny silver metal, which helps to light up the cooking item even more. The protective mesh is not so thick and dense that it prevents you from seeing these events, as it was in the microwave that this one will replace.There are some caveats to visibility, though. I found that where I placed the machine made a difference to how well I could see inside. I wanted to place my machine on a shelf just level with my eyes, with a bright window behind it, and with a wall-length mirror behind ME. The problem with this setup is that no matter where I stand, my brightly-lit face is reflected in the smooth glass. Meanwhile, the mirror behind me reflects the light from the window behind the machine. However, when I first unboxed the machine, I set it up to test it in a darker place with no backlighting from either direction, on a shelf at waist-height. In this configuration, I could see everything perfectly. I should mention that placement and room lighting did NOT matter to my old microwave that didn’t permit visual monitoring of the food; no matter how dark the room, I couldn’t see inside it, even though it is equipped with a bright light. In that case, the mesh on the window was the problem (though I can’t explain what is different about it).2. SILENCEYou can turn off all the sounds this oven makes. Most microwaves make loud, rude BEEEEEPs for every keypress and then give a long, drawn-out series of beeps to tell you cooking is done. Then if you don’t attend to the oven promptly enough, you get the whole series of beeps again until you comply. Since I stand in front of the microwave to do my operations, most of which are 30 seconds or less long, I don’t need to be reminded to remove the contents. Normally I just need silence, no alerts or nagging necessary. Turning off the sounds is easy and quick–no reading of the manual for codes or sneaky techniques necessary. Press mute and you are done.And these are quiet chimes, not loud beeps. The ending notification is just a single chime, not a long plaintive series trying to call in you in from the moors. If you prefer to have audible notifications, at least they are more pleasant and less alarming, and you can’t hear them several rooms away.SOFT-CLOSE DOOR3. This is a great feature. I don’t cook in the middle of the night when others could be disturbed, so the noise of doors opening and closing isn’t an issue in my house. But as I mentioned, most of my experiments are with liquids in little shotglasses. I need the liquids to not be sloshed out of the glass due to door slamming; the magnetic self-closing door closes softly and without causing eruptions. I was leery of the pull-handle, which is what my old microwave had, because opening the door also caused sloshing. But this one opens easily enough that this doesn’t happen, so I’m happy with it.4. ANALOG CONTROLSIn other words, dials, not number key pads. The default time is set to 30 seconds. A quick twist to the left/counterclockwise reduces the time, to the right increase the time. You don’t have to hunt for the right number keys and press them individually. And the dial is instantly responsive just like a real analog dial or a steering wheel on a car, even though the time is selected digitally. (This is as opposed to my LG washing machine, which also has a fake analog dial, but incongruently requires several full twists of the dial to move the selection.) It’s so much faster to use a dial for this operation that I’m shocked that keypads have been the standard for so many decades. Sometimes analog is just better, even if it *looks* less high-tech and futuristic. The power dial works similarly; the default power is 100%, which a quick nudge counterclockwise reduces in increments of 10. The screen shows the typical use for each power level, like reheat and melt, which is handy.Since my work day consists of many microwave blasts of 5-8 seconds at a time, I was worried that the time control would not be fine enough for my purposes. But it is. You can run the oven for 1 second if that’s what you need. Primo!I haven’t done enough experimenting with the pre-programmed buttons to say anything about them, and I haven’t set up a custom program. It looks to me like I can only program a single custom program, which is a little disappointing, since I have about 5 primary types of runs that I’d like to have on speed dial, but I’m not sure about that yet. I might also be able to use the presets for my purposes once I become familiar with them. I’ll try to remember to check back in here with an update.For now, I’m extremely happy with this machine. It’s what all microwaves should be.

I have had it for a week and am very pleased. Great for exact defrost and cooking – not to much heat, not too little. Lots of smart features. Bright and sparkling and easy to keep clean.Only minor improvement to recommend is to back light the clock for use in the dark.

I ordered a new microwave on January 21 and it arrived on January 22. This is a remanufactured microwave with a 6 month warranty. It is used not new. The description (and price $479) is of a new machine with a 1 year warranty. I could not get an exchange for a new item, I could only return it to a post office.