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RCA RMW741 Counterop Microwave Review
Best Low Budget Microwave

Don’t sacrifice quality for money

I’ll get right down to it here – I chose this RCA microwave as our best budget microwave because I truly believe it manages to balance quality and cost effectiveness. A lot of other, easily affordable options don’t give you what you actually need. First of all, most of them are very small. Budget options usually don’t have multiple settings on their digital panels or turn tables inside for even heating. At 0.7 cubic feet, this is a mid-sized microwave. In fact, actual consumers have reported being able to accommodate plates as large as 10 to 11 inches in diameter.

RCA RMW741 0.7 Cubic Foot Stainless Steel Microwave

RCA RMW741 Microwave
See Amazon Prices

One of the most obvious selling features, at first glance, is the beautiful appearance of this microwave. I’m not big on stainless steel – I have too many little sticky fingers in my house that just love to mark it up – but I do understand the attraction for those with cleaner households. The reflective exterior of this unit gives off a shiny, futuristic appearance. It would nicely accent anything from a traditional white kitchen with dark countertops to a more space-agey or loft-inspired design.

The long, cylindrical handle on the front of the microwave makes it easy to open and close. It won’t matter how full your hands are, you can simply push the auto-open button at the bottom, hook a finger (any finger, really) around the handle, and pull the door open with ease.

All The Controls You Need

The soft-touch buttons on the control panel will allow you to select among many different options. This is what really blew me away about this microwave – I couldn’t believe that you could actually get this many options and features for this incredible price. I thought for sure that this must be a poor microwave in terms of its actual function. Turns out, however, that actually consumers are saying it works just as well as most expensive microwaves on the market.

Obviously, you can select a specific amount of cook time by typing in specific numbers. For instance, you can be as specific as to program one minute and 37 seconds of cook time. You can also use these numbers and the special “power level” button to adjust the level of power. This is great if you are trying to defrost something or soften a bun. Full-strength settings would overcook the outside of a frozen item without cooking the inside. A bun, on the other hand, would just become completely overcooked, even if it were only in for 10 to 15 seconds.

Pre-sets for Specific Foods

If you want to make things even easier on yourself, you can use the six pre-set settings at the top of the control panel to cook specific foods. These settings not only select the optimal time for a specific type of food, they also select the correct power level. What’s more, they sometimes cycle among different power levels, selecting the best level for specific stages of the cooking process. You can choose among the following pre-set options: baked potato, popcorn, beverage, pizza, frozen dinner, and re-heat.

Defrost and Weight Settings>/h2>

Take all the math and confusion out of the cooking or defrosting process by utilizing this unit’s two most special settings – cook by weight and defrost by weight. By selecting either of these options, you can ensure that your food will be treated appropriately according to its weight. Back in the days of conventional ovens, we had to calculate the length of time something needed to be cooked based on two things – its weight and the type of food it was. Since a microwave works a little differently than a traditional oven, the type of food isn’t really all that important. The weight, however, remains an important part of the delicate mathematical equation used to define the perfect cooking time and temperature level.

The same can be said about defrosting. How long something will take to defrost will also depend upon its weight. Since the maximum size of what can fit inside this microwave is defined by the microwave’s size, the density of the food is also determined by the weight. Oh, but I am getting too technical here. Let me just note that all these things I am saying right now aren’t important since you can simply type in the weight of your food (be it a slab of beef or chicken breasts) and sit back while this RCA microwave does the rest.

You get a lot for your money with this microwave. Just check it out on Amazon, and be amazed by everything you get for so little money.

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