If you can't turn the turntable off, the dish will clonk against the side of the microwave repeatedly, or it will get a bit jammed in diagonally and won't clonk. Either way, it won't damage the dish or the microwave, although the clonking might be a bit annoying. And of course, the cooking will not be quite as even, but that would be the case if the turntable was off as well.

I have a really small GE microwave, with no 'turntable off' feature - I simply remove the glass dish and the piece underneath that it sits on, to make it turn, if I have a larger dish in there. It works fine.

For us, that feature was a big deciding factor in our microwave purchase.

We went from a "ginormous" dinosaur of a microwave (Panasonic circa 1988) to a teeny one. We don't cook much in it (mostly use it for reheating leftovers, "baking" a potato or two, melting butter or chocolate, that sort of thing), but we still wanted the ability to use a 9 X 13 pyrex baking dish when we needed to. I think we'd be kicking ourselves each time couldn't use it when we needed or wanted to. Since we couldn't have the interior space we had before, we had to at least have a TT off feature on our new microwave.

Hope this helps...

Honestly, the two of them look close enough that you should get the one with the features you want. You will regret getting something "purdy" that doesn't meet your needs.

ditto - they both look nice. Get the one that works the way you want it to. I've never had a micro with a turntable on / off feature. I didn't even know it existed - and I use my micro for cooking a lot! I'll have to check and see if my micro does that - just for fun.

Unless the two of them will be stacked right next to each other like mine are, I think they are close enough in looks to get the one with the features you want.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate them very much.

I am leaning towards keeping the one I already have. I have to think that there will probably only be several times a YEAR that I have a 9 x 13" baking dish full of food that I want to microwave! And in those instances, I guess I will just have to spoon some of the food out into a smaller container. No biggie, really.

I guess I just don't want to go through the hassle of the return and the re-purchase. Plus, I want it here when the cabinet installers come on Wednesday.

But THANK YOU ALL for your posts and (awesome, as always!) advice!

Lynn

My $1,100 built in KitchenAid convection/mw does not have a turntable on/off feature. The instructions show you how to dismantle the turn-table to prevent it from rotating.

Personally, I think it is the dumbest thing I've ever head of not to have this button on the machine.

StirFry, I agree! WHAT A STOOOOPID FEATURE to eliminate!!! It's on the LESS EXPENSIVE model, but not this one. Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!

Oh well... I will just have to compensate when I use a 13 x 9 dish. Every other dish in my kitchen will fit. I know I'll remember, I will just have to educate DH! I can just hear it now... KER-THUNK, KER-THUNK, KER-THUNK... !!!

I have a Maytag microwave that does not have a rotating turntable. Instead mine glides from side to side. Can use 9x13 with no problems and cooks as even as my old turntable did.

I use the on/off feature all the time. Not only for a large dish but if I put multiple things in at the same time. Those two microwaves look so similar I would not opt for the one without the TT on/off feature.