Just a quick response first:
VERY IMPORTANT!
VERY IMPORTANT!
DO NOT OPERATE your microwave with the door open. Danger!
Contact manufactuer about the problem,they may have to possibly recall the product!

dcarch

I don't have any advice Bobby, but I'm anxious to hear how you like yours when you've had it a while. I've been looking at that same microwave. Mine hasn't died yet, but I want one with convection when I get a new one I think. My parents had one from years ago, back when they first came out. My stepmom didn't cook much though & didn't use the convection part more than a few times, & it was a huge thing that would use fairly large dishes. She only used metal or the ovenproof glass bakeware in it when she did use it.
I'll be on the lookout for a new stove before long too, so I may end up with a convection oven combo on the stove instead. It rather bothers me that there are so few microwave/convection combos, I've been wondering if there is a problem with them.

so I lost 4 appliances in one!

Look at the bright side, you will gain a timer with the new one. ;)

I have a Kitchenaid micro/convection and LOVE it! I hope you get as much use out of yours that I do with mine.

I use both glass and metal when using the convection function. I've frequently use it to make scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casseroles, frozen pizzas, and chicken fingers for DS.

When convection baking, reduce the temp by about 25 degrees of the stated recipe temperature (eg. for 350, convect at 325).

I'm not sure how it would fare for baking breads/cookies. I haven't tried that yet.

ngraham.... do NOT buy this appliance. Mine is going back to Lowe's as soon as I calm down enough to throw it back in the box. I was trying to heat up some breaded fish fillets on the convection setting when all of a sudden, the oven just turned off completely. I've had it unplugged for 30 minutes and it will not turn back on... not the light or the display or anything. I called GE to see if this was normal. The lady who answered after demanding way too much personal information (everything but my social security number) then told me that I should go online to GE.com and try to diagnose my own problem because if she had to send a technician out I would have to pay for parts and labor (the warranty doesn't cover parts and labor)! I told her I would return it to the store and never buy another GE product again, she told me to have a nice day.

Panasonic here I come, never mind about the convection questions!

the warranty doesn't cover parts and labor

So... what exactly does the warranty cover if not at least one of those two?

Silly question - did you confirm you didn't trip a circuit breaker or GFCI?

I have a Sharp Carousel II convection microwave that I bought probably in the late 1980's and it's still working fine. I use it instead of a regular oven. It won't take a 9x13 pan but other than that, I don't have any complaints. I use the convection for muffins, biscuits, cookies, pizza. I use the combination convection w/ microwaves for casseroles and cakes. Mine came with detailed instructions on how to convert recipes and directions from food packages.

I agree on the breaker..a little more power just may do that.

I would also think it was the breaker, but I plugged my vacuum sealer in to the same outlet and it worked fine... none of the switches in the breaker box were tripped. If it were that, the vacuum sealer shouldn't have turned on, right?

Lowes gave me the money back with no problem and I got the Panasonic... but I'm not happy. I was looking forward to having the convection, and the GE's control panel was a lot more intuitive. Plus, the Panasonic is just way too deep, it barely fits in the space! Maybe I should have done an exchange instead, but I've also read about the GE units catching fire.... maybe I should have gone to Sears too and seen if they had a Sharp. I only looked at Wal-mart, K-mart, Target, Lowe's, and Best Buy...

Forgot to include bread as one of the things I bake in my Sharp. I use the combination convection and microwaves.. it reduces the time somewhat, and the bread turns out great. I think the microwave in mine is only 700 watts, but the newer ones are probably more powerful. I'm used to mine though so it suits me just fine.

Microwave is only good for heating up water for tea or coffee. It canÂt bake, boil, roast, fry, steam, brown, --------. It canÂt even heat up TV dinners very well.

Convection oven, on the other hand, Does an incredible job of roasting, baking, heating things up, etc. convection oven can brown things very uniformly, top, bottom and sides. A regular oven can have hot and cold spots inside, no matter what brand it is. Convection oven cooks at a low temperature and faster than a regular oven.

A convection oven is much more expensive than a microwave oven.

Do read you microwave manual carefully, boiling water can explode in a microwave. Google "super heated water".

dcarch

I have found that with my Sharp, the convection by itself is not any faster than with a regular oven. Pizza, biscuits, etc. take the same amount of time. What saves time is using the combination convection/microwave feature because the microwaves help to speed up the cooking, but you still get the benefits of baking with heat. I only use the microwave only setting for heating water, cooking rice in the bag, heating leftovers, things like that.

I'm so sorry the microwave didn't work out for you Bobby, I was hoping for better from it. I may end up getting a convection in a new stove, which is acting up. Not ready for replacement yet, but I want to know what I want before it decides to completely go out on me. Hope your Panasonic works well for you. The first microwave I had was a Panasonic that lasted forever. The 2 microwaves I've had since that one have only lasted a very few years each. This one gets a strange rattle sometimes & is less than 4 years old.

Just looked at the sticker on my Panasonic - manufactured August 1984. It's a bit slower than it could be, but overall works just fine.

Another thing great about convection oven:

You can use it like a dehydrator to make dried fruits, herbs, tomatoes, etc.

dcarch

I have had the GE Profile Over The Range Micro/Convection/Speed Cooking oven for about 3 years and I love it. Be very careful to cover well any items you put in it, because you are limited in what you can use to clean it, and I think they even warn you about scrubbing the inside too hard, because you don't want to scratch the shiny silver coating inside the oven. Mine came with a good sized book with recipes and a laminated "cheat sheet" you can keep nearby until you are comfortable with the controls. I found it especially helpful in the summer to cook items without heating up the large oven and the house. Breads come out nicely evenly browned in a convection, but I personally find them drier than in a regular oven. The think the constant air movement does that, although I havent' tried it much and maybe just reducing the cook time would improve the results. This oven convinced me to get convection in my new range when I redid the kitchen about a year later. I can't remember if it was the convection or speed cooking option, but for this oven, one advises you to decrease the usual cooking time by 20%. I think there is also a recipe conversion on my large oven that decreases the temperature of the oven for convection cooking instead of decreasing the cooking time. Anyway, that didn't make any sense to me, since given the choice I would prefer to decrease the cooking time than the temperature. You could try both and see what you like better. One may work better for some items and the other for other items. I know when I did a turkey in the full size convection it was the most beautifully browned bird I had ever made and cooked in much less time. Obviously the time savings would be much more noticeable with a longer cooking recipe. Decrease a 30 minute recipe by 20% and you only save 6 minutes, Decrease a 4 1/2 hour recipe (for a 20lb turkey) by 20% and you save an hour! I bet a roasted chicken would be wonderful in that oven on convection, but I am too chicken (no pun intended) to try it because of the baked on grease I would have to figure out how to clean off. I think I eventually got the grease film off mine by accident after I had baked a moist item in it for 30 minutes or more and found it had loosened up the grease enough to wipe it off. Before that, microwaving cups of water or vinegar and water, and using soap and water had not budged it. It really needs a self clean feature.

Sue

I have both a convection microwave (KitchenAid) and a convection oven in my range (KitchenAid).

Though the convection microwave is handy, it can't compare to a "real" convection oven. It is more like a glorified toaster oven. It is good for cooking frozen snacks for the kids -- it's a small oven so it pre-heats very quickly.

I would never roast any kind of meat in it for the reason sue_ct stated -- it is a bear to clean when it gets dirty. I even resorted to using an SOS pad on the interior (shiny fake stainless) and scratched it all up.

Another limitation is it size. My convection oven in my range makes the most perfect cookies -- obviously I cannot make them in my convect-microwave because a cookie sheet would not fit.

Lastly, most the microwave portion of most convection/microwaves are under-powered. Mine is only 900 watts. DH claims the $100 microwave at work does a better job at popping popcorn.

Just wanted to update... I bought another GE Convection hoping that the first one was just a lemon. I really liked the GE. I wasn't happy with the Panasonic at all... it was just too large and the buttons weren't as easy to use as on the GE. The GE is being discontinued, so I got the floor model with a 70 dollar discount and the same warranty (not that it matters!) as a new one. We'll see how it goes!

I've never found my convection oven to be very useful for most of the type of cooking I do. I hope you will like yours.

I was going to tell you not to buy another GE but I see it's too late so maybe yours will be good. I've had several GE and GE Profile appliances in the past twenty or so years and have not liked any of them very well. I recently bought a condo where the refrigerator was a top of the line GE Profile. It's less than three years old and went out on me this week. It's going to be very expensive to repair. I hope you have better luck.

Beverly