EM131A5C-BS Countertop Microwave Ovens 1.2 Cu Ft, 12.4" Removable Turntable Smart Humidity Sensor 12 Auto Menus Mute Function ECO Mode Easy Clean Interior Black Color 1000W

I bought this because water-damage in a ceiling all but wrecked my kitchen. Result — domestic damage and upheaval, dealing with insurance company (God give me patience!!) etc... I needed a temporary microwave (the old one was built in) that was powerful and NOT bulky-looking to sit on a counter UNDERNEATH the cupboards. I use a microwave for three things: RE-HEATNG COOKED FOOD, DE-FROSTING FROZEN MEATS (and ICE-CREAM), and COOKING/STEAMING VEGETABLES (the latter in a pinch or when I’m in a hurry). I purchased it when I read the “Wirecutter” review. After months of consistent use, I’m VERY PLEASED with this particular Toshiba microwave. I can’t speak to cooking things in it for I never cook in it, except for the occasional steamed vegetable. Here’s my observations:- 1. It de-frosts well and efficiently — BUT you MUST (SIMPLY MUST!) gauge the weight of the item accurately to avoid frozen areas on the meat or fish. Better yet, defrost it overnight. I forget sometimes and this gets the product down to room temperature in roughly the allotted time. **It’s TERRIFIC for greedy ice-cream lovers like me who can’t or won’t wait for their favourite dessert to get to room temperature. Take the rock-hard carton from the freezer, set the Defrost Cycle to the minimum of 2 minutes and presto!! — ideal ice-cream consistency minus the wait! I’ll confess to doing this waaay too often during the last few months... 2. Vegetables cook quickly when a little water is added. I can’t speak for all vegetables as I’ve only parboiled Potatoes, steamed Snap Peas and cooked Broccoli in it, but all of them cooked through well. I’m normally one of those manual nerds who actually DOES read the product manual but in this case I didn’t bother. Go by your common-sense and you’ll be fine! 3. This microwave reheats cooked food ADEQUATELY. It’s better for boiling water for a quick cup of coffee rather than filling and waiting for the Russell Hobbs kettle to heat up, I’ll say that! Larger portions of reheated food had some cold spots but one-serving amounts heated more thoroughly. (Don’t forget to put a microwave-proof cover over the food to minimize clean-up). And talking about cleaning, this microwave is a snap to clean and KEEP clean. The old trick of boiling a large bowl of water for 5 minutes into which you have added some lemon juice or white vinegar — with a few drops of vanilla essence added — works like a charm. Let the bowl steam up the microwave for about 10 minutes, get any crusty bits off with a cellulose sponge and wipe the microwave down with a clean microfiber cloth. It will look good and SMELL GOOD, too. This was a good buy all round. The all-black, Darth Vader-ish look of the microwave is sleek and high-end looking. It’s spacious inside, enough to hold a 9x12 dish. You shan’t regret buying this microwave, rest assured of that. ~ Thank you for taking the time to read this review. I do hope you’ve found it of some use.

My first microwave (MW) was an Amana Radarange with powershift and touch panel. I bought it in 1974 and it ran for 30 years. My second MW was a top-rated Sears Kenmore which ran for 17 years, until the light burned out. Turns out you can't just replace a bulb. You have to take the whole thing apart and use a special bulb with an attached bracket. I tried to keep using it, but you really need to see what's going on inside. It was a good run anyway. My third MW was a "top-rated" Panasonic. It ran for 6 months until its light burned out. Same bulb issue. Then, a bit more than 2 months ago, I bought this one, also "top-rated" according to several reviews. Right out of the box, the first issue was an insensitive touch panel. If you're accustomed to going tap-tap-tap-start, with this one, you must go taaaap-taaaap-taaaap-start. And yes, I removed the protective covering. The second problem started when I tried the beeper mute function. Turns out, it also mutes the timer beeps, so I turned the mute off. The cooking beeps returned, but the timer beeps did not. So now I have a MW oven with a useless, silent timer. On a hunch, I tried turning mute on again, then off. The timer beeps worked one time, then silent again from then on. And guess what, this one has that same kind of light bulb. I'm not sure how to characterize the latest issue. Two or three times a week, I'll set it up as usual, but when I hit 'Start," the screen goes blank, no cooking happens, and I get a continuous beep tone that lasts a good 30 seconds. Now the clock will have been reset to zeroes. I don't know what I'm doing to make this happen, if anything. What this is telling me, however, is this oven is probably not long for this world. Finally, this MW has a feature that I have found to be more of a hassle than useful. My muscle memory is enter cook time, enter power level, hit start. With this one, if you start with any number from 1 to 6, you automatically get that many full minutes at 100% power. After two months, I'm still trying to get used to that. It would be nice if that feature could be "muted." On the plus side, this Toshiba is, by far, the quietest MW oven I've used. While it's cooking, I can still hear the TV in the next room. Not long ago, Japanese products set the world standard for quality, design and especially, reliability. It turns out this Toshiba microwave was actually made in China, Apparently, they too, have just become another Chinese emporium. UPDATE September, 2023: The latest failure is the power level. it no longer delivers the 100% power level. No matter how I set it or what I dial in, the most I can get is 80%. I can hear it modulating and the display indicates 80%, even after dialing in 10. Still no tones with the timer, and I have completely given up on setting the clock. At least the light is still working, but I just cannot give it more than one star now. Sorry Toshiba, but the one I got is a complete failure.

Heats food evenly and the size is perfect for a small kitchen, but the buttons feel a bit basic and it’s slightly noisy. Overall, it works fine for daily use, just not as premium as expected for the price.

Reasonable size. Good controls. Easy to use door. Wish I could just set time to zero instead of a separate timer. I used my old microwave for timing and could set it for multiple periods, and then prepare the food to cook. But this one has a separate kitchen timer mode that only allows a single period and returns to time of day if I don’t start the timer soon enough.

I've had it for 9 days. When I first set it up and plugged it in, when I opened the door, the interior light flickered a lot, and finally stopped flickering. Set the clock while reading through the instructions. finally put a mixing cut in to boil some water pressed "5" for 5 minute cook, interior like came on, plate started rotating, machine started humming, for about a half second, then everything went black. Open door and no light in interior. no buttons worked. The microwave is dead. Checked the power, it's OK. unplugged it and re-plugged it, dead. Finally had to have it unplugged for 2 minutes and re-plugged it in, it came back alive. It work ok and boiled the water fine. Over the next 9 days, occasionally when I opened the door the interior light would flicker a moment then come on but no acting dead. finally on the 9 day, it went back to dying again. Having to unplug it for 2 minutes for it to come back alive to just die again. Over and over again. This microwave is crap and this is my 2nd one. (My First one arrived with a big dent on one side done by a forklift? Big tear in the box too. The microwave arrived inside a amazon shipping box with no tear, so it happened at the amazon warehouse before shipping.)

Didn't last very long - about 5 years with issues starting in year 3. Originally the issues started when it wouldn't stop when we'd open the door. As the issues progressed, we're now at the point where it doesn't even turn on when you hit "start" and only turns on when you have the door open. This bugginess started to happen in about year 3. We've been unplugging it from the wall to stop getting a radioactive arm whilst pulling our tea out. It's really powerful and is a great microwave when it was at the start of its life.

I love this microwave...that is, until now. Purchased in Dec. 2017 so it's not quite 2 1/2 yrs old. It's always been easy to use. 1100 watts is more than enough for my uses. Love the defrost features & Love the black stainless. However, in the last month or so I've noticed some weird malfunctions happening. I guess maybe I sometimes press the buttons too fast, which has caused the unit to just stop. Display goes out...everything stops. Have to unplug & plug in again & I guess the machine resets. Last week, I set the unit for 30 sec. When it beeped, I opened the door to remove the cup of tea & it started up again, turntable spinning and all...WITH THE DOOR OPEN! I closed the door & reopened it...machine started up again!! So I unplugged it..waited a few minutes & plugged it back in. Problem solved. Today, I used it again to warm up some tea. After the beeping stopped, I opened the door, and again, the unit went on, turntable spinning around again! I don't think a running microwave with the door open is a very safe thing (ya think?). So one last time, I unplugged the unit, waited & plugged it in again. Problem still exists. A running microwave with an open door. So it runs, stops at the appropriate time, (30 sec., 1 min, etc.) But starts up again when I open the door. NOT GOOD! I think the machine should have lasted much longer than 2 1/2 yrs! I would love to reorder it, but am afraid to do so for obvious reasons. NEVER HEARD OF THIS HAPPENING BEFORE!! Will see if Toshiba has an upgraded model. Just be on the look-out, 'cause it's very dangerous to be exposed to microwaves!! UPDATE: Microwave was not actually working when the door was open. Only the turntable spun. So that's good. It's now April 2021 and it finally just stopped working. Call me stupid, but I bought another unit. (2nd in 3+ years) I'm hoping that perhaps the first one was a lemon. The Electrical was malfunctioning constantly. Like others' complaints, the Power would change to 8 when in regular mode all by itself; the turntable spun around when the door was open. Then it worked one day & not the next - one hour...not the next. It finally died. But prior to all those troubles, I loved the microwave. It worked well for 2 years & I loved it's features. This new one has the "beep" silencing feature, which i great! Now, I, for one believe a microwave isn't a "throw away" item. It should definitely last more than 3 years. This unit seems to be more cheaply made than the last. The sound the doors makes when opening & closing is like a cheaper model car...sounds tinny. But I can say that in the last 24 hours, it's worked perfectly. That's not saying much! Will update a 3rd time when & if problems arise. And if they do, rest assured, Toshiba will be hearing from me & will have lost another customer. Fingers crossed!!

The first order in April 2024 lasted a month before it stopped working and was replaced for free. The replacement lasted 20 months and stopped working. Light comes on, timer counts down, but carousel doesn't spin and heating doesn't kick in. Great features, but overall didn't last. I guess for a little over $100 you can consider it disposable, but the inconvenience is aggravating.

I was going through my past orders and didn't realize I hadn't reviewed this yet, which is crazy because I feel like evangelizing about it, I love it that much. I've had this oven for 3 years now, and I couldn't possibly be happier with it. It functions well, it's really easy to use and clean, and best of all NO BEEPING. The silent operation of this oven is its best feature and the primary reason I ordered it. I know most people are probably happy to operate it with the beeping sounds, but if having the option to silence all beeping sounds is as essential to you as it was to me then this is your oven. Once in awhile when the power goes out I'll have to reset the silent mode when I reset the clock, but other than that I never hear any beeping from it whatsoever. Not when the buttons are pressed, not when the cooking cycle is done. I've seen some reviews saying it's loud when cooking, but it's no louder than any other microwave - I don't know what these people are talking about. All microwaves make some noise when cooking.

Hace su función muy bien, no es smart no tiene WiFi. Es un horno y es de lo mejor en su clase.

Estoy muy satisfecho con este microondas. Funciona de maravilla y es fácil de usar. Se lo recomiendo a cualquiera que busque un microondas sencillo y funcional.

We searched endlessly for a new microwave for our new home and happened to come across a Wirecutter article (do a web search for it) where they took some of the most popular microwaves and put them through a ton of tests. The Toshiba models were at the top of the list for even cooking (use potatoes for testing), best popcorn performance with the least amount of kernels left at the end, good defrost performance, intuitive easy to use controls and their one year warranty you supposedly don't send the unit back, rather you provide them with a receipt and they issue you a refund cheque which is much appreciated. So far we love the unit as it's easy for our kids to use as it has that basic 1980's style control layout not one of these new ones that tries to be some science fiction 2120 food preparation units. Popcorn bags come out perfect and reheating food is nice and even. First Toshiba microwave I've ever owned and I don't know I'll ever go back to Panasonic after this. Update April 2024: The unit has now died. It did a bag of microwave popcorn, then another family went to use it and the interior light was going on and off like it was shorting out and the screen was doing the same. Unplugged, plugged back in but same issue. At this point it's faulty and no idea where to begin to try and repair it so off to electronic recycling it goes. Managed to get 4.5 years out of it but not super impressed.

This microwave has served us well! It heated our food relatively evenly and quickly than our previous microwaves we've owned. But after 5 years, 9 months, and 10 days, it started running by itself when the door is closed without starting it and it won't stop until you open the door. Unplugging it seemed to fix the issue. However, after just a week, it stopped heating food completely at any power setting. After reading about using a microwave at full power all the time for the size of our family, it would only last 4-5 years instead of the expected 10 years. In this case, I guess it has reached the end of it's life. As far as design goes, I wish the plug was flat and angled so that it isn't sticking out of the wall and cable management would be neater. It's a little bit hard to clean the corners because the inside isn't seamless and food sometimes can get stuck in between the seams. Gently getting those out with a brush seems to work for us. Getting the glass tray back on top of the ring with wheels is a guessing game turning it just right until it falls into place on the small spinning mechanism in the middle. The new microwave we got (also a Toshiba) seems to have fixed this issue with a built in spinning platform which removes the guess work to some degree. Overall, this microwave worked really well for us, until it didn't. But such is expected I guess for the way we used it.