Best Microwave Oven in India 2018
There is no one-size-fits-all microwave oven, but after 40 hours of research and comparison, we’ve reached a conclusion that IFB microwaves come very close to being the best microwave oven in India.
Our top pick, the <BMI>, provides all the features you’d want in a microwave oven.
The Best Microwave in India for Most People
The IFB bags the honor for the best microwave for most people.
It provides best in class performance, a user friendly interface and a great value for money.
First of all, its cooking performance is simple and excellent: it can easily reheat snacks and pastries, bake a potato, and warm up drinks and beverages to decent heat all with a single touch of a button.
Its sensor system works well, thus eliminating any chances of overheating, overcooking and cold spots. Moreover, it does many different tasks better than its rivals. And, most importantly, it scores in the user interface department: with an easy to use keypad and other intuitive controls, you’re going to have an easy time using this oven.
This is an important point to consider mainly because many microwave ovens in India come with complex user interfaces that make using them a not so easy affair.
Unlike with other microwave ovens in India, you don’t even need to press start. It has an automatic start function. The 1, 10 number pad buttons help you set the desired cooking time with a single push: it’s a brilliant widget that often gets used more than any other.
This IFB model is priced well.
How We Shortlisted the Best Microwave Oven
We went through several buying guides, microwave reviews and ratings from tech magazines, and pored over hundreds of reviews on many retail sites. Applying what we learned in this process left us with a list of less than 10 popular microwaves in India.
Then we spent a little more than 10 hours speaking with managers at showrooms like croma, and asking their staff for feedback on what they thought were the top microwave ovens to buy. The result was a bunch of microwave ovens made by IFB and Morphy Richards.
The most surprising thing to come out of our research was the fact that among the tens of microwaves for sale in India, many have almost the same hardware. In fact, they’re impossible to tell apart, except for different logos and keypads.
Upon further research, we learned that almost 50% of the microwave ovens in the world are made by one maker in China. Having said that, we also figured that though the hardware may look identical, the software, functions and capabilities can make a huge difference in terms of performance.
That, in short, is exactly why we decided to review just IFB and Morphy Richards microwaves this time, even though there are some good microwave ovens from other brands in India.
These brands have shown themselves to make the best microwave ovens with a powerful combination of software and hardware. Over the years, they’ve rolled out many models that just outperformed the competition.
From a survey we identified what buyers look for in a microwave oven, and we found that most Indian people wanted a unit that costs anywhere between ₹7000 to ₹9000, with a durable stainless steel casing and a user-friendly mechanism.
Microwave oven reviews and many conversations online made us realize that Indian people needed a budget pick-something under ₹6000- and, if possible, a tiny one at that. Luckily, the cheaper the oven, the tinier it is. We also learnt that microwave ovens with cooking power lower than say 1000 watts are generally not quicker in operation and do not fare well in terms of cooking consistency.
That being said, just because a microwave oven has more cooking power (higher wattage) doesn’t actually mean that it will have better cooking consistency or cook your food the fastest. To a large extent, cooking power and cooking consistency depend on how efficiently the device is programmed and how they are offered to the customers.
The IFB 20sc2 is our pick for the best microwave oven in India. Reasons? It can do many different things from baking potatoes to reheating soup- with the touch of one of its programmed buttons. Moreover, it lets you set power levels and cooking times with the push of a button or two- now that’s impressive.
But the best part is, it does all these tasks to good effect, many of them impressively, all thanks to a solid combination of well-constructed hardware and intelligently-programmed software. However, where this best oven-like most IFB microwaves- stands out is in its fairly easy, user-friendly operation. How usable is it? Most microwave oven reviews in India point out that they have never had to look at consulting the manual for operating instructions.
Let’s start with its user-friendly operation. Going by the simple, menu-based user interfaces of our smart phones and tablets, IFB microwave ovens are definitely in the dumb category.
They’re not really smart enough to match your smartphones and tablets but make no mistake they get the job done.
For instance, the keypad is kept extremely busy, using several cooking-specific buttons such as Beverage, Stuffed Veg, Tandoori Dhaba, and Dessert as well as the number buttons that let you set/add to your cooking times in increments of 1,10 minutes and seconds. The unit more of less tells you how to work it out. One push of a button gets you well baked potatoes, another, precisely popped corn. As a result, the IFB 20sc2 is extremely easy to use out of the box.
The manner in which you input the cooking time is a typical example. Some microwave oven brands make you press the time to cook button and then manually type “2:30,” or whatever duration you need it to run. Other brands make you input cooking times in an incremental fashion by continually pressing an up arrow button. Many also need you to then press a Start button to boot. This might not seem to be too much of an effort in the beginning, but it does eventually become an annoying thing to do. Imagine pressing two buttons and getting done with it- that’s the kind of convenience this IFB microwave oven brings to you.
The IFB provides a more consistent heating pattern than most microwave ovens. Not only does it give focused heating in the center of the turntable, it also delivered enough heat to the outer boundaries, indicating good consistent heating pattern on its periphery. Its baking performance is more than satisfactory and its defrosting function is not too bad either. For best results, naturally unfreeze paneer or meat or whatever you want to defrost, before taking it to the microwave.
At 1200 watts, the IFB packs in a punch for its size. With counter depth being at a premium in most Indian kitchens, the body design of this microwave oven could be a real boon.
It has a rather small footprint at approximately 10.3 inches high by 17.8 inches wide by 15.4 inches deep, and also goes for a handsome price. The turntable is almost 10 inches across, and the cavity is roughly 12.5 inches wide and deep, so you can reheat a big 12 by 12 inch pan of pizza in it.
And you can also heat a bowl of soup or a mug of coffee, and enjoy it within a matter of minutes. Now that’s clearly a quality of a top rated microwave oven.
Best Value for Money Pick
You get a great value for your money with the stainless steel IFB 30SC4 with LED display. In addition to a grill and an oven that rivals some of the best ovens in India for performance and speed, you get a convection and a microwave combination as well as steam clean, speed defrost and multi stage cooking capabilities. As with many ISB microwave ovens, this model comes with a dedicated child safety lock as well as overheating and sensor malfunction protection.
