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I should have listened to my wife.

I'm about to arrange to take my third Monday afternoon in a row off from work so I can be here for GE's service technician. He's repairing my microwave, which is less than 6 weeks old.

Here's what happened.

Week 1, I call the service center, describe the problem I'm having (power cuts off after a few seconds) and the rep says "it's probably an inverter board," and schedules a repair call.

Week 2, The technician arrives, diagnoses the problem and says it's an inverter board. He orders the part.

Week 3,The part has arrived, the repair guy comes to install it, but it's the wrong part. He has to order the right part, I have to take a third day off from work to be available, and we have to go another week without a microwave.

Wouldn't the RIGHT thing for GE to have done is replace the microwave? Just ship us a new one, and have us ship the old one back? Or have the repair guy make the swap?

That would be showing GE cares about their customer's time, they're concerned if they waste time because of their error, and keeping customers satisfied is its top priority. Instead, GE parrots back the warranty (we only have to repair the appliance, not replace it) and disregards what this experience has meant to its customer and his perception of their company.

E. J. Tastad's review of this product is accurate and appropriate, but I would like to add some additional information. I bought this GE Profile microwave oven about two years ago on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports give this GE model their top rating for large microwave ovens. It replaced an old Amana RadarRange that I had used for about 25 years before it burst into flames. The Amana had also received Consumer Reports top rating back then. If I recall, my Amana sold for about twice as much money (in 1981 dollars) as this GE costs in 2008 dollars.

Since this microwave oven is more powerful, faster and consumes more electricity than small models, you may need to have a dedicated 20 ampere outlet available for its use. Compared with my old Amana, the GE has a much more uniform distribution of heat when cooking or reheating, probably because the food is rotated on a turntable. As E. J. Tastad found, the defrost cycle is easy to use, gives good distribution of heat and the front panel controls are fairly intuitive. The stainless steel cabinet is attractive and easy to clean.

Unlike my old Amana, this oven cannot multi-task. For example, if you're running the built-in clock timer, you cannot cook or reheat something on a different schedule using different functions. You must stop the clock timer to begin a cook cycle and vice versa. You also cannot program several sequences of automatic operations as my old Amana could accommodate, nor can you program it to start at a later time.

Based on my experience, I doubt that this oven will ultimately last as long as my old Amana did, but that question will only be resolved over time. Recently the magnetron tube in my GE Profile microwave oven failed after two years of use. It's replacement was covered by the five-year GE warranty on the tube, but the warranty didn't cover the $85 in labor charges, which would have been even more if I had received the service on-site instead of taking the appliance to the appliance repair depot.

If you have the counter space and would like to be able to have the speed and capacity of a microwave oven of this size and power, I believe that this model is your best choice in this category.

I am very disappointed at the poor reliability of this unit. Ours is less than a year old and has failed--now, when attempting to cook, the unit shuts off before the end of the programmed time. Even though the light comes on and the turntable turns, the unit does not heat food. Like others, I purchased this unit based on the recommendation in Consumer Reports; this recommendation didn't pan out. I tried to schedule warranty service and GE is making us wait a week to schedule and their frustrating telephone system does not provide information on where I can take it for service for faster turnaround (and didn't put me in touch with a live representative).

When the microwave oven worked, it worked fine. We replaced a Sharp unit with this one; though this unit has the advantage of a larger capacity, its controls are less intuitive.

Based on poor reliability and poor service, we're certainly not going to buy another GE microwave. We've had good success with GE refrigerators in the past; this is very disappointing. A quick search on the web now reveals that GE microwave ovens are not reliable--many others appear to have similar problems with the magnetrons.

Perhaps this is one reason why GE is looking to sell its appliance business...

Pros:
Large
Fast and Even Heating
Great Defrost
Not too loud

Cons:
Sensor reheat is only good for soups and other substance that it is okay to heat to boiling (don't trust it with Pizza, or other foods like that).

Bottom Line: This is an excellent large microwave for countertop use. The inverter defrost works almost perfectly every time, never cooking my food more than it should, but the reheat is a gimmick.

This is a large countertop microwave, at about 2.2 cubic foot. Coming from an over-the-range microwave this is a huge improvement in size. The microwave heats uniformly and fast (it is 1200 watts). The sensor reheat should only be used on foods it is safe to boil, otherwise it overcooks about everything else. It also works best when you lightly cover the food, as sometimes uncovered food triggers it to turn off too early. Lightly covered is critical, as the sensor works off water vapor temperature being released from the product. If the water vapor cant leave the container it could become superheated. Sensor cook should also only be used under supervision (you should be in the same room).

I have had the microwave for about 6 months now with no issue. It is no louder than other microwaves I have used, and the controls are intuitive and easy to use. You do not have to press a cook button or anything to start your timed cooking. My favorite feature is the inverter defrost. Remember you enter the weight in pounds, so for an 8 oz pack of bacon you would enter "5" and "start" for 1/2 of a pound. If you had a 1.5 pound package of meat, you would enter "15" and "start" for 1.5 pounds. The display shows the weight correctly. Not much else to say about the product, it is a microwave after all.