Five reviews of Panasonic NN-H765BF Full-Size 1.6-Cubic-Feet 1250-Watt Microwave Oven
1、We needed a replacement for our old Sharp microwave, which died after about 8 years of fairly heavy use. I looked for a Sharp, but they’re hard to find in stores around here, so I began looking at other brands. I was impressed by the reviews of this Panasonic model on Amazon and other sites, and Amazon’s price was right, not to mention free shipping!
The first oven we received was damaged in transit–the box was partly opened and the front of the oven was scratched. Gotta hand it to Amazon, one short trip to the site, and I had a return label and another oven on the way! All I had to do was drop the return off at our local UPS store which was right on the way home. In 2 days we had another oven. Waaaaay better than standing in return line at Walmart!!!
I really like the oven. It does seem a bit louder when cooking than our Sharp, but not so much that it’s a problem. (Our kitchen isn’t exactly the Fortress of Solitude around mealtimes anyway.)
I would prefer a few more one-touch selections, like beverage reheat. There are one-touch buttons for popcorn, sensor reheat, and sensor defrost. You get additional selections by pushing these buttons more than once. For example, the popcorn button cycles through 3.75, 3.0, and 1.75 ounce bag selections. You do have to press start for these, so I guess they’re not truly “one-touch.”
The sensor reheat also cycles through several food types which are displayed above the keypad. However, some of these descriptions “scroll” from right to left through the digital display, which can take an extra second or two to read.
We mostly end up just keying in a time, a cook level, and pressing Start.
The oven’s power is good, and we’ve shortened our cook times slightly compared to our old 1100-watt oven. The turntable is large and works great–no problem turning a heavy casserole dish while reheating. The oven seems huge inside but is not overly large outside.
The very best feature of this oven is that the reduced power levels–the cooking power actually reduces to the set level, and the microwave element stays on the whole time. Much better than our old oven–when you set a lower level on that, the microwave element would keep running at full power, but just shut off for several seconds periodically, often resulting in hot and overcooked areas. Not a problem with the Panasonic.
So far, so good–we’ll see how it holds up!
2、We bought this unit in February 2011. The microwave works great but there is one huge problem. We found out we had to program in all the fancy settings before we could even use it. We don’t use the fancy settings and since our electricity tends to go out for 30 seconds or more, a lot, we are constantly resetting it in order to use the microwave. We have only owned Panasonic in the past and simply plugging them in was all that was needed. This new design has us thinking of going with a different brand. We sent Panasonic an e-mail asking if there’s a way to override all the special settings so we can actually use the microwave. We’ve yet to hear from them.
So before you buy this unit, think about how much FUN it’s going to be to program in all the fancy settings, every time you lose electricity or simply want to move the microwave. Imagine this….you’re sitting down to a meal and all you need to do is slightly heat the sauce before eating. Your electricity goes out for a brief 15-30 seconds and comes right back on. NOW….you have to reprogram the microwave before you can slightly heat that sauce. When I was finished, I had to reheat the meal because it took so long to reprogram the microwave! If Panasonic doesn’t give us a cure to this problem, I intend to send one long, nasty letter to Panasonic, then search for another brand to buy!!
3、My current oven/microwave combo found me short on funds to get my microwave fixed. It would have cost me about $400 to have my old unit serviced and repaired. To save on the money for the time being, I looked around on Amazon.com for a good unit I could use in the kitchen. I’ve always loved the Panasonic name, even when I was a boy in the 1960′s. It’s always been a reliable company, full of compitent engineers.
This unit is easy to figure out when you recieve it. I only had to refer to the manual for a few minor things, otherwise the rest was easy enough to understand. What I especially love about the unit is the one minute setting, where you can stack up single minutes at a time, on the clock, before cooking. I also love the rotating table for even heating. A must feature with any microwave these days in my experience over a life time using these units. I also love the “Power level” button, which has 10 settings. It’s easy to adjust down to power 5 and put frozen butter in a pyrex dish in the unit, set it for a few minute, while it is thawed for me to use with any recipe that requires things like melted butter. Great for the holidays when making stuffing for the bird. It’s also great for thawing out coconut oil that hardens on the shelf, when I’m doing baking that requires the oil for the recipe.
Over all, I have no complaints about this unit. It’s also fairly light weight and at my age, I’m not the athlete I use to be in my youth.
I’ve easily fallen in love with this unit and its ease of use. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good, reliable unit to help them in the kitchen.
4、Our Panasonic Microwave, Manufactured in 2002, quit working after having given us excellent service. This was Model NN-S762. Rather than search the area for a replacement, (we are at least 10 miles or more from any appliance stores), I looked on Amazon.com and found a Panasonic that was close enough in size to fit the built-in area that we had and appeared to be an updated version of the Microwave that we had used for several years. I ordered it on Feb. 16, wondering how I was going to manage without a microwave until I could get a new one. To my amazement the replacement arrived today, Feb 18. It is exactly what I wanted-in appearance, size and features. Not only that, but we did not have to pay for shipping.
I am in my late 70′s and am delighted to have had such an easy time of replacing this with such ease and so quickly. Thank you, Amazon.com for making our lives so much easier and saving us the time and the gas that it would have taken if we had to shop around until we found a replacement that might never have been as satisfactory as this was.
Thank you, Amazon.com, for your efficiency and convenience.
5、We have only had the micro for about two or three weeks. It is a great size and I love the black color. We haven’t had it that long so I don’t feel I can comment on the durability. It is sturdy and well made. It is simple to use and has a lot of newer features like the sensor cooking and some new feature where it heats food from the inside out. It seems to cook food better than our old micro. Overall, I am pleased with this micro after using it for two or three weeks.
Five reviews of the Panasonic Prestige NN-SD688S, 1.2cuft 1300 Watt Sensor Microwave Oven
1、I got this oven after much dithering and reading of reviews. So far, everything is fine.
I’d like to respond to a few of the points made by other reviewers.
1. The display: My microwave is placed at eye level. I have had no difficulty with any part of the display so long as my kitchen has light. I do wish there were a light when the door is opened so that I could read the display when my kitchen lights are off.
2. The door release button: The first few times I had to steady the unit when I pressed the door release button, but after about 4 or 5 times, there is NO problem with the door release button. I do not have to steady the unit or straighten it.
3. Sensor cooking: I found this very useful because the oven is powerful. The sensor makes a microwave dinner come out just fine, but since I like them really really hot, I press “more” one time after setting the sensor. I was briefly confused by the directions, but I figured it out pretty quickly. The numbers you need for the setting are on the page following the explanation of the sensor. Please note there are two different settings for frozen meals.
4. I didn’t understand the power settings at first because the procedure is backwards from my dearly departed Kenmore (23 years RIP)
5. Touch buttons: I have not had any trouble with them. They do not work if they are touched in the wrong order, but other than that, I’ve not had a problem with them registering.
The thing is FAST! My poor old Kenmore was declining and so by comparison, this baby is miraculous. I have to decrease my normal heating times for a half a cup of coffee or a cup of milk. It’s a learning process. I keep the manual handy and have to read it because the buttons aren’t really intuitive. Lots of nice features on the oven.
2、So far I like but don’t love it.
Power, size, cooks/looks good.
Fit/finish, details, human factor design bad, ‘feels’ like it might break too easily.
Made Oct 2010 in China this 1300W Panasonic replaces a 1998 1000W Kenmore with about the same external size but noticeably bigger inside with a 13″ rotating glass plate. Fits on my std size counter and plenty of room inside with most of the external footprint as available space inside. Looks nice sitting on the counter.
The door button requires a little more pressure than I like but it would keep a small kid out. Also a little loud on closing the door and the fan when running but not intolerable. Unusual that it does not have a light when the door is open but you can see in the day or as long as the kitchen lights are on. Standing to the left or right 20deg or 1.5 ft above, the display does go unreadable to 88:88 which is annoying but not a deal breaker since it is readable where I normally stand. The time font is reminiscent of a 70′s calculator and the color is a cheapish looking pale green, not a bright crisp new blue or green typically seen on higher end products. Worst is if not braced, it slides along the counter top when you push the overly firm door button since it has tiny nonrubberized feet so you must have it up against something. I don’t think Panasonic ever actually tested on an actual counter. The knobs and buttons feel a little loose so fit/finish not so great.
The external look is nice and it does seem to cook both fast and evenly. A bag of OrvillePopcorn with the popcorn button started at 3.5 minutes but then auto-adjusted to 2minutes which was what was recommended on the bag. No burnt and few unpopped kernels. 1 glass measuring cup of room temp water steaming hot in 30 seconds, boiling about 2minutes which I actually see as a plus on safety side. Stick of cold butter starts to melt at 15sec and full liquid at 30sec. The 1300 watts and ‘inverter’ makes a difference and is plenty powerful, faster than my old one. I tried a small frozen lasagna and the sensor cook button and it does seem to make self adjustments. It cooked in the box’s recommended time and unlike my old microwaves didn’t crisp up the edges or make any rubbery ends so seems like the energy is more spread out somehow. Surprisingly, I also quickly adjusted to the missing number pad, realizing that pressing either the ‘auto cook/sense’ buttons, or ‘fast minute’ button a couple of times, or spinning the dial was actually easier than entering numbers. I don’t care as much as I thought I would about entering exactly the amount of time to cook.
PROS:
Powerful, fast, big inside space.
Really good energy spread – doesn’t seem to rubberize ends as a typical microwave.
Looks nice.
Stiff door button and child lockable controls keep young kiddies out.
CONS:
Feet are tiny and not rubberized to firmly grip countertop, absolutely must be braced against wall.
Display does have specific angles where not viewable – 88:88.
Fit and finish of buttons and knobs feel a little loose.
Fan and door are a little on the loud side.
3、We bought this microwave to replace a ~16-year old compact Panasonic microwave that was randomly shutting itself off during heating. After a few hours of researching product reviews, we settled on this Panasonic model NN-SD688S as a similar-sized but twice-as-powerful replacement that we *hope* will last at least as many years.
We’ve used the microwave for a few days now, and can offer the following pros and cons, in order of importance:
Pros:
1) The usable volume inside the microwave compared to its outer dimensions is much higher than comparable models.
2) Panasonic’s got the best brand name in this space and the best looking microwaves (though some say they’ve traded that name in for cheaper, lighter-weight parts, that fail sooner. time will tell.)
3) Quieter than our old model, though about twice as powerful, and half the weight.
4) Panasonic offers the only microwaves with the constant inverter defrost, rather than the others that cycle between power on and power off.
5) Sensor reheat, though it’s not supposed to be used to reheat coffee, can be, if you like it very very hot before adding milk&sugar to cool it down.
Cons:
1) The LED display is impossible to see from certain angles, but I knew this going in, and it’s not that bad. When standing in front of the display, it becomes unreadable when your eyes are above/below about 50 degrees, and when standing off to either side it becomes unreadable when above/below only 30 degrees. This is my #1 gripe, and Panasonic really needs to fix it, as our older model’s display was perfectly readable from all angles.
2) No light when the door is open; only when heating, so you need the kitchen light.
3) The four feet on the bottom of the microwave are hard plastic, and not rubbery, so it slides around the counter-top.
4) Not really a con, but I find myself missing a handle on the door to manually open/close it. The push button is a little stiff.
All in all, would definitely buy it again, as long as it LASTS at least one decade. If it doesn’t last, and most of the cons above aren’t addressed in a new model, then we’ll probably be opting for another manufacturers’ physically heavier microwave.
4、Just got this microwave… read all the reviews and decided to get this for my home. Here’s what I think:
PROS:
1) Just the perfect size. Not too small like the 0.7/0.8/1.0 cu ft models. Not too big like the 1.6 cu ft. and above.
2) Did not have problems with the display. I place mine on a microwave cart and can see the display from all angles.
3) Power 1300W heats up food quickly. Be careful of the lower wattage models that will take almost twice as long to heat up stuff!
CONS:
1) As mentioned by some of the reviews, this unit is louder than other make/models.
But it’s not so loud that you can’t carry a conversation when it’s turned on.
2) The push button for door release is tougher than expected. The unit size vs. the effort to push the button to open the door,
causes the entire microwave to move when you try to open the door. Solution: Place it on a non-slip surface.
3) Small display, so limited display on it’s many functions. That means, it’s more difficult to learn how to use. Not a unit that you
can just figure it out eventually – you most likely HAVE TO read the manual to understand all it’s features.
I personally love it!! It works great!!!
5、This review is based on short term use. I have had the microwave for a week now & we have used it multiple times daily. I can say that it heats, melts, defrosts, and boils liquids excellently. My husband and I both realize that this microwave is more efficient that our top of the line “other brand” microwave that died… it heats everything much faster, even when power is reduced, so we have had to adjust time settings accordingly.
All is as described in the listing and accompanying owner’s manual for the microwave. One challenge that cropped up was finding the serial number to allow me to mail the product warranty. Amazon aced their customer support when I emailed with a question about the location of the serial number: it wasn’t in any place on the outside. Amazon provided a Panasonic customer service and sales number… call made, mystery solved (no, I don’t think that the operating manual didn’t even mentioned the serial number location). The info is inside the door, on the right hand side, right at the front.
Above all, I recommend Amazon for excellent shopping experiences: their products have been as described over and over again, for their excellent customer service, for better than average retail type pricing, easy checkout and shipping: had this microwave at home three business days after I bought it!
