The Sanyo EM-C6786V Microwave Oven with Convection and Grill is a good choice for anyone who is looking for a basic microwave with some extra features. This unit is packed with interesting features, far more than you'd expect for so low a price. With additional features, however, comes more complication, so you will want to keep the instruction manual handy to reference the use of each function.

The microwave has five power levels and performs beautifully with microwave cooking, defrosting and reheating. The unit has nine Auto Menu settings for cooking and reheating foods and beverages (Auto Reheat, Popcorn, Beverage, Pizza, Potato, Frozen Vegetable, Meat, Fish and Roast Chicken). Each of these settings allows you to enter either a particular weight or quantity. The popcorn feature, for example, provides a choice of three weights and results in a perfectly popped bag. The convection oven, grill and four combination settings offer additional cooking options and yield results comparable to a conventional oven, but with somewhat longer cooking times.

The convection oven has 10 temperature settings and can handle nearly all the tasks a regular oven can. In our tests, we found the performance to be slower than a conventional oven. We also felt the grill feature was somewhat of a misnomer. The oven doesn't really "grill" in the traditional sense; it acts more like a broil function. Using the grill feature, we were able to cook foods such as hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages. Our best results, however, were achieved using the various combination options Using these settings, foods actually cooked faster and more efficiently than a conventional oven.

There are four combination settings: Microwave & Convection oven, Microwave & Grill, Grill & Microwave, and Grill & Convection. The most favorable of the combinations was the Microwave & Grill combination, which netted outstanding results when it was tested with an oven roaster chicken. The 5-pound chicken emerged browned with perfectly crisp skin and thoroughly cooked in 1 hour and 54 minutes (as compared to 3 hours to roast in a conventional oven).

The Sanyo Microwave Oven has a beautiful stainless steel interior cavity with a black tinted window and a silver cabinet with aluminum accents. There are five pushbuttons that are visible with the door closed: Microwave, Grill/Combo, Convection, Stop/Clear and Start/+1 minute. The remainder of the controls, located inside the door, include a Time/Weight Defrost button, Clock/Kitchen Timer button and the Rotary Dial that is used to select the Auto Menu features and to enter time, quantity or weight. Although the 1x2-inch illuminated digital clock display is visible through the glass door, we felt it was a nuisance having to open the door to access the timer button.

The microwave did an outstanding job of cooking, heating and defrosting a variety of foods. Although you will get better results from a conventional oven and/or grill, the trade off with the Sanyo Microwave Oven with Convection and Grill is that you have one unit that can perform a multitude of tasks while taking up a minimal amount of space.


Pros: Compact space-saving design, settings for microwave, convection and combination modes
Cons: Complicated controls, certain controls are "hidden" inside door

Warranty
1 year, parts and labor (limited)