1.4 Cu. Ft., Black - MPN: R402JK
Strengths: Cooks food evenly. Lots of useful and useless options.
Weakness: Questionable door latch build quality. Extremely poor customer service from Sharp. Worthless warranty. Exorbitant repair costs.
My family was sitting in our living room when we heard a loud pop sound coming from the kitchen. When we went to see what had caused it we found the door to our 11 month old Sharp microwave wide open. It wasn't in use at the time and upon closer inspection we found that the latch that holds the door closed had failed internally. We called Sharp for repair and we were told that the microwave has to be hand carried into an authorized repair center (over an hour drive away for us) or shipped to the center with both to and from shipping charges prepaid. To top it all off, the repair centered required a $30 upfront payment just to even look at our supposedly under warranty microwave. We were assured that this would be refunded if it turns out that Sharp was at fault. However, digging a little deeper we found that Sharp considers this type of door fault under "Additional Items(s) Excluded from Warranty Coverage: Non-functional Accessories." What? A broken door latch is a Non-Functional Accessory!? Yes... it is normal wear and tear and was therefore not covered under warranty. Sharp then gave us the number to the repair center and we contacted them directly. They told us that this type of repair requires the replacement of the entire plastic door frame (That is $25) and we would also be charged for labor (Around $15-20) as well. A total of $70 to fix a door latch is ridiculous! To make a long story short, we fixed the problem ourselves using instructions easily obtainable from the internet. Of course we voided the joke of a warranty, but oh well. I must stress that upon disassembly of the door it was amazing to see just how poor the build quality of the latch spring mechanism is. The door frame's internal plastic clip which holds the latch spring in place is grossly inadequate, and looks like it was engineered for eventual failure. There is far too much tension put on the clip from the spring. This is why it is so noisy when the microwave door is closed. We fixed that too. Is this a good microwave? Probably. It at least cooks food evenly and has lots of features. Is Sharp a good company to buy a microwave from? NO.
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TopStrengths: It worked GREAT, UNTIL it caught on FIRE!
Weakness: Apparently catches on FIRE
I warmed up oatmeal yesterday (NO METAL INVOLVED) for 15 seconds, just to get it a little hot and BAM! a flame about 5inches long shot out the right side of the microwave (inside). I quickly open the door to stop and the flame went away. My mom came over and turned it on again (she didn't believe me) and an even BIGGER flame came out from the same spot. We bought this microwave for my mom for Christmas, therefore it was purchased in December 2007.
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Top
Great microwave
Strengths: Roomy inside Large turntable
Weakness: none so far
This is a very good microwave for the price. It is a good sized countertop microwave with plenty of room inside and a large turntable. It has plenty of power so you aren't waiting forever for things to heat up and lots of features and one touch buttons for those that need them. It even offers a child lock for safety. All in all a very nice microwave for the price.
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