This microwave looked beautiful in the store and for what the microwave promised to offer, I thought I would be a beautiful addtition to our kitchen. I purchased this microwave over the others solely because the microwave offered the ability to bake food just as a conventional oven. While it microwaves food just fine and offers the same defrosting, beverage, popcorn, reheating, and 30 second express microwave settings as the other microwaves, baking in this oven is cumbersome. Firstly when baking you need to switch out the turntables. Secondly, the preheat time for the microwave is very long. Thirdly, you can only bake things in either round dishes or square dishes that are small enough to rotate in the microwave while baking. Lastly, it is very awkward to reach up over your head to pull a hot baking dish out of a microwave without touching your arm to the edge of the microwave or door. Those surfaces are extremely hot following baking and I have gotten burned. Essentially, I feel that this microwave is not a good option as additional oven space. Currently, the microwave sits above my oven without the front glass panel in place. The door has several small cracks, pops apart when opening, and has caused the glass panel to come loose. Since we spent so much money purchasing this microwave, we are trying to squeak every last day out of it but certainly will not purchase this type of microwave in the future.

LFesmire

USA

I purchased our microwave/convection oven 3 years ago and it is still working great. We were able to get a good sale price on it. Which made is one of our best appliance purchases.  There is also a venting system for over your stove that you can adapt to vent inside or outside. One of the highlights is the express microwave buttons, what I like to call my dial-a-meals.  This programming allows a person to choose from a large list of pre-programmed settings to defrost, reheat and cook my meals with absolute accuracy.  You can even program your own favorite settings for either the microwave or convection oven.  There are 2 undercabinet lights that create all the lighting I need to work at my stove.   The ease to switch between a traditional microwave oven and the convection feature only requires exchanging the glass turntable plate  to a metal one.  Or with some recipes and the proper heat resistant bakeware (like pyrex) you can cook with out a turntable plate and just set the bakeware directly on the permanent turntable. This allows for more even baking with denser casseroles.   A recipe book and "cheat sheet" come with the unit and easily explain the programming required to utilize the convection features.  The convection oven works with a combination of  microwave units, and the upper and lower halogen baking bulb where each recipe is individualized to the strength or power of these heating features. There are sensor features that self-adjust timing so as not to overbake your food.  There are also "alarms" that tell you to check for doneness before the alloted time is up.  I ranked this unit as a 4 instead of a 5 because of the noise when operating the convection oven.  But the convenience of baking my favorite recipes in half the time or enjoying grilled meat during the winter is worth the 10 -20 minutes of noise. Plus you don't have to wait for the oven to preheat.  Cookies and pizzas tastes like they came from the bakery and only take 6-8 minutes.  Vegetables, casseroles, grilled meat , everything turns out great. 

wjoy

Newcomerstown, OH

AT first the thought of having an Advantium was a wonderful idea when we built our house. So we put one in.  We have had the worst time with it. It is a microwave that doubles as a regular oven depending on which tray you use, glass or black.  The lights keep going out in the inside and they're not easily changeable. Also with older kids every once in a while someone forgets to take the metal tray out when using the microwave.    We've had someone out to fix it twice in 2 years and we've only had it for 4.   Not to mention the customer service from GE really is lousy, especially if you buy your appliances at one of those Home Improvement stores (no names mentioned).   If I had to do it all over again I would have just bought a regular over the range microwave. 

kimnpunx

Austin, PA

I use this every single meal. It has a speed cook option that doesn't require preheating the oven that is awesome. It works as an oven and a microwave. The microwave option is just like a high quality microwave, and the oven option is great because you don't have to preheat. It uses a combo of light and microwave to cook. It is super speedy..you can bake a frozen pizza(rising crust) in 12 minutes. Perfectly cooked. I love it!!!!!

morgieg

Allegan, MI