When buying a new microwave, it’s important to get the right appliance for your kitchen at home. A solid microwave is about more than just nuking yesterday’s leftovers, you can use your microwave to defrost, pop popcorn, soften butter or melt chocolate or loads of other useful shortcuts in your cooking.
Today we’re looking at the Black & Decker line of microwaves. We’ve researched and reviewed all these options for this article to help you choose the best microwave for your home. We’ve looked at buying factors like reliability, ease of use, features and power output to determine the best consumer recommendations in this category.
Black And Decker Microwave Review
Black & Decker are an awesome brand for microwave ovens. Its line of microwaves occupy the mid to lower end, so not as feature-rich as some companies, but it offers awesome reliability at a modest price point.
It offers, for my money, the best value microwave oven out there.
What We Liked
- Fantastic reputation for reliability and longevity of microwaves
- Excellent range of microwaves across the budget to mid-tier range
- Simple to use for any kind of person
What We Didn’t Like
- No option for large microwaves
- Not as many features as other brands offer (albeit at a higher price)
The Basics
Black & Decker occupies the low to mid range of the market. Their smallest microwave is a pure budget option with a modest size of just 0.7 cubic feet and 700W. Sizes go up from there with lots to choose from, all the way up to the more beefy 1000W options with the largest being 1.4 cubic feet, twice the capacity of the smallest.
The microwaves themselves are very competitively priced compared to similar options from other brands, one of the plus points of Black & Decker.
The models they offer are:
Black & Decker EM720CB7 – 700W with 0.7 cu. ft and 10″ turntable
Black & Decker EM925AB9 – 900W with 0.9 cu. ft and 10.6″ turntable
Black & Decker EM720CB7 – 1000W with 1.1 cu. ft and 12.4″ turntable
Black & Decker EM720CB7 – 1000W with 1.4 cu. ft and 12.4″ turntable
Features
The Black & Decker offer no nonsense microwaves. You get a modest amount of features at a modest price point.
That’s not to say the Black & Decker is completely featureless. It offers a number of pre-programmed buttons to help you cook the most common items with none of the hassle. Those options are popcorn, potato, pizza, frozen vegetable, beverage and dinner plate.
For low power settings, you are given ten different power levels in increments of 10% from 10% to 100%, that’s a lot of control over low power modes like defrosting, melting or softening foods.
The microwaves themselves come with a child safety lock to stop children messing around with it while it’s not in use, too.
A “+30 seconds button” completes the set, useful for quickly and conveniently adding an extra 30 seconds in one button push.
(Note: these features do change slightly depending on the model. Click the links to check out the exact features each microwave offers.)
Ease of use
The Black & Decker microwaves have a gorgeous black and stainless steel colored exterior with keypad input and LED clock/countdown timer.
The interface is simple, you are not drowned in loads of options like some other microwaves. And the options it does have are clearly marked like you can see the “+30 second button” in the photo above.
One potential issue is the keypad doesn’t light up from behind, so be careful if you’re planning to put the microwave in a dark part of your kitchen as you may not be able to make the buttons out easily.
Reliability
Black & Decker has a stellar reputation for reliability. Reports of issues and breakdowns with their microwaves are reassuringly rare and this is backed up with a superb average rating on Amazon of 4.3. You even get a full one year warranty on all parts.
It’s one of the reasons I find myself recommending the brand again and again. If you’re looking for a no frills microwave that is built to last and could give you a decade’s worth of service without worrying about repairs or issues, Black & Decker have shown themselves to be a solid brand.
Overall
We can wholeheartedly recommend the Black & Decker line of microwaves. You get a range of options, all of which are easy to use and will do the job well. If you’re looking for a solid microwave that’ll do its job for years and years, you’re in the right place.
Click here to learn more and purchase. That link shows one of the models but it’s easy enough to find the smaller or larger ones.
