KitchenAid KHHS179L Microwave Oven..Cooks, Bakes and Even Grills!

I've had my KitchenAid KHHS179L Microwave oven since we moved into our house a year and a half ago. It's still going strong. What drew me to this unit, was the fact that it had an attractive touch panel and sensor-cooking. In addition, this microwave can be used to bake, brown and grill! I purchased the stainless steel model, but it is also available in white, black and biscuit.

ABOUT THE MICROWAVE

This microwave features KitchenAid's OPTIMAWAVE Plus Technology, which "delivers a constant stream of microwave power - true high, medium and low power - to provide constant even results." What does this exactly mean? While most microwaves only operate on high power only, in order to achieve a medium power level they must operate half the time on high power and half the time actually being off! OPTIMAWAVE, in contrast, delivers different levels of power continuously in order to avoid foods from being overcooked or undercooked. .

The microwave comes with a bi-level cooking rack, a 12", stoppable glass turntable a browning pan and a circular grill rack. This is a 1.7 cu. ft. capacity oven with 1,100 Watts Cooking Power.

The KHHS179L is an under-counter unit, therefore it has to be mounted

The Integral Vent Hood is recirculating, however, it can be vented out, should your installation allow for it.

The microwave has stainless push-button, numbered controls, as well as an LCD touch panel, with pre-programmed cooking Levels.

From the touch panel you can choose to:

Cook
Reheat
Defrost
Melt
Warm
Grill
Bake
Soften
Browning Pan
Boil & Simmer
Grill
Baked Goods

If you press one of these cycles, other choices will be brought up. For example, if you press the "Cook" button, it will bring up choices of items to cook, such as Vegetables, Frozen Vegetables, Meat, Poultry, etc. Select one of these (I'll use vegetables as an example) and there are pre-determined items like broccoli, carrots, etc. If you don't see the item you are looking for then you simply select "Manual" cooking mode, as you would with a standard microwave oven.

For many of the cooking functions, the screen will display a Doneness Bar, which allows you to select minimum to maximum doneness for that item, by touching the screen toward either the minus sign or the plus sign.

There are pre-sets for all of the following items: Cereal, Eggs, Frozen Food, Vegetable, Grains, Meat, Poultry and Fish In addition, there is a special feature for popcorn that determines the amount of time needed to pop the corn, based on the sensing function.

The microwave even comes with a Learning Mode, which will teach you how to use it and take advantage of its many features and benefits.

A Progress Bar will let you know when the microwave is "sensing" prior to cooking an item, continues to cook an item and finished cooking the item.

Sensor Cooking is established when a humidity sensor detects the moisture and humidity released when foods are being cooked. It adjusts the cooking time based on these emissions.

Reheating Foods is made simple by the 8 pre-sets: Dinner Plates, Beverage, Casserole, Pizza, Muffin, Roll, Sauce and Soup Within each of these pre-sets is additional selections such as Fresh, Frozen, 1 Cup, 2 Cup or 1-4 Plates.

The oven can also be set to cook at different temperature levels for up to four different stages of cooking.

Defrosting is broken down into categories of Meat, Fish and Poultry. You can also select manual defrost for other items. The oven calculates defrost time based on the weight of the food, which you well enter when prompted. In addition, you can select a doneness level at this time.

The Boil and Simmer Functionhas selections for boiling and simmering rice and pasta. This Option is located under "More Choices" on the Main Menu on the Touch Panel. When boiling, the microwave will indicate by a short beep when you need to put your pasta in.

The Soften and Melt functions can be used for butter, cream cheese, cheese, chocolate, and even ice cream. These items are pre-set and you can choose the doneness of them as well.

The Vent Hood has four speeds, which can be selected on the touch panel. Turn it on with one press of the button and off with two.

The Cooktop Lighthas numerous brightness settings. Once again, you can turn it on from the main panel and then choose the brightness from the touch panel. What is really cook is you can set the "night-light" to turn on when its sensor detects low light level. The best part is you determine what low light actually is.

The included Cooking Rack is used for two level cooking. The rack fits snuggly into the supports located at the side of the microwave, therefore space on the bottom level is not disturbed.

The Browning Pan comes with a detachable handle, its surface is non-stick and it has been specifically designed to be used in a microwave. The pan is used for foods you would normally otherwise pan fry, such as sausage, eggs or a hamburger. It also doubles as a drip tray for the Grilling Rack.

The Grilling Rack, when placed securely on the Browning Pan, enables you to grill in the microwave. I once cooked a piece of fillet mignon on the rack and it came out fantastic. You won't get the exact same texture on the meat as you do on the regular grill, from charring, but it's pretty darn close! How does the microwave do this? In addition to the 1000 watt halogen bulb, there is a 500 watt Quartz bulb that is added while grilling.

The microwave is equipped with a Child Lock feature, which can be activated via the touch-screen menu. When activated, a picture of a lock will appear on the left-hand corner of the main screen.

There is a 12-hour clock, which displays a.m or p.m. This feature can be hidden should you choose to do so. The time is programmed, by you, during your initial set-up of the oven.

You also have the option of choosing the brightness of the LCD panel as well as the volume of the "beeps", which can be turned of completely should you wish to do so.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE MICROWAVE

What have I NOT cooked in this thing! I have baked cookies, grilled steaks, made hamburgers, melted butter, cooked rice, steamed veggies and anything else you could possibly think of.

What I really like about the microwave is that it is true to time. If I put in a frozen dinner and it tells me to set the microwave to 5-1/2 minutes, that dinner will be cooked perfectly at 5-1/2 minutes.

I also love the night-light feature. The minute I turn off the kitchen lights it goes on. My ten year old son uses the microwave to make popcorn and heat up his soup.
This microwave oven would probably replace my regular oven, if not for it's smaller capacity.

This microwave has a lot of bells and whistles and a LOT of pre-programmed commands. Although this review might make it sound very complicated (I hope it didn't) it is actually very easy to use, because you are prompted to select everything. If you make a mistake the microwave will let you know it by beeping.

If you are looking for a cooking appliances that does more than simply "microwave" but is compact enough to fit underneath a cabinet, then this is definitely a microwave you will want to consider. If you have one oven, but would like to be able to bake cookies at the same time you are making a turkey, this might be an option for you. This oven carries a whopping MSRP of $930.00 in stainless, so it's definitely not for the budget conscious.

Thanks for reading!

staysee