It's Beautiful, but Flawed

This microwave is strikingly beautiful with its stainless steel exterior and electric blue, expansive interior. It cooks well and is loaded with features. It has two halogen lights on the bottom that light the cooktop below. A nice side benefit of this is it made our cooktop look like new under the brighter-whiter light. There are also two levels of light. We turn it down to dim and it makes a nice ambient light in the kitchen after dinner and before bedtime.

HOWEVER, I'm disappointed that it broke down after about 6 months of use. Many of the control buttons abruptly stopped working. This may have resulted from the cleaning lady applying too much pressure to the control pad while cleaning it, but I still see this as a design flaw. You've got to be able to clean an appliance that lives over your stove, right? I've seen others commenting on this issue, so I don’t think my situation is unique. I also saw another comment about a problem with the door handle being attached to a flimsy plastic backer that easily breaks. My microwave had this problem too. I could have claimed this under the warranty, but rather than replace it with a new backer with an equally defective design, I used a washer on the screw that holds the handle. This worked quite nicely and actually gives the handle a sturdier feel.

Overall, I'm still happy with the microwave, despite the issues. But I would definitely recommend an extended warranty. I purchased a two year extension to the manufacturer’s 1-year warranty for $89 from Home Depot.