ML-EM45PIT(BS) Countertop Microwave Oven with Inverter Technology, Kitchen Essentials, Smart Sensor, Auto Defrost, 1.6 Cu.ft, 13.6" Removable Turntable, 33lb.&1250W, Black Stainless Steel

Wow - I'm impressed. Some background so you know we're I'm coming from: Our Tappen digital microwave from 1993 finally died - if only all my appliances had this sort of life! It was a 1000 watts with a turntable, but nothing fancy beyond that. For 32 years it served us well but one of the high-powered diodes died. Time to replace it. We didn't want a convection oven microwave combo, we already have a great convection oven. But I did want a microwave that used Inverter technology and had a few additional sensors. For me, it came down to a Panasonic or the Toshiba. They had nearly identical features, stats, and comparable dimensions. The deciding factor was the door handle - we wanted a door with a real handle, not one of the "push-button, pop open" doors. The Toshiba fit all criteria. The model we chose was the Toshiba ML-EM45PIT In black stainless trim. 1250 watts, inverter technology, temperature AND humidity sensors and several built-in cooking algorithms. This thing is practically silent. The first time we fired it up with a mug of water we both worried that we'd received a defective unit. But, in 20 seconds we had a steaming mug of water. It worked. Our second test was a medium-sized potato. For this I just pierced the skin a few times, placed it on a small ceramic plate and simply pressed the "potato" button. It didn't ask the size, it just put some numbers on the screen and the moisture sensor indicator lit up. In four minutes that oven stopped, I left the potato alone in the oven for another minute with the microwave off, then took it out. It was as close to great as I've ever seen from a microwave. No burning, perfectly cooked with only one tiny dry area. 9 out of 10 - I pressed one button and the microwave did the rest; the result was good. Next up was microwave popcorn. We don't eat it much, but I was in an experimenting mood. The oven has a popcorn button, you press it once for 1.75 oz size, twice for 3.0 oz size, and a third time for a larger size that I don't remember. Of course, ours was 2.5 oz and didn't fit any of those choices. So I selected the 3.0 oz size and figured I'd stop the oven when the popping stops. That ended up being 2 minutes - the popcorn was perfect with only 3 unpopped kernels and no burning whatsoever. I was impressed. 7 out of 10, nice job - but I did have to stop it myself. My last experiment was reheating a plate of food - leftovers. The big size comes into it's own here; it easily fits a large dinner plate. The oven has a sensor-driven "reheat" button that uses a temperature sensor to automatically adjust the cooktime and power. The manual says not to open the oven part way or it will throw off the temperature sensor ...so I didn't. I just let the oven do it's thing. The plate came out pretty good, all of the food was reheated, even without stirring or futzing - though some parts were not as hot as I would have liked. Another 10 seconds on high fixed that problem. 8 out of 10, the automatic setting was impressive, but I like my food very hot. Overall I'm impressed. The intelligent features and sensors are very nice and do a fairly good job - but they are not perfect. The inverter claims to be more even heat, that seems to be the case - but remember, my point of reference was a 32-year-old microwave. Still, it does appear to cook evenly. Appearance is subjective but I like the dark stainless. The real door handle is a winner for me... I hate those push-button doors. It's powerful! that 1250 watts shines when you want to heat water in very little time. Operationally - the thing is practically silent. Normally you hear fans, or a motor turning the turntable, but you really have to strain to hear those things with this Toshiba. Honestly, it's the biggest talking point in my house is how nearly silent it is. I guess our life just isn't that interesting! Recommend the Toshiba, and I do recommend the inverter technology. I can see a difference. UPDATE 4-November-2025: Now we've had this Toshiba ML-EM45PIT for about a month and a half. I have to say, we still love it. HOWEVER, this thing is powerful... maybe too powerful. We've learned there are very few things we can actually cook on high for amount of time without it absolutely irradiating it. It's not a bad, we simply select 80 or 90% power and things cook very well. But whenever any packaged food calls for xx-minutes on "High", we adjust it for the same amount of time on 80 or 90% power to get good results. The defrost feature is adequate, but nothing more. The oven is still super-quiet, it still amazes us how quiet this thing is ...it's spooky. Nevertheless - still recommended. It's a great microwave.

Allow me to paint you a story of our time before this microwave. My husband and I have gone through exactly 2 microwaves in our 11 year relationship before landing on this one. Our first was a tiny thing made in 2004 that could barely manage cup o' noodle. It finally died sounding like the cries of a thousand whales back in late 2017. It had a good long life of burnt popcorn and cold reheated food. We went without a microwave because we were dirt broke at the time from finally becoming homeowners (oof our savings), and then my in-laws graced us with their microwave that *they* had gotten as a wedding gift in Canada in.. 1988. I used to say that the microwave was almost as old as I was until we found the manufacturing date was April 1988. Dang, the microwave was now officially one month older than me. Still had to deal with uneven cooking, burnt popcorn or half popped bags, and a defrost function that only seemed to work half the time and literally cook the food the other half. This beast of a microwave is an enigma in the fact that it has somehow survived all these years without even needing anything replaced. Honestly the microwave still "works". I can relate heavily to this microwave. After the last few years of me completely swearing off of trying to make microwave popcorn, my husband complaining about even more burnt popcorn and unpopped kernels at the same time, I finally asked if we could manage to scrape some money together to get an actual working microwave. After much debating, I was tasked with researching a good microwave that was big enough and mostly inexpensive enough. I had heard a bit about this microwave and a few others and ultimately decided on this one. The price was right, the size was perfect, the functionality was great, being able to turn off literally all the beeping was fantastic. Unfortunately the first one we got was mostly DOA and it was really disappointing, especially since I had to move a microwave that I'm sure weighed about 50lbs, I wish I was joking. Amazon took care of the return and replacement real easy and quick, and the new-new microwave came today. The first test was popcorn. Oh boy. Since everyone says "don't use the popcorn button", I definitely didn't. Unfortunately the microwave did burn the bag of popcorn at full power. So, I decided to actually use the popcorn button. I hit the popcorn button twice (setting for a 3oz bag) just to make sure it would have enough time to heat up and pop. Oh boy. I was not prepared for what happened. The popcorn actually popped! And it only took maybe a minute and a half! No burnt popcorn *and* most of the kernels were popped. Our toddler rejoiced that mommy had actually popped a bag of popcorn, "Yay! You did it mommy!" Second, I defrosted a 1lb package of frozen ground beef. Woo, that was a breeze. Set the defrost for the weight and let it go, though it did warm the edges a bit too much but it was quick and didn't cook it like our last microwaves. Third and most terrifying. Before this microwave, I had gotten used to putting a mug of coffee/tea/water/whatever to heat/reheat for a minute or more and it not even being hot-hot. I stuck a mug of water (with a few tapioca pearls in it) in the microwave to test and set it for one minute, after a short time I glanced into the microwave and discovered it was actually boiling. A very loud proclamation of "Oh my god!" rang from myself in the kitchen. I promptly called my husband over to also observe what the mug of water was doing. He also loudly proclaimed "Oh my god!" In short: I can't believe what I used to consider "normal" for a microwave. This one is more than leaps and bounds better than what we "had to just deal with" in a time of penny pinching and saving money. We're finally mostly comfortable and were in desperate need of a good quality microwave. In very short: I love this microwave.

It came the next day. it is more powerful than my last microwave. Basic operation of the microwave is pretty basic, such as 1 minute, 30 sec. addition and the pause button which you can use to pause previous cooking, and it also turns off oven. What is difficult is, how do you cook for just 45 seconds without having to press 1 minute and catch it before it goes over. I'm having trouble with some of the basic operational modes. The oven is the perfect size and does work well. I'm happy with my purchase and once I get some feedback all should be fine. Inside of the microwave is lite very well. The keypad is very dark as people have mentioned before. I think I'll use a silver paint pen and highlight the numbers. I'm reading the questions to get help. UPDATE: I purchased this microwave Feb 24 2022. Today's date is April 9th. I'm seriously considering returning this microwave for a model without the bells and whistles. It works no better than a 20 dollar microwave from Good Will. I can't get a hot cup of coffee without pressing the 30 second button 3 times and it always boils if I don't take it out soon enough. It heats only the top of the cup. But that's not the main issue. It keeps turning off. I think it's when the machine is moved slightly where the chord connects to the outlet and won't reboot. Either there is a short or its terribly annoying safety feature. OR, it's when you go from timed cook to the stand 30 second button. It malfunctions and stops working, It's very annoying. Would NOT recommend it to anyone. The sensor doesn't do anything, nor the invertor. It's just a plain microwave. AND, if that's not enough, the front panel IS SO DARK, you have to turn a light on. I'm changing my 5 starts to 2. The only thing good is the size and the handle. FINAL UPDATE: (later that night; April 9th, day 45+or- 1) FIRE HAZARD! STAYS ON WHEN PLUG IS OUT (lights inside of microwave and main panel numbers), SCARY!!, AND TURNS OFF WHEN PLUGGED IN, HARD TO RESET! I called Amazon concerning the microwave being hard to reset and the tech stated it was a fire hazard and dangerous and refunded my money without requiring a return even though I had passed the 30 day return policy by 2 weeks. Praise God for Yvonne, Amazon Tech support Rocks. I will continue to buy my products from Amazon.

It is nice and quiet, very sizeable, does its job. The reason for 4 stars is I mistakenly thought the stuff underneath was this microwave, it is not an air fryer and convection oven like I thought.

We just unboxed it a couple of days ago. So far, I'm thrilled. We replaced our cute 500 watt microwave with a Panasonic from Costco which had "inverter technology" that was supposed to heat the food more evenly. We have no idea if it does heat evenly, the smell inside it was just too awful. It smelled like mold and mildew; the owner's manual recommended "steaming" the unit by heating a cup of water and vinegar for 2-5 minutes. We did that and wipe it out, as recommended. That helped the smell some the first day, but the smell was so bad we could smell it when we walked into the house. Also, the door lock didn't open the door when you pressed it, it merely disengaged the lock and you had to open it by pulling out the bottom edge, also, it was loud with no 30 sec. option. No one-button minute, 2 min. 3 min. options This Toshiba microwave is great. No impossible child lock, no bad smell, 30 sec, 1,2,3 minute one-button, nice handle, 1250 watts, so is much faster. It's really easy to use, I couldn't be happier. It's also very quiet. The only thing I don't like about it is the buttons are solenoid, they will eventually wear out. Touch screen buttons work better and last longer.

This oven checks ALL of (at least my) microwave wanted-feature boxes. I bought this Toshiba to replace a Panasonic oven that developed an unrepairable fault in its membrane-switch control panel. (You can't avoid membrane switches, unfortunately. They're universal in almost everything at this point. Microwave ovens, stovetops, refrigerators, you name it. They're all membrane switches unless you can afford semi-pro level gear.) I chose Panasonic at the time because I wanted inverter power control, and only Panasonic had it then. Since then, apparently Panasonic's inverter patents have expired. And that is why I was able to find this Toshiba oven, which, while a very little smaller than the one it replaces. hits ALL THREE of my top three most-wanted microwave features: — It has inverter power control instead of just duty-cycling the magnetron to PRETEND to be able to vary its power. — It has moisture-sensor smart cooking and reheating so that you don't HAVE to know how long to cook something for. — And it has AN ACTUAL DOOR HANDLE instead of an unreliable push-button to open the door. I HATE those pushbuttons. They invariably start sticking after a while, and then opening the door becomes a two-hand task, because you need one hand to push the stupid button and one to pull the door open. With the Toshiba, opening the door takes one hand, EVERY time. It's easy, positive, and certain. No more hammering (and swearing) at the button. As a BONUS, the pre-programmed feature that we most commonly used on the old oven, after sensor reheat — sensor-cooking frozen vegetables — is right on the front panel, so now it's two button presses (FRZ VEG, START) instead of eleven. Also, it's extremely quiet. The one minor complaints I have about this Toshiba oven is that it takes a little while to master the feel of its membrane-switch front panel. But face it, you're never going to find a microwave oven that doesn't have membrane-switch controls, unless you buy a commercial-kitchen model that just has two knobs and no fancy features at all. This is about as close as you're ever likely to find to the perfect microwave oven. I salute you, Toshiba. IMPORTANT UPDATE: Pray that you never have a problem with it, because Toshiba outsources their customer service to an outfit called NIDEA. If Nidea decides that your problem requires a return or refund to resolve it, they will send you a document containing instructions for finding and printing your Amazon full invoice via steps that DO NOT EXIST, because their document is YEARS out of date and neither amazon.com, nor the Amazon mobile app, nor the Amazon order confirmation email, looks like that any more. You won't be able to convince them of this. They won't understand. They'll just keep sending you the same instructions that you cannot follow because the links and menus that they tell you to follow physically do not exist.

We owned this microwave for about three months, and during that time it worked very well. It was a nice upgrade from our older, smaller unit. The interior is large, easy to clean, and simple to use, and it heated food evenly and efficiently. Unfortunately, the reheat function appears to have failed. The steam sensor, or whatever controls the automatic reheat cycle, stopped working properly and would continue heating food instead of shutting off when it should. In practice, that meant the reheat function could easily overcook or burn food unless we manually stopped it. The other functions still seemed to work normally, but that kind of failure did make us question the overall reliability of the unit. To Toshiba’s credit, their customer support handled the issue professionally. After some back and forth, including sending photos and a video showing the malfunction, they issued a full refund. The process took about a week, which was annoying, but the final resolution was fair and satisfactory. So I’m not writing this as a rant against Toshiba. When the microwave worked, we really liked it. The size, ease of cleaning, controls, and heating performance were all strong. But our unit was clearly defective after only a few months, which is disappointing for an appliance at this price point.

I bought my first microwave 50 years ago and have been using one many times every day ever since. This is my fourth one. The previous three were Panasonic. I've had good luck with them. Easy enough to use (I'm a single guy) and 12-15 +/- years seems to be the average lifespan. So my most recent microwave dropped dead on me suddenly so I looked to see what was out there. This Toshiba was a decent price ($200) and has very good reviews. So I bit the bullet and Amazon got it to me quickly. After a few days of use I'm writing this preliminary review. PROS: This thing is QUIET! Makes way less noise when cooking than anything I've had previously. It's BIG (same size as my previous microwave). And heavy. The light inside is BRIGHT! First microwave I've had where you can actually see clearly what's going on inside. I got the black finish which is actually more of a dark copper color. It looks very nice on the counter. Not that I care so much about looks but... Worked fine right out of the box. You probably want to read the user manual as your time to start using this microwave will actually be less than if you try to just wing it. The user interface has some quirks and is not all that intuitive to operate. I did read the manual first (something I don't usually do) so getting it to work right away was pretty easy. Lotta power. I always get the 1200W+ models and this one cooks better and faster than the smaller ones. But it hasn't popped a breaker (yet). The menu buttons are more for show. Cooked some Redenbockers popcorn and the package said to NOT use those buttons so I didn't. 90 seconds on high and the popcorn was perfect! I'm used to doing everything on manual so no hardship there. I bought the plate cover and it really does eliminate any splatter (at least so far). I really appreciate not having to clean this thing every time i use it. I would have liked the cover better if it was taller as I cook in bowls a lot. CONS: The feet are cheap. Loosely fit and plastic. I see a DIY repair of them in my future. The feet slip on a tile countertop. BADLY! I needed to order a non-skid pad to put under the microwave or it would slide all over the place just pushing the buttons or opening/closing the door. So for $200 Toshiba couldn't put on heavy, non-skid rubber feet? The manual was not written by an English speaker. A lot of it is just gibberish. If you speak a different language those chapters could be fine. So far I'm happy with my purchase. I'm a very old man so I'm hoping this will be my last microwave.

A great microwave. Works very well. It matches my black stainless steel appliances perfectly. Very happy with this purchase.

Nice stylish look, quiet operation, like the handle opener and the shortcut time options. Delivery was prompt and within stated ETA.

Great Microwave, its very quiet, the cooking temps are excellent. Best kitchen appliance I have purchased in a long time at very good price

This blows my old Panasonic Genius out of the water. Silent, powerful.

Easy to use.