or High Ideal for anything with a high water content and the best setting for steaming. It’s also good for reheating ready-made meals, soups, canned foods, cold coffee and tea, mince or tender meat, poultry, fish, cooked pasta, and most vegetables. Combis usually have a much bigger capacity than standard machines. The average combi can fit a 35cm-wide dish inside, compared with 29cm for a typical solo model. Clearance space Keeping your microwave clean will help to reduce energy costs too because bits of food, grime, and spills will add a couple more seconds to the cooking time of your food. Pizza function This tends to work better with grill or combi microwaves, as the grill helps to crisp the pizza base and brown the top. Some models come with ‘crisper plates’ which can also be used for quiches. You'll get better results if you use a frozen pizza and pre-heat the oven and plate for four or five minutes first.

Microwaves are a good way to cut your energy costs as they use significantly less energy than other cooking appliances. Auto cook programs Enter the type and weight of food, and the microwave will automatically set the time and power needed to cook it. Premium models can offer up to 30 programs, including specialised ones for popcorn or roasts. While manufacturers do generally state the internal capacity, this doesn't actually tell you what size dishes you'll be able to get inside. Need we say more? For fast and easy clean-up after your meal, just pop it in the dishwasher with your plates and let the machine take care of the washing up. Basic microwaves tend to be the smallest; some combis measure almost twice the size of the smallest solo and grill microwaves we’ve tested.Multi-step programming This allows you to program different cooking modes in sequence, to automatically switch between defrosting and cooking your dinner, for example. This makes them very easy to use, but you won’t usually get much in the way of auto cook or defrost programs (see features to look out for, below). If this seems like too much effort, look for a microwave with auto programs that'll set the time and power level for you. Switch it off at the wall

or Low The best choice for defrosting large items such as whole poultry and fish, and dense meat. Also good for softening butter or melting chocolate.

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A microwave's power is measured in watts - and generally, the higher the wattage, the faster your food cooks.