Customer Reviews

GE Profile : Profile Spacemaker 1.8 Cu. Ft. XL1800 Sensor Microwave Oven

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I owned an older XL1800 (2006 model) and it lasted three years. Cooked great till then. One minute it worked, the next minute it didn't and then electrical smell was in the air. I bought a new Spacemaker as I was too lazy to switch out all the mounting hardware.

We've had ours for about 5 years with no problems, it's used daily. The +30 secs button is used about 50% of the time, and 1,2,3 buttons (1:00 min, 2:00 min, 3:00 min autostart) get the other 50% of the hits. Autostart works with buttons up to 6 (6 min program). The Microwave popcorn setting stops about 20-30 secs early so I use my own pre-measured times for that.

Note that the picture seems to indicate some sort of optional "padding" panel on the left side of the microwave, ours is symmetric around the viewing window. When you turn on the microwave, the top silver panel 3" tall tilts out by about 2" to vent it, then goes back in when you are done. This has the peculiar effect that if you open the door before it's done the top panel hangs open, until you reset the microwave. The interior has about 3" on each side of the turntable that isn't rotating so if you have something long-and-skinny to cook, you may turn off the turntable.

Still, it's easy to clean, holds a large cup 8" high, and the turntable works well, we are very satisfied.

The three main disadvantages are (a) It doesn't heat very strongly in the very center of the microwave (I seldom notice it any more), and (2) the integrated fume hood is extremely noisy, but we luckily don't use it much and there are 2 or 3 settings to try to reduce the noise, and (3) For the price, it's relatively underpowered (1100W) and could be much faster (e.g. it'd be nice if it were as fast as the $140 panasonic NN5500 tabletop that it replaced @ 1200W.)

I suppose they limited it to 1100W just in case you're running the microwave and the light and the fan - all at the same time. The 1100W rating would prevent tripping the circuit breakers on a 15A circuit - but I think they could change the duty cycle on the magnetron and/or fan with some smart software and make this a 1250W microwave - most of the time - if they could be bothered to make improvements. All 3 downsides led me to subtract one star from the rating.

Tell me why adding a $50 fume hood and some stainless steel to a tabletop microwave quadruples the price, and I would feel happier about the pricing on this item.

Turntable stopped working in the first 6 months--2 years later the whole thing was fried--wouldnt even turn on. Do yourself a favor and stay far far away from this piece of crap! GE service is a joke. They do not honor their warranty!!

I've found it to be a fine microwave in terms of power - it's not the strongest, but it's not the weakest either, in terms of microwaves I've had and used over the past decade. I've had the model 5 years. It did need to be serviced twice. First, something blew (literally) - puff of smoke and light, and it was gone. Fortunately I had a warranty - this was probably the 4th year of owning it. Now, year 5, one of the plastic hooks (plastic, seriously?) that holds the door closed broke off - and without the hook, the microwave refuses to turn on. I'm waiting to find out if it's covered in my warranty. It seems microwaves are going the route of every other appliance - they used to work for 20 years (I gave my 15+ year Amana Radarange away when I bought this new condo 3 years ago, and it never needed to be serviced, that thing was a tank), now they break twice in five years. Sigh. Finally, since my microwave came with the place, I don't know exactly what this would cost - whether it's the same price as listed here. It does seem a lot for a microwave. And while it's pretty, it doesn't feel quite like the tank my Radarange was. As as someone else noted, to reiterate, it's not the most powerful microwave on the market. It's ok. But just okay.

I've now had my GE XL1800 for ten years (I bought my house in early 2002 and this new microwave was installed in the kitchen then), and I have very few complaints about it. On the other hand, I don't like GE appliances in general, so go figure!

In the last several months, the one and two minute "timed cook" buttons intermittently don't work always, but other than that, it's performed very well over the ten years. If you ask me why I haven't given it a full five stars, I really don't have a perfect answer, sorry! I just don't always trust GE, but perhaps that's merely a bias of mine. This microwave is well designed, has worked nearly perfectly for ten years, and it also looks great.