Customer Reviews

Panasonic NN-H965BF Luxury Full-Size 2.2-Cubic-Foot 1,250-Watt Microwave Oven, Black

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

[ Dec 2006 ]
We've had this microwave for a couple of months now, so I can't comment on its long-term reliability.

Good:

Mostly, it's been fine. It meets my primary requirement for a microwave, which is that you can put food into it, press 3 0 START, and it cooks for 30 seconds at full power. (It's amazing how many microwaves fail that test, requiring some other key before the time. Easy enough if you know how to use it, but not for visitors.)

It can do relatively complex sequences like:
- Wait 5 minutes (to line up completion time with other foods)
- Cook 4 minutes
- Wait 20 seconds (to give me time to stir)
- Cook 3 minutes
- Wait 2 minutes (post-cook "let stand" time)

It'll prompt you through most operations, though ... the ... prompting ... is ... kind ... of ... tedious.

The Sensor Reheat feature seems to do a pretty good job of warming food up to a good serving temperature. It overwarms frozen corn dogs a little, but only a little.

I haven't used it much, but the Sensor Cook feature did a good job on baked potatoes.

Complaints:

It's going to sound picky, but my biggest complaint with this microwave is that its beeper isn't loud enough. It's a little chirp-chirp that you could easily miss if you're in the next room. It does repeat the chirp every few minutes until you open the door.

The child lock is too hard to use. My other child-lockable appliances have a button with a lock icon on it; if you hold the button for about 5 seconds it locks or unlocks the device. For this one, though, the sequence is Function, 5, 1 to lock and Function, 5, 2 to unlock. (I had to go check.) Too hard to remember, and if you don't know that it starts with "Function" you're just hosed.

Nits:

There are a few features I don't use yet (and so at the moment they represent unnecessary complexity) - Popcorn, More/Less. "Quick Minute" doesn't seem like enough of a win to be worth a dedicated button - 1 0 0 START vs QM START? 6 0 START if you optimize a bit means QM only cuts out one keystroke. If you need three minutes, QM QM QM START is the same as 3 0 0 START.

I'd like a "hard pause" feature, where it would stop a cook sequence and beep, and then resume the cook sequence when I press "Start" after I stir the food.

[ July 2009 ]
Still happy with it, no problems.

[ October 2009 ]
At right about 3 years... just started smoking and shutting itself off. That's not good.

I bought this 6 months ago to replace a ten-year-old GE 1000W microwave. I have it installed in the same cabinet opening as the old GE, but with a different third party grillwork.

Plusses:

The oven cavity is gigantic.

It has lots more functions than I have used and probably more than I will ever use. I bought it for the size and color.

It boils water and cooks/heats thing substantially faster than my old GE. The defrost seems to be more even, but this is not a major change from my old GE.

Minuses:

The timer/done beeper is not loud enough. If I have the stove exhaust fan running on low, I cannot hear the beeper unless I am listening intently for it. If nothing is running in the kitchen, I can hear it at a much lower volume level than the old GE. The beeper does NOT repeat with reminders unless you turn the option on in the functions menu.

This microwave is electronically noisy. It kills my wireless WIFI connection whereas the old GE barely slowed it down. It also causes a noticable garbling of cordless phone calls. Again the GE did not do this. I don't know if the GE was abnormally good or if the Panasonic is abnormally bad, but the transition was downhill.

If I try to do anything complicated, the microwave prompts me through it with scrolling pormpts on a display that is too small for the purpose. The information is there, but it is a slow process. I would have prefered more info on the decal inside the oven so I didn't have to wait while things scroll by 6 letters at a time. The fact -- that there is help -- is good.

The exterior of the oven door is a high-gloss, soft plastic. The softness makes it easy to get small scratches on it. The high-gloss makes it easy to see them.

ENJOY YOUR MEAL

I own the predecessor to this model, the H964. It's the 2nd Panansonic microwave of this size that we've bought--in just 3 years. The first lasted 1 1/2 years and had to be repaired once. The second died three weeks after the warranty period. After literally 8 calls to Panasonic customer service (asking for the serial number, calling back with it, etc etc.) they agreed to at least cover the cost of a repair estimate (they eventually paid for the entire repair cost).

The problem was that the fuse had died. The authorized repair facilitiy told me that the only microwaves they ever get for repair are Panasonics; he said the problem is that to reduce their weight, they use smaller parts, like the tubes, which can't handle the load for long. He also said that their fuses don't last.

The repair person recommended either Sharp or Sanyo as much longer lasting. I checked the weight of a similar-sized Sharp and saw that it weighed about 6 pounds more than the Panasonic--presumably because some parts are heftier.

When this newly-repaired Panasonic dies again, it will be long out of warranty and then we'll try our luck with a Sharp. Replacing a microwave every 18-20 months is not my idea of money well spent.

We owned this microwave for 28 months when it stopped working (it would run for just a few seconds before turning off, while expelling a horrible smell of burned semiconductors). I pulled the cabinet off to investigate the problem (needed a torx security bit to do this) - if you attempt this, don't forget to unplug the microwave first. I very cautiosly plugged the microwave back in (keeping my distance from the exposed electronics while wearing safety glasses), and started it... the inverter (p/n F606Y6G00CP) was smoking and melting part of it's plastic housing. I have opted to scrap the microwave versus trying to replace this $75+ part.

Before buying this microwave I would recommend googling "panasonic inverter problem". As far as I can tell, these Panasonic ovens have a chronic quality problem. The science behind the inverter results in a lighter microwave oven, meaning cheaper to produce and ship. My recommendation is to avoid this oven even though the feature set seems compelling, and reviewers (mostly who just bought the oven) are giving it high ratings.

On the plus size, we loved the large size and the high wattage rating - foods cooked quicker in this microwave than our previous 1000 watt oven. We used the sensor cooking for 3.5 oz popcorn bags, and it worked fairly well, leaving only 20 or so old maids in the bag (however my advice is to follow the directions on the popcorn bag instead of using the sensor cooking - keep track of how many seconds are really needed, then just key that in for future bags). Also, the turbo defrost did a decent job in defrosting hamburger evenly and quickly.

This microwave did disrupt our Wi-Fi (802.11g) network. We frequently stream video wirelessly and the microwave would disrupt the signal, pausing the streaming. The scarey thing is my wife and I could stand together in front of the microwave, blocking the disruption (one of us alone apparently doesn't offer enough resistance to whatever signals the microwave is emitting).

As much as I liked this microwave, I would not buy another Panasonic with inverter technology. I cannot give a product that has known reliability issues more than 2 stars (and am probably generous there). I hope others who have bought this microwave have better luck than we had.

The good: really large; this will take a large pizza and easily turn; it will even take a full size casserole dish (13X9). Very light weight because of the Inverter technology so it is easy to move. The inverter, as I understand it, operates the oven at the level you request verses non-inverters which run 100% power in spirts to produce the same amount of cooking over time. Easy to use programing.

The bad; the inverter doesn't seem to have much of a life span and when it goes it costs too much to replace; you pretty much have to buy a new oven. And it does interfere with wireless phones. We can't have them on simultaneously.

Gave this a 4 overall because when our inverter burned up (literally) we bought another one because of the size, lightness and speed.

I agree with the previous review. Bought this for my folks who love some of the features but it must be rather cheaply built. Broke down first time within 6 months of use.

Now, it has broken again. It would cost more to fix than to buy a new one, and you only get a month or two warranty on such repairs.

I'd rather spend a couple hundred dollars more on something that would last. Not repeating the same mistake twice.

I'm beginning to think that things like this should come with a mandatory 3 to 5 year warranty (at least) to force manufacturers to build less disposable products -- or at least that it should come with some sort of plan for recycling for when it inevitably breaks.

My wife taught microwave cooking when the amama radarange came out. We bought this to replace another panasonic microwave unit. She liked it so much we bought a second unit. These units have a lot of space & power. Had them almost 2 years with no problems at all. She cooks with microwaves every day. Highly recommended.

Bought this to replace a 12 YO microwave. Was looking for a "large" simple to use replacement. It need to be simple as my wife is techno challenged :).

We looked the old Microwave and you used the touch pad to enter the time and pressed start. It also has a Minute plus, press it for a minute touch it again for another minute.

This fit the bill. Others I looked at appeared to be more complicated and had functions that we rarely or never use.

Another plus this oven was almost exactly the size of my old one so it fit into the built in space and allowed me to use the old "frame".

It is taking a little bit of time to get use to the timing. THe old microware took about 3 minutes to biol a cip of water., this one less than
2.5 minutes. Have burnt a couple of bags of popcorn, the old took 2.6 minutes this one still burns at 2 minutes.

I saw this at a local store for $20 more plus tax. Shipping was free, which was a big surprise, given the size of this. Also was not charged tax.
So with this unit having the features I wanted, free shipping, about $40 in total saving then purchasing locally, and not having to go to the store, get this fairly large and heavy box home and into my house this was a no brainer for me.

Very happy with purchase.

We bought this microwave to replace our old one that died after 14 years.
This one is almost perfect. I do wish that you could use the timer simultaneously with the cooking process. Our old one did that.
It's a small thing though. It has so much power that it actually
fractured a plate I was cooking on yesterday. Hadn't seen that happen before. It happened at about 10 minutes while cooking the large pot pie.
It's very big and roomy. It has a huge rotating glass tray.
Overall I love it!!

I read that Panasonic microwave ovens have gone down in quality in recent years but I went ahead and bought one anyway because I needed to change out the old unit and the trim kit would only work with the size of the unit I bought. Well, my reluctance in buying the H965 model was justified. After only 10 months the unit gave out. I know the prices have come down but I would prefer to buy something that can actually last! Don't buy Panasonic unless you're willing to change it out every year.