Family Size Microwaves

23 Litre and Larger Microwaves

Once a household is cooking in the microwave rather than only reheating in it, cavity size becomes the constraint. A 23 litre microwave takes a large dinner plate or a small casserole dish without the edges catching on the walls as the turntable rotates, which is the point at which the machine stops dictating what you can put in it. A 25 litre gives a little more room again, and a 32 litre holds a full dinner service and is the size to look at if you regularly reheat several plates or cook for a crowd.

Power runs 800W, 900W and 1000W at this size. 800W matches what packet instructions assume, 900W is meaningfully quicker on anything dense, and 1000W is the fastest available in a domestic solo microwave. The specification worth understanding here is inverter power. A conventional microwave produces heat by pulsing full power on and off, so a 30 per cent setting is really full power for three seconds in ten; an inverter holds a genuine steady 30 per cent instead. In practice that is the difference between a defrosted chicken breast and one that is cooked at the edges and frozen in the middle, and it matters for melting, softening and anything delicate.

These are larger machines on the counter as well as inside, so measure the space including clearance at the back and both sides for the vents. A stainless steel interior is close to standard at this size and is worth having, since a bigger cavity is a bigger thing to wipe out. Digital controls with weight-based auto programmes are the norm rather than manual dials, and a solo microwave at this size remains the cheapest to run: no grill element, no convection fan, just fast reheating and cooking.

Dimplex covers 23 litre 900W microwaves with stainless steel interiors, in manual and digital, in black and stainless. Panasonic supplies the 32 litre 1000W inverter solo microwave in black, the largest cavity in the range, and Samsung 23 litre 800W freestanding solo models in white. For 17 and 20 litre machines see small and compact microwaves, for a cavity with no turntable see flatbed microwaves, and for the full range see microwaves.

Inverter models are the one specification in this category genuinely worth paying more for, so a reduction that brings an inverter microwave down to the price of a conventional one is the best buy on the page. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on microwaves on sale.