Anyone got a combi microwave? Do you use the combi bit?

Yup. We have a 3/4 size combo oven and use it as an additional oven or grill when the need arises. As it’s smaller than the main oven it doesn’t take as long to heat up.

I do occasionally use the combined convection/microwave mode for my microwave, it can heat/cook stuff quicker than just using the oven and it's good for things that might end up a bit limp if reheated using just the microwave. I very occasionally have used its grill or convection functions on their own but that is pretty rare.

Never used grill or combi.

Ours gets used as either an oven or microwave. I think there are ways to combine them to make things quicker, such as crispy jacket spuds, but have never bothered. It's great for small oven things, but you have to remember it will be very hot still when you want to microwave something as well.

Yes got one.

No never used it!

We use ours loads for doing fish fingers, or chicken nuggets or whatever*. It uses a lot less energy. Also you can do say 300W microwave and heat, stuff cooks in half or a third of the time and is still crispy. Arguably even crispier as the microwaves heat up the special plate which crisps the bottom of your food as well.

Also I can make cheese on toast more quickly because the mini grill heats up fast as well.

* also works on posher food like salmon fillets..

good for spuds, rubbish for most other things. I'm not convinced they're more efficient, the majority of them have much worse insulation than an oven which is how you'll lose the heat (total exterior area, which is greater of an oven, multiplied by how well insulated it is, which is rubbish on most stand-alone combis)

Yeah, it just blew up last week and haven't got the money to replace it this month.  Missing it, may need to do the cost saving calculation for Mrs Idiot to sanction the spend.  It had airfry in it too, used it a couple of times and it was distinctly "meh" so unsure if that's airfrying for you or just a poor example of one.

Makes the microwave hard to clean, remember. Food is constantly spitting in the mic

Yep my Panasonic one is brilliant as a little oven. I use it much more than the actual oven.

panasonic combi here and regularly use the combi function - it’s brill - stick the microwave part on ‘warm’ (ie its lowest setting) and convection on 170 and take 30% ish off the cooking time of frozen stuff like nuggets, fish fingers, oven chips etc

edit: I use the ceramic tray on the high wire rack and anything higher than 170 burns I’ve found

Only used mine a couple of times, seemed more hassle than it was worth but probably is a fair bit more efficient than using a normal oven. As has also been said, unless you clean your microwave a lot you'll also find it turns into a smoke machine if you start using the heating coils to

We had a grill/oven/microwave combi that got loads of use....when we lived somewhere with no oven. Including whole Christmas dinners. We just got a cheap single-function microwave when it eventually blew up though (we had an oven by then).

They can certainly serve a purpose.

We have an oven (with steamer) and a oven/ micro.

Use the micro/oven as an oven at Christmas.

Never use the steam function on the oven

All the time. Everything from plate warming at 70C, to 360 hot air grilling at 220C. It doesn’t make steam. It’s used as an additional conventional oven during high load roast dinners too. 

Another Panasonic here.
Never used the grill, convection or combination functions; probably should.

When I had a microwave that had other functions - never used the other functions.

Now I have a integrated small oven / grill / microwave combi thing - all functions get used. But to be honest the microwave is a bit crap - only 600w.

Yep, had one in my last office, it was great.

It's basically doing what everyone does for a jacket potato, cooking it quickly with the microwaves and cooking the skin with a conventional oven.

Also works well for re-heating things like pasties and pies, which are horrible when microwaved.  Pre heat the 'oven', put the pie in, microwave for a minute and switch back to oven until crispy/flaky/delicious.

Got a Kenwood Grill/Combi/Convection/Microwave - use the microwave daily, used the other functions once.

I've got one of these:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8862415?clickSR=slp:term:microwave%20oven:6:7:1

I've only used the grill/oven function a few times as I have a gas oven/grill/hob, so i'm not sure how much more efficient it would be over the gas appliance.

I should probably make an effort to use the oven feature on the microwave more often as it must be more efficient for small portions? Certainly compared to an electric oven, but dunno about in comparison to gas.

Got a Kenwood Grill/Combi/Convection/Microwave – use the microwave daily, used the other functions once.
Precisely this. Inherited it from my dad about 10 years ago. The light has stopped working.
Apparently it does bacon, but so does my air fryer, very nicely.

Nope but we do have an air fryer which used all the time. In fact I don’t remember the last time we used our big oven.

It's all well and good to say you never use it, but that doesn't mean it's not good, it just means you need took the time to figure it out and test what it can do and if it's better. People generally just do what they've always done.

It’s all well and good to say you never use it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good, it just means you need took the time to figure it out and test what it can do and if it’s better. People generally just do what they’ve always done.

This.. mine does a pre-heat but it seems that's not built into the cooking time I dial in, as it beeps when it's preheated, but the timer will still be 5 mins into say a 25min 180c oven cycle..so I add 5 more mins?...
I need to RTFM.
I'm kinda tempted to get an air fryer, but the combi microwave got here first, and I have very limited worktop space, so I justr eally need to figure out how to use it properly!

We've got a Panasonic.  The combi bit kicks in automatically on preset programmes for baked potatoes and oven chips.  Quick and gets crispy outside. Requires zero additional effort

Also handy when it's hot because you can move it outside on an extension lead and cook without heating up the house.

Now I don't know whether the replacement microwave should just be a bog standard one and we get an air fryer too. I feel I've suitably missed the craze

Now I don’t know whether the replacement microwave should just be a bog standard one and we get an air fryer too. I feel I’ve suitably missed the craze

Depends how much worktop space you have, I guess that would be the main factor. An air-fryer (for arguments sake) takes up exactly the same amount of worktop space as a single or multi function microwave, so that is almost moot, may aswell get a combi micro OR an air fryer.

If you have a microwave and an air fryer, then you are looking at effectivley twice the worktop real estate.That's the number one reason I don't have an air fryer.

If you have a big kitchen, it's not an issue, you could line it up next to the bread maker, waffle maker, toaster, kettle, espresso machine, ice cream maker etc. but for a small house it could be a problem.

Yes, all the time for jacket spuds. Popty pinged whilst getting grilled crispiness

Yes, 2 in fact.

Combi modes? No and yes!

Built-in Bosch 5 series, too cryptic icons and program modes make Combi tricky to use.

Much older Panasonic gets used in Combi mode frequently, as it's easy to set up. Good at jacket spuds (15 mins for 1, 20 mins for 3 typical) and crisping the top on stuff using the grill while zapping the bulk.

Pana also gets used for bread defrosting in preference to the Bosch, as it's easy to use chaos defrost mode.

 high load roast dinners

That made me laugh. Thank you.

We've got a Panasonic one - a hand-me-down from the in laws after they moved back from France and brought it with them. It replaced a bog standard cheap microwave, which I think is still up in the loft awaiting the demise of this one.

It's awesome for baked potatoes, but I think that's all we use it for in the oveny mode. I WFH and use it for spuds a fair bit in the winter, and the rest of the time we're cooking for the whole family, so it's often easier to use the full oven.

The rest of the time we just use it as a microwave. This is probably because we didn't set out to buy a combi, so I really should look into it a bit more.

The only exception is when we were replacing our kitchen and basically the back ground floor of the house, which meant we were cooking in the hallway for a family of four for about six weeks. It sat on top of a very sad Freecycle fridge and was a bit of a lifesaver.

Jackets are good in it. It [i]does[/i] do good bacon but a pain to clean & inferior to the Ninja multi we now have in every way, so doesn’t get used for anything else!

I used to have a Panasonic one, and it was perfect for doing those little Chicago Town mini frozen pizzas. (Yeah, I know, but after the pub they’re just right).

Then my wife set fire to it by putting the baby bottle steriliser in on the grill setting rather than the microwave setting and it got replaced with a standard microwave. That was a fun night.

I used to have a Panasonic one, and it was perfect for doing those little Chicago Town mini frozen pizzas.

Mine does a full-size Lidl/Aldi big oval pizza beautifully.

The house came with one.

I have never used any of the combi functions.