The biggest difference is the speed feature. That uses a combination of heated air convection, halogen, and microwaves to cook things fast, and still have them be "normally" cooked. That is, browned, heated from the outside, etc. I can imagine that with three boys, cooking a chicken, for instance, very fast (I think it's 20 minutes for a whole one, certainly not longer than half an hour), might be a big advantage. If they're still small, remember, they're going to become walking appetites pretty soon. I'd say that in terms of what you can cook on the speed oven feature, and the results, it would be a definite plus for your limited time dinners.

I don't have direct knowledge of convection microwaves, but as far as I understand it, they're very different from speed ovens. You're basically getting microwaved plus some heat, rather than a balance of three kinds of heat, if I understand correctly. My friends have only told me stories of bad, there, but I'm sure they've improved in the last number of years. Not enough people have posted about using them here for be to get a handle on it.

A big issue on the second oven basis is whether the convection MW is 120V or 240V. As I understand it (though the engineering isn't my strong suit), what makes the Advantium 240 work so well, besides the speedier speed cooking, is that it has enough power to be a "real" oven on convection only.

I've only used mine on oven only for things that aren't particularly delicate, but it does a great job. It's also a darned good microwave, but is way too expensive to choose for its MW abilities, because you can get those by themselves for much less.

I am also considering the Advantium and the GE Profile wall oven for the same reason. I have 4 kids and entertain a lot but I don't have room for two ovens and a microwave.

I talked with several appliance dealers (at different stores) and got the same impression from them. They said a convection microwave will not work like a regular oven, although some say they will. They said that bread/rolls/cookies, cakes, etc don't turn out well at all. That's when I started looking at the Advantium. It has mixed reviews but I'm still leaning towards it.

DH is a builder and sent me to the appliance woman he's been dealing with for many years. They have the Advantium working in their showroom and she said they are always cooking in it for lunch. She said they make cookies, rolls, casseroles, chicken nuggets, baked potatoes and a bunch more and have never had a problem. It is 4 ovens in 1 (convection, microwave, speed oven, broil (I believe).

No broil. At least not what I'd call broil. They usually cite the warming setting in the literature, but that uses microwaves and isn't meant to hold over time like a warming drawer does. It's more for things like holding one or two things while you finish making dinner.

Above, I think LWO is talking about on the speed settings.

On the convection only setting, the Advantium acts like any other convection oven -- bakes/roasts through the circulation of hot air.

I have a convection microwave. Using convection only, it acts, well, like a convection oven. I used it last night to cook some packaged frozen fish. Instruction said 450 for 25 minutes. So set for 450 and 25 minutes. Came out fine.

It does not have a broiler element like the Advantium. It will not toast. It will not crisp your chicken skin. And I would not do steaks in it any more than I would try to bake a steak in an oven.

I do not use the combination modes because it doesn't have the flexibility I want (Sharp). That is, there are only two settings. I don't know enough about it to know which setting to use under what situation. And I can't change it (increase the microwave, decrease the temperature) beyond the two settings.

I wouldn't do cake in my Sharp simply because I usually to 3 pans at a time and there is no room, I use my oven. Rolls, biscuits, casseroles, anything I want to warm without microwaving, etc I do in the Sharp.

Thanks all. Very helpful! Yes, it would substitute for a second oven at times, and the speed is very appealing to me for lifestyle reasons. I guess I'll stick with the Advantium!

Convection oven setting not all that different in 120v or 240v Advantiums, but the high-speed cooking option that uses the halogen lights to cook works MUCH better and faster in the 240V version, which has 4x the wattage (7200 vs. 1800) to work with. The 120v version, besides taking twice as long, resorts much more to microwaving during high-speed cooking, yielding less-crispy food in the high-speed or broil settings.

We were slated to install the 240v as it will be installed over a wall oven and used as a second oven. Thanks for the explanation of why that was a better choice - I had gathered that but never had it put so succinctly!

As I recall (from over a year ago now), the 120V Advantium was also much less reliable. Most of the online complaints I saw about early failures seemed to be from people who had under-powered 120V Advantiums rather than the 220V ones.

I found this thread because I was researching microwave convection ovens with halogen cooking. I can't share anything about that since I don't have one yet, but I can respond to the comments about microwave convection cooking. You might be surprised to find out that they have been around a long time. My husband suprised me with a Kenmore microwave convection oven 30 years ago when we first got married. It cost $600 which was quite a lot of money back then. Later, it became hard to find them, which might have been because of the hefty price tag.

You could use it on microwave only, convection only, or both. We loved it. It was quite large for a microwave, and could fit a 13x9 pan so it quickly replaced my regular oven for cooking except on rare occassions when I needed the bigger size of the oven for cookies, turkeys, etc. The 120v Micro/covection oven used less electricity than the oven so saved money. It is absolutely not true that convection doesn't bake as well as an oven. Mine baked to perfection on convection setting. Using the combo setting, I could bake brownies in 12-15 minutes and they came out perfect. For most other things, I usually used either the microwave or the convection setting, not the combo setting. But that was only because on combo it was a little tricky to figure out how long to cook something and at what temperature so I never got into the habit of using it that way. If we had had Internet back then, I am sure I could have found a lot more help figuring that out. With some assistance on settings, I would have used the combo setting more, which certainly did speed up cooking a lot.

Bottom line, I used that oven for about 25 years, but we left it behind when we moved about 5 years ago. I miss having a a combo microwave/convection oven a lot and hope to get another one, with or without the halogen cooking.

Just bought a GE Profile convection microwave. From the above I am gathering I cannot do toast in it. Right?

You could try. :) Probably not, though.

I once had a Montgomery Ward microwave oven the had the convection feature. The biggest problem was that it operated at 120 V. The convection feature had to be turned on for about half an hour before cooking to raise the internal temperature enough to roast. We never bothered to use it because it was a time waster.

I have had my Advantium 240 OTR for 9 years now. I use it just about every day, usually in the speed cooking mode. It combines the functions of a broiler, oven, grill and mic in one. I cook virtually everything in it, from stews to steaks to heat ups/crisp ups of takeout food. I would give up my regular oven, toaster oven and gas grill before I'd give up my Advantium. On the downside, the OTR exhaust fan is loud and has a weak draw, and the oven interior is a bit of work to clean.

Pillog was on the right track as far as speed ovens go.

A 220-240 volts speed oven can "walk & chew gum" at the same time.

IE, it can microwave and convection bake simultaneously, whilst a 120 volt advantium and some microwave/convection ovens can do one of the other but not at the same time, hence the "Speed factor" for the 220 volt speed ovens.

It typically takes from 45 minutes to an hour to bake potatoes in my regular oven, including preheat, and even using convection, it takes about that long, whilst my speed oven has the taters done in 14 minutes, including preheat, and myself, I can't tell the difference in the potatoes, whether speed cooked or done in our regular oven.

Gary

Gary, dear, it's three L's. What was I on the right track about? My posts from 2011?

The current topic is toast. I've had toast from a regular oven broiler that wasn't perfect but was toast. I tried in the Advantium, for an experiment, on the speedcook toast setting. It wasn't what I'd call good toast but it was kind of toasted. I don't think a convection only oven could produce proper toast. Maybe English toast (cold, dry and hard).

Well, it was this, I was talking about:

The biggest difference is the speed feature. That uses a combination of heated air convection, halogen, and microwaves to cook things fast, and still have them be "normally" cooked. That is, browned, heated from the outside, etc.

To do toast, I do not use the Speed Function, instead I select the grill function, I wait for the speed oven to preheat, then pop the bread slices in, set for about 2 minutes, as I recall, flip the bread after about 1 min. It comes out pretty good, albeit not as fast as a regular toaster but we just don't eat enough toast to buy a regular toaster.

One would think the Advantium could be used the same way for toast and perhaps even the Miele, just don't try to "Speed cook it" per say.

Gary

Okay. ;) Thanks! I'm glad to know that my 3.5 year old post is still cutting it. :)

My Advantium doesn't have a grill function other than a speed cook setting. I think the newer ones do.

Randy Henderson, whose new question bumped this old thread up, has a convection/microwave, not a speed oven, so, as far as I know, there's no grill feature nor halogen top heat, so no toast. That is, so long as the temperature is above 350°, the bread will brown eventually. The question is whether it'll be all dried out and hard by the time that happens.

No toast. Get a countertop toaster. However I absolutely disagree with the earlier post in this thread that you can't bake in a convection microwave. Certainly you wouldn't want to bake anything sensitive or in volume, but for light, quick baking it works fine.

Same experience as above and pam_r. We have Sharp 930 which has a fairly large opening and do baking (popovers, brownies, souffles) and roasting (whole chicken breasts, meatloaf, etc). We use it all the time and have had 3 over the years. Micro is a little slower than smaller ones but easy to adapt to. Have to stay up with keeping SS interior clean. Doesn't heat up the kitchen as much as our main range. Was a good economical choice when we had no room for an additional wall oven. Haven't used an Advantium so can't compare.

I caution anyone considering placing a microwave over an oven. A spill of any liquid from the microwave will potentially “fry” the control board of the oven below. I’m speaking from personal experience. I have seen some units micro/oven combination, with all the controls at top, that’s a better option.

I’ve had the GE Profile Advantium in the past, I loved it. Works great as a second oven.

We have had our Advantium since 2004 got extended warranty and used it once for door lock issue. We love our Advantium could not live without it. GE service was fantastic but haven't seen them since 2009. Our unit is used every day. It's the

HU-26264978 does it work well as a microwave? I foresee our main use will be as MW and essentially replacing our toaster oven that

Yes