Review of the built-in microwave oven Millen MBW 381 SX

Millen MBW 381 SX is a typical and standard built-in microwave oven designed for installation in kitchen furniture. A distinctive feature is its integration into the kitchen interior, in contrast to tabletop models, which are installed surface-mounted on a table or counter. It is clear that such functionality affects the price of the device, because built-in equipment usually has a higher cost compared to stand-alone analogues.

As for the functionality of the device, it is quite standard: the microwave is equipped with a built-in grill, offers 8 automatic programs and 5 power levels. Let's take a closer look at the device and conduct experiments by preparing several dishes with its help.

^* Contrary to popular belief, this is not the time limit after which the device will necessarily break down. However, after this period, the manufacturer ceases to bear any responsibility for its performance and has the right to refuse to repair it, even for a fee.

The microwave arrived in a large cardboard box with the brand, model and brief technical information on the front. There are cut-out handles on the sides of the box, and basic information about the device and its technical characteristics is also provided. The front side contains the model name, the Millen logo and an image of the device itself.

After opening the box we found the following components:

• Microwave oven.
• Grill grate.
• Glass turntable.
• Frame with wheels.
• A package with printed materials, including operating instructions, installation instructions and a warranty certificate.

The oven itself was protected with a plastic bag and placed in foam molds to prevent possible damage during transportation.

The Millen MBW 381 SX microwave oven is made in the classic style typical of built-in kitchen appliances. To provide a universal look in any kitchen, regardless of the design or color of the fronts, built-in appliances are often available with a metal or black front panel.

This model uses a combination of metal elements (main frame with control panel) and black color (microwave window frame and display).

The microwave oven is controlled using electromechanical buttons. There is a small display above the buttons (detailed discussion is presented in the “Control” section).

The traditional handle is located above the buttons, and below is a large key designed to open the door.

The manufacturer claims that the microwave is equipped with a triple glazed door. However, we only noticed two glasses and a standard mesh grille between them. The site probably provides inaccurate information (for example, touch controls are incorrectly indicated there).

There are no additional elements worthy of attention found on the sides of the stove.

On the back side we notice ventilation holes, a curved protective screen and a place for attaching a cord. The electric cable is 1 meter long and the plug is already installed, making it easy to connect the microwave oven to a working outlet.

The interior of the chamber is made of stainless steel. Below is a glass rotating tray.

On top of the chamber behind the grille there is a grill heating element.

On the right is the traditional magnetron protection, made in the form of a mica plate. The light bulb for illuminating the working chamber is located next to the mica plate, hidden behind round metal holes.

The diameter of the tray is 315 mm and it is made of durable glass. To ensure rotation, it is mounted on a round plastic frame with small wheels.

The grill grate is made of stainless steel and equipped with 3 stable legs.

Summing up the external inspection, we see before us a classic microwave oven that does not have any unique technical solutions. The front panel of the device, combining glass and metal, creates the impression of an expensive and stylish design. This microwave will fit seamlessly into any kitchen interior.

Among the printed materials, we found instructions — a black and white brochure of 36 pages, printed on medium quality paper.

As usual, the manual describes in detail the control and functionality of the oven in various modes. For the convenience of the user, images of buttons and icons are presented, as well as an informative table with data on products and their weight for auto modes.

The kit also includes a sheet with markings that will make it easier to install the microwave oven in its intended place in the kitchen unit and ensure reliable fastening.

The use of the Millen MBW 381 SX microwave oven can also be described as quite classic. The user has several buttons at his disposal, a knob for adjusting the time (selecting modes), as well as a simple display that displays the cooking time or the index of the selected program.

All buttons on the control panel of the Millen MBW 381 SX microwave oven are labeled, which makes it easier to understand their functionality. The total number of buttons on the panel is 7. Their purpose is mostly intuitive:

1. Microwaves — five power modes.
2. Grill/combi – grill mode, as well as two grill/microwave modes with different power ratios (55% microwaves and 45% grill or 36% microwaves and 64% grill).
3. Defrosting by weight (from 100 to 2000 g).
4. Defrost by time (up to 95 minutes).
5. Timer/clock.
6. Stop/cancel.
7. Start/+30 seconds/confirmation of the selected mode.

The display shows a countdown timer during the cooking process and the corresponding alphanumeric symbols for the selected modes. It is possible to set up cooking in two stages, for example defrosting and then processing using microwaves.

Sound signals (squeaks) accompany all actions. There is also a child lock and a query function that allows you to find out the selected power or the current time without interrupting cooking.

Before use, it is recommended to wash the glass tray and grill grate in soapy water and dry. The device itself can be wiped with a damp cloth and then dry.

The choice of cookware is standard: plastic, paper, heat-resistant glass, ceramics, baking bags.

When the microwave is connected to the network, you can set the clock. But it is worth remembering that these settings are reset when there is a power outage, so you will have to set the time again.

The controls are simple, but to fully use the programs, it is recommended to keep the instructions nearby or at least one sheet with their description.

When the button is gently pressed, the door opens approximately 30 degrees and then stops. You can open it completely manually. This is quite convenient, since the door will not slam or dangle too much.

It's important to note that during testing we had some questions regarding the grill's performance, and we'll go into more detail about this in the Testing section.

To maintain the functionality and preserve the appearance of the microwave oven in its original condition, the manufacturer recommends the following steps:

1. After using the microwave oven, clean the inside of the microwave oven with a damp cloth.
2. Wash accessories in soapy water.
3. If the door frame, sealing gasket or adjacent parts become dirty, clean them with a damp cloth.

The instructions provide a detailed table that describes the rules for cleaning various parts of the microwave. In most cases, it is recommended to use a soap solution.

To remove unpleasant odors that arise, for example, after cooking fish, you can use the following method. Pour water into a cup and add a few drops of lemon juice. Place a spoon in the container to prevent bubbles from forming. Then heat the water and lemon juice in the oven for 1-2 minutes on the highest microwave setting.

We heated 0.5 liters of water at maximum power with an initial temperature of 20 °C and obtained the following data:

In standby mode, the microwave oven consumes up to 2 W, with the door open (with backlight) — up to 23 W. The maximum power we recorded is 1380 W, when the grill is running — up to 900 W.

The time will come to check the efficiency of our microwave oven. We will conduct a series of standard tests and additionally evaluate the functionality of some automatic programs to find out how correctly the cooking modes are selected.

Let's start with the usual task that every microwave oven is tasked with — heating frozen pizza. To do this, we took a pizza weighing 400 g and used the corresponding program (A-2, 400 g).

The microwave oven has determined that it will take 2 minutes and 30 seconds to heat up the pizza. Let's see how she did.

To heat up the pizza, 0.05 kWh was spent.

Within the specified time (2.5 minutes), the pizza dough defrosted and became quite warm, but not hot. The cheese started melting on the sides but remained unmelted in the center.

In our opinion, the pizza requires additional heating. We manually added another minute, after which we got the expected result — pizza with melted cheese, hot and delicious.

In our assessment, we have two impressions: “average” in the automatic program and “excellent” in the final result.

Rating: Average/Excellent

The second test of the automatic program is “Potatoes”, mode A6, 400 g.

The microwave calculated the time and concluded that it takes 7.5 minutes to cook this amount of potatoes. Let's check the result.

Here's what the potatoes looked like when they were done cooking.

Let's see what's inside.

In general, the potatoes can be considered almost ready. It turned out to be a little undercooked, but with a tough skin characteristic of a microwave oven.

In our opinion, we could have added another 30 seconds, but even in this state the dish can be considered cooked. Energy consumption was 0.165 kWh.

Result: excellent

The automatic program for cooking meat (A4) provides for cooking 250, 350 or 450 g of product at a time. For this test, we took exactly 450g of chicken drumsticks, sprinkled them with a mixture of salt and spices, and then ran the program for 6 minutes 30 seconds.

After this time, the microwave consumed 0.15 kWh of electricity, and the chicken looked completely cooked.

Let's see if the meat is cooked inside.

Great! This time the automatic program did an excellent job. The chicken was cooked completely, with no residual raw areas on the bones.

Result: excellent

We successfully cooked the chicken, but, unfortunately, microwaves cannot create an appetizing crust; this requires a grill. We have several combination modes with different grilling intensities.

We took three more chicken drumsticks and decided to cook them for the same time (6.5 minutes) on the combination setting (55% microwave, 45% grill).

After 6.5 minutes, we saw the chicken was relatively cooked, but there was no crispiness to speak of.

Perhaps you should increase the grill power? Select the second combination mode (36% microwave, 64% grill) and run the microwave for another 6.5 minutes.

The appearance hasn't changed too much. The chicken is already completely cooked, the skin and top layer of meat are dry, but the crust has just begun to form.

Let's add more grill. Six minutes without microwaves.

Finally, something like a crust began to appear on the surface of the chicken. However, we assess this result as average.

We started looking for what the reason was. And, apparently, the reason is that the grill periodically overheats and automatically turns off. We found this out using a wattmeter: power consumption when the grill is running is about 900 W, and when idle it is 40 W.

In practice, it looks like this: upon completion of the combined mode, we set the “grill” mode, start the microwave… and within two minutes (!) we observe energy consumption at 40 W. The grill doesn't heat up! After two minutes, the grill finally wakes up and starts grilling. But the user remains confident that these 2 minutes are well spent. The microwave does not give any warnings that the grill needs to cool down or the user needs to add additional cooking time.

Result: average

Let's try to figure out the grill again. Let's prepare the simplest dish — hot sandwiches with cheese and brisket. Select the “grill” mode, without microwaves. We set the time to 10 minutes to be safe.

Again we arm ourselves with a wattmeter and monitor what is happening. This time the grill worked for 6 minutes, consuming 870-900 W. After 6 minutes, power consumption dropped to 40 W. So the grill shut down again without warning and sat idle for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Then the cooking process resumed. Obviously, in more than 2 minutes our sandwiches managed to cool down, which means that after a forced “rest” the grill again had to warm up the cooled surface of the sandwiches.

After 10 minutes we had hot grilled sandwiches. The cheese was melted, but there were virtually no browned areas on the bread.

Result: good

To prepare a pack of popcorn, according to the instructions, it only takes 2-3 minutes (depending on the power of the microwave). We set the power to maximum, started the stopwatch and began to wait.

During the cooking process, we heard the first pops of corn kernels after 1 minute and 20 seconds, active pops began after 2 minutes, and ended 3 minutes and 30 seconds after the start of cooking.

After opening the bag we found popcorn that was almost perfectly cooked. There were very few whole (not burst) kernels in the bag; the popcorn itself was cooked as it should be — without burnt areas (some microwave ovens begin to “fry” already opened kernels while others have not yet had time to open).

For the defrost test, we chose homemade minced meat (a mixture of pork and beef) and, where possible, used the built-in defrost program. Our microwave immediately had two such programs — defrost by weight and defrost by time. Naturally, we chose defrosting by weight.

The microwave took 16 minutes to defrost 800 g of minced meat, but we found out that our device does not have an intermediate sound signal that would warn about the need to turn the minced meat. The microwave operates continuously, without stopping or beeping.

During defrosting, 0.11 kWh was consumed. After this time, we found that the minced meat had defrosted by about 60%.

The outer layer turned out to be carefully defrosted. Below there were several areas where the minced meat began to bake.

Having removed the defrosted part, we noticed that a dense meat “bun” remained inside, the weight of which was approximately 40% of the initial weight of the minced meat. It will have to be defrosted additionally.

The thawed part of the minced meat impressed us. With the exception of areas that touched the plate, the minced meat defrosted neatly and delicately.

The findings were again inconsistent. Although there is an automatic mode, which generally copes with the task, you cannot completely rely on it: some of the minced meat needs to be additionally defrosted after the main program is completed. The question arises about the need for automatic mode, if in this case it is easier and more efficient to set the time manually.

Result: good

The Millen MBW 381 SX built-in microwave oven left a good impression. Its modern and stylish design will add elegance to any kitchen. The microwave mode works perfectly, providing excellent cooking quality. The automatic programs also proved to be quite adequate, allowing you to cook a variety of dishes including meat, potatoes, pasta and vegetables — something that is rare in most microwave ovens.

The operation of the built-in grill caused some surprise. Despite its good power of up to 900 W, during testing it turned out that the grill periodically turns off and “rests”. However, this did not prevent the preparation of very decent test dishes.

Pros:

• good quality in microwave mode
• stylish appearance
• adequate automatic programs

Minuses:

• we felt that the grill could have been more powerful