Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you don't want to spend a lot of time reading I'll save you the trouble. This is a poorly executed design, with poor quality workmanship and manufacturing - Don't buy it! You'd be wasting your money - Buy something of a different brand than Sharp because they don't stand behind their products, and they don't care about their customers. We have owned the white version of this microwave for just over three years. Within the first 3 months of installation, the drawer quit working. The drawer is actuated by a rack and pinion gear set. The pinion gear started spinning on the drive motor shaft and so the drawer would not open and close except manually. We had to remove the unit and drive 30 miles to the nearest "authorized" service center so it could be fixed. The technician had to glue the pinion to the motor shaft to fix it. Whatever he used for glue must have worked because that problem was solved. Next problem... During cooking some food, we noticed a loud crackling/arching sound and corresponding flashes coming from inside the microwave. It smelled like burning metal and plastic as well. When I inspected to find out what it was, I realized that there is a cover inside the microwave that is designed to help distribute the microwaves evenly, with the help of an aluminum "stirrer" reflector/antenna above it. The "stirrer" had stopped rotating as it is supposed to do, and it was arching on the cover. I had to remove the cover to get it to stop. We continued to use the microwave anyway because, quite frankly I didn't want to deal with another problem. Finally, during our Thanksgiving holiday dinner preparation, we heard a loud buzzing noise coming from the unit. It was no longer heating at all. Realizing that the unit was out of the 1 year parts and service warrantee, I decided to just take this little project on. I'm a pretty handy guy and there are many guides on how to safely work on a microwave on the web. Upon opening up the cover, I began investigating the reason why the stirring antenna/reflector had stopped rotating because it seemed obvious that if the magnetron (microwave frequency generator) was dead (as I suspected) this original problem had probably caused the subsequent problem. I found that the motor that rotates the stirring reflector had been installed incorrectly from the factory! There are 4 holes used to position and mount the motor. Whomever installed the motor had rotated it incorrectly and mounted it using the wrong holes. This caused the square plastic motorized gearbox shaft to be pushed up against the housing sidewall. When I removed the motor, I could see where it had been rubbing against the housing. All that stress had caused it to fail prematurely. When I called Sharp customer service to inform them that I had a warrantee claim, they refused to send me the parts. When I explained the defects that I had found, they informed me that I needed to take it to a service center and PAY to have it diagnosed, and then they would "consider" sending the parts! So let me get this straight... I found a factory defect that very likely contributed to the premature magnetron failure, and now I get to pay someone to tell me what I already know? Sharp refused to provide any assistance with regard to parts replacement. In doing so, they essentially refused to extend any trust to the customer whatsoever. Yeah... I'm lying about all this stuff just so I can get you to send me microwave parts for a unit that is still within the 5 year factory defect warrantee. The magnetron for this unit is not available without a technician to order it for you. At this point, I've had to take a leap of faith and use a magnetron cross reference chart to order a compatible replacement magnetron and hope that it works. It was the least painful, least expensive option. This repair will end up costing an additional $110 with all the parts I had to order to fix it... Still cheaper than hiring someone to tell me what I already know, and then charging me for overpriced parts. If you've read to this point, thanks for spending the time necessary to convince yourself not to ever buy Sharp products. Customer service is a foreign phrase to Sharp.