If you know that you'll never use the advantium features and just need a microwave, then why get the advantium?

Same thing can be said for warming drawers...if they aren't going to be put into use, then why include them in a kitchen design?

a 120V advantium is a pretty handy appliance (can be used as a convection oven, MW, speed oven, and WD). That said, the learning curve is a bit high, and they are expensive.

If you aren't into the speed oven thing, I'd just get a convection / microwave and save a lot of money.

We have one. We only use the convection oven once or twice a year during holidays as a second oven. If we had room for a double oven I would rather have that. I think that it is only useful in small kitchens such as ours that lacks counter space or cabinet room.

We'd initially planned for an OTC (over-the-counter, not an over-the-range) microwave. Then, I joined this forum and started reading about how many people love their Advantium ovens, so I called our local appliance shop (from where we purchased most of our appliances) and which is also the local service center (for GE, along with all the other brands [KitchenAid, Thermador, Gaggenau, Sharp] we purchased).

Well, get aload of this: he refused to sell me one! He said, and I'm paraphrasing here: "We get more calls to service this than all the other appliances combined. I wouldn't sell them if I could get away with it, but GE doesn't work that way [with small appliance stores]." He went on that the people to whom he did sell them (before he became disenchanted and tried to steer folks away from them) have all (mostly? I don't know the validity) said they wished they hadn't purchased them and either replaced them with a straight microwave or learned to live with disappointment.

This is all hearsay -- I don't know any of these people myself. So I was truly confused: what folks here on GW said had me convinced the Advantium would be perfect for us but listening to our local service person had me convinced I'd be unhappy. We use our microwave multiple times throughout the day, so to be without it (if the Advantium were on the fritz) would be a real problem. (He also steered us as far away from Northland as he could, as well as telling us the U-Line refrigerator drawers would not make us happy in the location we had planned [he felt they were too noisy]).

I have to say, the fact that he would direct us away from some of his more expensive (and profitable) appliances totally made us believe his sincerity, so we chose to not go with the Advantium. But I still have pangs, wondering if it wouldn't have been super-handy. (as it is, we'll have a double convection wall oven plus the microwave, so I don't know why I'm having these pangs!)

That's my v. parochial story about Advantiums. We purchased (and should be installed mid-April, hopefully) the Sharp over-the-counter microwave.

Good luck with your choices!

Here is my experience. I have an Advantium 240 installed under counter as my second oven. It is a speed oven/micro combo with 100 preset items. I use all the features regularly. The microwave is super fast by iteself. The speed cook feature cooks a whole chicken in 25 minutes and it comes out super crispy outside and moist inside. I use it for baked potatoes, brownies (8 minutes) quiche (12 minutes), biscuits (8 minutes). Fresh pizzas (6 minutes), grilled sandwiches (3 minutes), chicken cutlets (9-10 min)

Fish comes out perfectly cooked (I don't cook it any other way now). I don't use it to cook beef or pork however. I don't like how it turns out as much as an oven.

I am a very particular cook and I do think it does a great job in its speed oven capacity. I have had it a year without a problem. My 2 friends have them too and they have not had a problem.

If you have kids or need to prepare food fast, I think it is a great tool but only if your cooking style warrants it. I would purchase it again for sure.

good luck.

I need to purchase a range and microwave. I have never had a convection oven, but I think I would like to get one.
It seems like over-kill to get both a range and mw with this feature. Which one would be best?

I wanted double ovens but did not have room for those and a microwave, so I'm getting the Advantium over a single oven. That way I will have two ovens when I need them. Make sense?

I also find that my KD sometimes suggests appliances that would be expensive & unnecessary for me. I find it especially odd because she doesn't make any money on the appliances - I order them independently.

She urged me repeatedly to get a combination microwave/convection oven when I'm already getting a Viking double oven with convection in both. And I've got a large enough toaster oven for small jobs. When I pointed all this out she said ,"Yes, but sometimes it's nice to have that 3rd smaller oven." I don't get it.

Sudiepav - you may want to post this same question on the GW Appliances forum. There are alot of people over there who have Advantiums.

try_hard

I'm considering the same question.

Right now, I only use my micro [a cheap daewoo with a heating element and convection] for 'typical' microwaving: popcorn, melting butter, water for tea, etc.

So I'm pretty certain the extra money for an advantium would be a waste for me. The Daewoo doesn't have the speed cook feature, but would I really use it? Probably not.

Because I live in the country, I can't run by the market, grab a chicken, and speed roast it. Dinner in a hurry means a pizza or lasagna from the freezer, or a quick homemade soup [my carrot-orange is remarkable].

Plus, I'll have 2 ovens without it, and I never recall needing three.

So a regular micro is the more responsible choice for me...

But I'm a gadget guy, and would enjoy showing off the advantium, even if I rarely used it's special features.

We renovated a prior home about 5 yrs ago and put in an Advantium after a rave review by a good friend. It's a nice appliance but frankly I hardly ever used the speed cooking part of it. We're starting to renovate our current kitchen and I'm going with a combo convection/micro.

oruboris

But I'm a gadget guy, and would enjoy showing off the advantium, even if I rarely used it's special features.

Well, as a fellow gadget guy I can say... it is a cool gadget. We have an Advantium 240 (Monogram SS)... we also have double convection ovens in our 48" range, so the convect feature of the 120V was not necessary for us. We bought it for the speed cook function / stylish microwave reasons.

The speed cook function is cool. Kids chicken nuggets in 3 minutes (no warmup time!). Reheated pizza perfectly in 2 minutes. Frozen 12" pizza, from box to table in 8 minutes (again... no preheat times). The food is cooked well (crispy where it should be, moist where it should be, etc).

It is a good microwave too. Worth the cost? Maybe. Cool gadget? You bet!

What I was getting at in my earlier post is that it does have a bit of a learning curve, so if someone doesn't fall into the "gadget lover" category, it may not be the best choice if a simple MW would suffice.

Had one and in honesty was glad to move on. The fact it has 3 options was my issue. If you are using one, the others can't be used. Ended up buying a separate microwave for use while the A was being used as an oven. Plus the light going out was a problem never solved.

I'm back to a great microwave together with my loved double oven stove which also has toaster and grill options. Other's love their A, just my take and what works personally.

I didn't have room for a 2nd 30" oven so I bought the Adv.120, which is 27". So far, we are not quite moved into the kitchen - but are using it as a microwave at the moment. However, as soon as I start cooking again I want to use the convection bake part and play with the speedcook. I hope to use it as our primary oven - but nobody over on the Appliances forum is answering my quesitions about it. Oh, well.

I also had 3 appliance places talk me out of the Advantium. They all told me to get a convection/microwave instead which was much less $$$. They said it is basically a very overpriced microwave. One of the salesman has one and said it is hard to get used to using it unless you cook similar things all the time. Timing and setting need to be perfected to get good results. As I don't do alot of repetitive cooking I thought that I might not like it.
We decided to go with a convection/microwave and a single oven in addition to the Bluestar range oven.

We had one in each of our last two homes, and will have one in the next house as well. We have an oven, a microwave, and an advantium. Sometimes we need two microwaves, and the Advantium serves this purpose. Sometimes we need to cook fast, and that's where the Advantium comes in. Our teenage daughters cook grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and french fries with ease.

We cook chicken dishes, potatoes, and other dishes very, very quickly.

It is not hard to use, but you do need to embrace the technology. If you invest a little learning time in this oven, it will pay you back every day.

Craftsman - I have the 120V - which one do you have? I think there is a substantial difference in the two and the 240 doesn't have a convection function.

This still confuses me. I have convection/microwave with a speed cook function, the GE profile. What is the difference between that and an Avantium?

Sue

I have a friend who recommended the advantium when I was redoing my kitchen-She said it was great for cooking pizzas fast for her kids. Ironic thing was that her Advantium was out of commission-broken at the time. I was not convinced to buy the Advantium. If I am missing something, I have not noticed yet!

I love my G.E. Profile Advantium 120. ItÂs great as a micro (maybe not quite as powerful as a stand-alone) and wonderful to roast poultry, pork roasts, bake muffins, and to bake anything thatÂs "freezer-to-oven," such as chicken strips or waffle fries. Since the speedcook feature cooks so quickly, I donÂt have any problems switching it back to microwave (change out the turntable from metal to glass) to complete a meal after using the speedcook feature for the prep of part of a meal. I have used my Advantium every day for a year now without any problems at all.

The house we just moved into has one and I am not bowled over by it. We did use it for the holidays for an extra oven, but it only holds a small baking dish since it needs to rotate so was useless for all the 13x9 dishes we had. And on a daily basis I find I just use the regular oven because I hate to hassle with changing out the glass tray for the metal one(I know, I'm lazy!) So I think when it needs replacing we'll go with a standard micro.

We have an Advantium 120 and LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I don't understand why jellybean can't put a 9x13 in. Maybe the size has changed with new models, but ours easily spins a 9x13 pan. It does a super job speeding up cooking time of casseroles, appetizers, pizza, etc. The convection does cookies much better than our regular oven. The microwave is great, too. We have used the warming feature to keep pizza warm and crisp for up to 2 hours. When I make bread, this is where I proof it. We pretty much use it as our main oven. We got a tiny microwave and keep it in a pantry for zapping coffee and soup, etc.

Please keep going with this...I have read Advantium threads till I'm crosseyed and still can't make up my mind. I have double ovens now and would not be without them, so to me the tossup is oven/Adv/micro vs. double ovens and micro.

What IS the diff. bw a Profile conv. micro with speedcook and the Advantium?

also someone said the Advantium was $600--I thought it was more? (I am thinking the 120, not the hood version)

I've yet to use mine (house still under construction) so I can't speak to its usability or reliability, but I can tell you *why* I wanted one.

DH and I will live fairly far from where we work. It's only the two of us, no kids. When I get home at night I don't want to spend hours prepping/cooking dinner. If I can roast a chicken in 25 minutes, that's more free time I have later. We NEVER roast anything now because I hate heating up the whole oven for the two of us, not to mention the many hours it takes to roast a chicken, etc. In fact, I can't remember the last time I used the oven. I plan all my meals around things I can cook on the stovetop.

Leftover pizza? We eat a lot of pizza since we're hardly ever home to cook so something that can heat it up fast and great is a plus. Baked potatoes in minutes? Fabulous. I hate microwaved potatoes and don't have hours to spend roasting them in an oven. Casseroles from the freezer to table in less than 5 hours? Say it ain't so.

I got the Advantium for the speed, hoping that I can save a lot of time cooking things that I'd like to cook but just don't have the time to wait for. We lead busy lives and spending hours in the kitchen just doesn't fit into my schedule.

nightowl, that's weird! Ours is also the 120 and I just tried the 9x13 pyrex again and it definitely won't spin. I think this one is a couple of years old.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, amcofar and nightowlrn, for your raves. So far, I love the mw sensor feature and am dying to try it to bake or speedcook something but - ha - my fridge is empty because we've been eating out/bringing in and reheating with the mw function.

I just brought my food processor up from the basement and if I could only find my recipe box (what did I do with it???) I would bake some cookies right now and give it a try.

Holly - the difference is that the Advantium is also a convection oven. I didn't have room for two 30" ovens so I chose to get the Advantium as a second (or first) oven, since there are just the 2 of us most of the time. Also, it would fit into a 27" cabinet which was all I had for a 2nd oven. We bought the GE Monogram built-in 120v and yes - it was more than $600. The OTR Profile one is around $700 but the built-in wall oven is more like $1300. I think the Monogram is more, but we paid $1200 for ours.

The GE Profile OTR IS Convection/Micro/Speed cooking. Love mine, but still don't what I am missing that Avantium has.

Sue

I am able to fit my 9x13-inch dish into my Advantium, and it spins, as long as I have the dish centered properly.

Another plus about my Advantium is that in addition to cooking quickly, it truly retains the flavor and texture of almost all foods, especially roasted meat. My mom used to cook everything to death in a pressure cooker (Spew-w-w-w . . . wobble, wobble, wobble). If she could have lived long enough to see this oven in action, she would have loved it. And our family could have been spared her Sunday-dinner fare of Roast Beef a la Shoe Leather.

The one thing I wasn't completely satisfied with is the AdvantiumÂs ability to make toast. Even though I use the stand and tray, my toast wasn't browned enough for me. I like my toast really toasty. However, the oven part bakes everything quite well. As another poster pointed out, itÂs quick to pre-heat, if needed, and it doesn't heat up the kitchen like my range oven does.

I store my trays in a cabinet just above my oven, so theyÂre handy. IÂve learned to switch the trays out using one hand to remove and the other to replace. The glass tray is heavy, though. I also love the "plate of food" reheat for leftoversÂwhich always come out perfectly heated. There is a Yahoo! Group for Advantium users. I joined and have learned great hints and collected wonderful recipes.

I've been hemming and hawwing(sp?) about this as well. Am probably getting a 48" range with the larger oven as a convection. However, we reheat ALOT and frozen pizza, chicken fingers, etc., is a big part of my DS's food rotation. I can't imagine how much better this would all taste if done in the Advantium.

I'm also assuming reheating chicken and meat wouldn't make it rubbery like my microwave does. I know I'm going over the top here, but really considering getting the Advantium and keeping my regular micro. Have heard people say that they'd be cooking something in the Advantium and then want to heat frozen veggies and need to wait.

BTW...there are other models of the "Advantium" that may be less expensive, i.e. KA Ultima Speed Cook. I'm thinking they all pretty much do the same thing.

Sue

Since nobody has answered your question, I'll give it a shot.

A convection MW uses both convection (hot, blown air) and microwaves to cook food. An advantium 120V adds a ridiculously powerful halogen light to the mix... think Easy-Bake oven on steroids. Using a combination of the three, food is cooked quickly and nicely (for most things)

Now... it gets tricky when comparing the Advantium 120V and 240V. The 120V uses MW, Convection, and an upper halogen. It can't use the convection and halogen at the same time, so it alternates as needed / directed. The 240V uses MW and both an upper and lower halogen light. It can use both the MW and both of the lights at once. The lights are much faster at cooking than the convection function in the 120V... hence the 240V doesn't have a convection mode, because GE didn't feel it needed one. However, the new 240V (supposed to be out this spring) will also have a convect mode...I guess they gave in to demands to make the 240V as versatile as the 120V.

The advantage of an advantium over a standard convect / MW is 1. faster cooking / better browning due to the halogen lights. 2. No pre-heat time (at least for the 240V... light is instant).

I think I got most of the big points.

I think Alywa summed up the differences b/w MW/Convection & Advantium--then there's a third option: Trivection (full size oven)

This is what I came up w/in my research when I was looking into this question (along w/Trivection):

Overview of cooking methods:

• Conventional (thermal) cooking surrounds food with static heat inside an oven
• Convection ovens move the heated air across and around the food for faster, more even cooking and baking
• Microwaves use radio waves to stir up the molecules inside the food, causing even heat throughout

Advantium

• Cooks with:
  • MW energy,
  • Halogen lights, or
  • both MW energy + Halogen lights
• 120 model also has convection
• Warming function
• Must switch b/w MW-safe & metal pans
• Automatically adjusts recipes
  Enter the recipe's standard cook time and temperature
• 240 cooks up to 8 times faster than conventional/thermal ovens
• 120 cooks up to 4 times faster than conventional/thermal ovens

TrivectionTM

• Cooks with:
  • Thermal heat (conventional),
  • Convection,
  • Thermal Heat + Convection + MW
  • Note: Cannot be used as a MW only
• No need to switch pans (metal pans are fine w/MW as well as convection)
• Automatically delivers the ideal cooking mix to produce optimal texture, crispness, moisture and browning regardless of food type
  Choose a cooking method (for example, "baked goods") and the recipe's standard cook time and temperature (say, 350 degrees and 12 minutes for a sheet of cookies)
• TrivectionTM oven converts that information for you, sets up the best combination of the three available cooking methods, and tells you when your food will be ready
• Cooks up to 5 times faster than conventional/thermal ovens

TrivectionTM Cooks:

• 22 lb turkey..........1/2 the time
• Fresh side dishes.....1/3 the time
• Frozen side dishes....1/3 the time
• Baked potatoes........1/5 the time
• Breads................1/3 the time
• Cookies...............1/2 the time

MW/Convection:

• Cooks with:
• MW energy,
• Convection
• Convection + MW

If it helps, I've linked the "Advantium Recipes Community" below. No, we decided against an Advantium, but I bookmarked this back when we were looking into it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Advantium Recipes Community

Now THATS what I'm talking about! Thank you, Alywa and buehl, I don't know why, but every time I tried to look this up, my eyes would just glaze over as sales pitches and techno talk went on and on. No one ever answered me in a clear way that I understood so easily! I just gave up and bought the convection/micro. I love it, anyway. The halogen sounds wonderful, but if they are not too reliable, I am just as glad I made the decision I did.

Sue

Buehl - thanks for the great recipe link. Just what I need!
Rayna