Note, if you don't have a lot of time, or you don't want the full story, skip to my Bottom Line section at the end.
Background:
I do a lot of eating out, in fact, I was doing too much eating out and I knew that had to quit. I know it's more economical and in most cases better for you to eat at home, but the challenge I have is that I don't have a lot of time - and let's face it, I don't want to have to work that hard to get food. Like most guys, I am not that interested in cooking, I just like eating.
The trouble is, neither of the cooking appliances I had in the house were really good at cooking chicken, meat, sandwiches, pizza, etc: the microwave's quick but the food comes out rubbery (and it doesn't cook meat well). The oven on the other had takes way too long to get going, I can't see the food when it's in there and it's just not that practical to turn it on for a couple of pieces of chicken. So therein is my problem: I know I need to eat better at home, but I don't have the equipment to cook the food that I like.
A few months ago I started seeing ads on television for the NuWave and Flavor Wave Ovens. Probably much like you I was skeptical of the advertising, while the infomercials they're running nowadays are comical, I've found many of them to be not as much dishonest but not forthright in telling the whole truth. For example, I'd purchased a Magic Bullet a year ago, in all honesty it works okay, but I still see the ads running on TV and I notice that they toned down or muted the sound of the gizmo when it was running - it almost sounds whisper quite. The Magic Bullet is anything but whisper quiet, that's what I mean about not telling the whole truth. The bottom line, you have to be careful when ordering off of television infomercials.
NuWave Versus Flavor Wave Ovens:
Well, I waited for quite some time before pulling the trigger on one of these ovens. I'd invested an hour or two reading online reviews (where I could find them), and I found that both the NuWave and Flavor Wave Ovens had good reviews and bad reviews as well. The majority of the bad reviews centered on poor customer service, durability issues and the inability to get assistance if/when your oven broke. I've had my oven for a month or so now and to this point, it's worked fine, so I am not sure if these negative reviews are true or not - I just don't know. What I can tell you is that I looked at both NuWave and Flavor Wave Ovens and just decided to go with the NuWave because I could set it to individual minutes (the Flavor Wave I don't believe can do this), and that it had a few culinary seals of approval. Beyond these two things, I didn't see a great deal of difference between the two products; in fact, even the prices were about the same. There's a fair chance the Flavor Wave Oven is a quality product as well, since I didn't purchase one I can't really say, the rest of this article is about my experience with the NuWave Oven.
Ordering the NuWave Oven:
I order a lot of products online, so I am familiar with the process. NuWave's web site has a fairly easy ordering system but it didn't work the first 2 times I put my information in, on the 3rd time the order actually went through. When you order the unit they try to get you to purchase additional items - I passed on all of them. They even allow you to purchase the oven in black - for an additional $20...silly, why does black cost more? They also provide a custom carrying case for the oven, personally I didn't see toting it around like an iPod but who knows, maybe others like to take their oven wherever they go. One last point about ordering, if you elect to purchase the oven by making payments they indicate it will take several more weeks to get to you than if you just made one payment - almost punishing you for paying in payments...even though the web site is littered with call outs saying "for just 3 easy payments of $39.99 plus s&h". I made the one-time payment so it wasn't a big deal, I was just irked that they seem to be so eager to get people to buy into the payment plan and then they discourage it towards the end of the ordering process. This is just a way for them to get all of their money up front. Oh well, on to the product...
Receiving the NuWave Oven:
The oven came nicely packaged. I was able to unpack the contents in a couple of minutes and it was easy and fairly self-explanatory on how to set it up. Their laminated cooking instruction card was poorly laid out and a bit confusing, and include several recipe cards that I didn't get much use out of either. I also think it came with a DVD or something, but immediately threw that away - I want to cook food, not watch a DVD. Anyway, after I'd got the oven assembled, I figured I'd try out it, and to my surprise it worked! I did overcook a sub sandwich in there the first time I used it (I had the rack too close to the heating unit), but once I learned approximately how long to leave food in there, I quickly eliminated that problem.
While I haven't cooked a lot of different foods in the oven, I've used it a lot since I purchased it, in fact, neither I nor my fiancée go out that much for food. The sub sandwiches and pizza I cook in there come out crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and the chicken comes out nice and juicy.
Overall clean up is pretty easy. I put a piece of aluminum foil at the bottom of the unit which catches anything that has dripped or spilled off of the food. When I am done cooking I just throw the foil in the trash if it's messy. The metal grate takes me about 2-3 minutes to clean up after chicken, but it's not terrifically difficult to clean. Other than that, I need to wipe the inside of the cover every so often, but that's it. For a guy who dislikes having to clean up after eating, this oven is perfect.
Bottom Line:
- Set up is quick and easy, and operation was pretty self-explanatory - I was cooking within about 10 minutes of unpacking the oven.
- I haven't cooked a lot of different types of food in the oven, but what I have comes out nicely.
- The oven is quiet and operates efficiently (most items take under 15 minutes to cook).
- The cover might be a bit bulky or unwieldy for small children and the elderly...although perhaps they shouldn't be using it. For anyone else, it's a breeze.
- I have accidentally bumped my arm and burned myself on the metal grate taking food out of the oven. It wasn't that big of a deal; I just learned that you have to be careful when removing food from the oven. I do believe the grate's design could be a little better, but in all honesty, I needed to pay closer attention to what I was doing.
- Not sure about the durability of the oven, I guess we'll see how it holds up. Mine is only a couple of months old.
So the bottom line for me:
Would I purchase the NuWave Oven, knowing what I know now? Yes.
Would I recommend the NuWave Oven to friends and family? Yes.
For my situation, this was a good buy, it was money well spent.
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