jason_m

Great cooktop until it wasn't – Pros Straight forward uncomplicated induction cooktop. Really could heat things up quickly. Individual controls for each hotplate. Good price. Cons Sometimes it was a little…

hard to select the correct temperature with the slide control. On low heat settings you could hear a moderately loud clicking sound which took a little while to get used to. The glass top seemed easy to scratch. The unit failed after 4 years and Ikea replaced some of the electronics through Electrolux service. (It flashed a service code, clicked 3 times and shut itself off). The unit failed again just over a year out of warranty (unit had a 5 year warranty), this time the two small hotplates would not work. It was out of warranty so Ikea declined to address the issue.

At the time I thought it was a good price, seems like it's more a case of 'you get what you pay for'.

Update: on reflection I have upgraded the review from 1 to 4 stars. My rationale is that it performed well while it worked and when thinking about the price and 5 year warranty it is pretty good value for money. It was approximately 1/2 the price of similar featured major brands in the market at the time. So now all I need to do is purchase another unit and it would be equivalent to purchasing a major brand with a 10 year warranty, when thought of like that it sounds like a great deal.

Quality going down – We purchased a similar Westinghouse oven in 2008 and based on our experience with that oven we decided to purchase the WVE655S in 2016 for another kitchen renovation. Another…

driver was that Westinghouse manufactures locally (Adelaide, SA) and I like to support local industry when I can. The first oven we received was crushed on the corner, the whole oven was out of alignment. The retailer said that this sometimes happens when they don't stack the pallets correctly and organized a replacement for us. We have had the oven for around 6 months and can say that in general the oven works as expected however we have noticed,

* when using the oven, the top metal strip around the controls and display can become extremely hot, to the point of being untouchable.

* the height (distance between tray and heating element) of the grill seems shorter than the last model.

* The heat distribution is quite bad. There is an obvious hot zone in the rear left of the oven, food on this part of the tray starts to burn before the front is cooked.

* The grill tray rolls out of the oven body so you have to prop it in using the grill door. (This could be an installation level issue but interesting another reviewer had a similar problem)

* This is a comparatively expensive oven and I suspect the pricing is driven by being one of the few ovens with a separate grill.

In hindsight, when considering the quality, grill functionality and price I would seriously consider forgoing the grill and purchasing a different brand.

Good for a bit of fun – I had micro helicopters in the past and thought I would give this one a go. The unit is compact in size. Very agile and I found it slightly more challenging to fly than the…

micro heli. The foam cowl around the propellers is sturdy and has saved the quad copter from a number of hard collisions. Flight time is pretty short (minutes) so purchase a few additional batteries if you have the chance. The included charger looks like it can charge two batteries at a time however only one battery is supplied.

The remote is surprisingly good quality for the price and is 2.4G so unlike IR remotes it is not affected by sunlight or direct line of site obstacles.

On calm days it can be flown outside. Ascent rate and range seems ok however if you allow it to descend too quickly it doesn't seem to be able to recover.

The unit has two 'performance' modes, first is good for beginners and indoors, the second make the unit much more responsive.

There are a two stunt buttons. One does a 1 touch 360 flip, the other arms the unit to flip in whichever direction you next push the direction stick.

It is not overly loud but does sound like a swarm of angry bees.

The battery can be a little hard to disconnect.

I have also kept the box in which the unit was delivered. It has a moulded plastic insert that holds all the parts when not in use and the box has a lid (rather than sleeve style) providing easy access.

I have had this device replaced under warranty. On the first unit shipped neither the stunt or mode buttons worked.

On the second unit all the features worked however it seems impossible to trim the unit to a stationary hover. I was able to do this on the first unit.

Kogan customer service is quite slow however the warranty claim was processed without any other issues. Fun, solid, excellent value for money Difficult to trim

Simple quick coffee – The Nespresso U Milk is supplied by two manufactures for the Australian market, Breville and DeLonghi. We purchased the Breville model from Harvey Norman for approximately $200…

(after cashback) last weekend so have only had it for a week.

The unit is nice and compact and although is an all plastic shell it feels solid enough. The milk frothing unit is attached to the main unit and can pivot around 45 degrees so that it can either be behind the main unit or by the side. Note that the water tank is attached to the same base so both the frothing unit and water tank move together. The disadvantage is that you can't place the frothing unit somewhere else on the bench top, the advantage though is that you only need one plug to power the frothing and coffee unit.

The frothing unit works well enough for the amount of convenience offered however in our experience do not expect steam foamed milk quality or micro foam. Typically we get hot milk with a layer of reasonably good foam to top off the cup. Unfortunately the frothing unit only holds enough milk for a single regular cup. We rinse the frothing unit after every cup as not to get a build up of cooked milk, this does slow things down if doing a couple of cups of coffee. The frothing unit can also do cold mixing.

The coffee unit is really easy and intuitive to use. Heat up time is very quick. I was initially a little surprises as to the amount of noise it generated. In retrospect though it is an espresso machine with a 19 bar pump! The used capsule compartment is big enough to hold a few days of spent capsules (we are low volume coffee drinkers). Minimal excess water is used so not much makes it to the drip tray under the used capsule container.

Temperature from both the coffee and frothing units is very good. We dislike lukewarm coffee and so far the nespresso has not disappointed, providing a nice hot coffee. We also use double walled glasses to hold in the heat. This is a real improvement to standard glass or ceramic cups.

We are learning that staying within the described proportions to get the best results. This means no more milk than recommended, always select the right shot volume for the capsule and do not try to stretch them out to a bigger coffee. e.g. rather than try to create a mugachino just have two 'standard' coffees.

We have had two problems since purchasing the unit.

First, the unit was supposed to come with a supply of sample capsules. They were not in the box when we opened it. This resulted in another trip to Harvey Norman where they kindly supplied the missing sample set.

Second, approximately 1 in 4 capsuled become crushed during the extraction process. One was so badly crushed that the machine stopped and signalled a blockage. For the others it's possible to notice a different quality shot. I emailed the Nespresso coffee club and they have recommended returning it to the store or booking it in for service under warranty (which is 2 years).

Purchasing a Nespresso machine means you are joining the Nespresso way of coffee. Nespresso aim to maintain a premium coffee experience. This comes at a price. Capsules vary in price however for me it is about 3 times the price of my average per cup price when using beans. Even so, at our current coffee consumption it would take us years to justify the purchase of a $2000+ fully automatic beans coffee machine.

19.08.2013 - Update, We returned the unit to Harvey Norman who replaced the it without fuss. We are 2 coffees in and no sign of a crushed capsule. Quick, good tasting coffee, minimal cleanup Regularly crushes capsules

An exercise in frustration – When new this product works as advertised but it is a short lived experience. After a little while the product starts delivering inconsistent dose volume. I find I have to pump…

the unit a few times in the upright position, waste a dose and then use it. Right now I have a bottle containing approximately 10 ml of saline and it simply will not spray, regardless of angle.

There is no visual way of determining how much product is left in the container. Good size container that's easy to grip and operate Expensive, small volume of saline, doesn't work consistently