Smeg SA45MCX

SMEG stand by the quality of their goods – I have had several Smeg appliances and some just outside of warranty. Smeg has stood by the quality of their products and provided the parts free of charge to repair the goods. I still had to pay a small service charge but happy to do so. When a company charges high prices for goods we all expect them to last. Good to see Smeg feel the same way. Show 2 replies

Fantastic – Great around kitchen Convection oven / microwave. A high quality product, versatile and easy to use. Good looking machine to fit in any modern or contemporary kitchen. Lots of functions to assist with the various dishes and temperatures required for cooking. 1000 watt microwave with convection capabilities. The stainless steel works well in the kitchen  Show details

Dissapointing – We have four Smeg appliances in our kitchen, Range hood, induction cook top, oven and microwave, all have been trouble free except the microwave (SA45MCX2) The main board was replaced in the first 12 months under warranty, 2 years on and the main board has gone again.Due to past performance I am not prepared to spend the money to have this… Read more

repaired, buying a quality brand name like Smeg I was expecting years of trouble free cooking, disappointing!

Cannot recommend Smeg at all. This is the sad story of two different models – OK, First up I want to give Smeg service a big thankyou for their attempts to get me a working product; their efforts have been appreciated. However they did drop the ball and never checked with me to see if I ultimately ever got a satisfactorily working solution in the end. Which I didn't; hence this review. I originally installed an… Read more

SA987CX in a built-in 'column' wall configuration, with the optional trim kit and the fancy-looking pull-out Smeg shelf to go with it. I combined this with a top-of-the line matching 70cm Smeg oven and Smeg drawer underneath. The whole setup cost a fortune and looked great - was identical to their showpiece photo in the Smeg catalogue at the time.

Unfortunately the SA987CX keeled over regularly from day one with the fatal 'error 2' message. Smeg service replaced it about 4 times in a row in an attempt to get me one that wouldn't do this, but each one did, right out of the box, right in front of the friendly Smeg service guy!

Smeg service had to admit defeat and give up on this model. By way of compensation for the fact that this model simply couldn't do what it was meant to, they offered me a Smeg SA45MCX instead; in the hope that being an entirely different sort of beast it wouldn't have the same problem.

Initially this seemed like a generous offer on their part, but don't forget I had invested in a trim kit and Smeg shelf that were now of no use anymore. Plus I had to re-invest in getting my kitchen cabinetry re-modelled again to fit the slightly different sized unit, and I had to get a dedicated 15amp line installed too, and purchase the corresponding trim kit. So no gain really for me at the end of the day; in fact I probably went backwards. At least I had the hope that I might now have a solution that would actually work.

But not so. The SA45MCX is even more unreliable - it keels over almost every single time that I use it. It always has. Almost every time I open the door, press pause, or it finishes an operation; it fatally hiccups. By that I mean it will forget what it's meant to be doing, resets its entire self, and the main fan (if it was on) cuts out instantly. Which is obviously a safety/danger issue. This fatal hiccup will occur regardless of what mode I'm using - whether I'm microwaving something for 10 seconds, grilling something for 5 minutes, or baking something for an hour and just want to open the door to check on it.

Whatever you were in the middle of doing can't be continued, because the oven has reset itself and the clock has gone to flashing "00:00". I can't use any functions again - nor will the main fan come on again - until I re-program the clock to make the system happy again. Then I have to guess at what mode and temperature and remaining time everything was at before it keeled over.

This has been the case for over a year now - this oven continually needs constant viligance and nursing just about every time I use it. (Forget being able to use the timer to program it to do anything in your absence!) Having to go through the saga of it keeling over and resetting itself, and then having to manually re-program the clock (which takes a lot of key presses/turns) to make it useable again - almost every single time I try to use it - is such a pain in the you-know-what. Imagine having to do this just about every time you're just wanting to nuke a cup of tea for 30 seconds, or when you just want to open the door to have a quick peek at your roast...!

Sorry Smeg, but your two products here (SA987CX and SA45MCX) have been just terrible. Next time I will forget the fancy looks and buy generic from Kmart. Which is what the friendly Smeg technical service guy actually recommended to me! Looks great Performs terribly