I have been thinking about buying a combination microwave for some time and I am very pleased with this purchase. I think I have used all the programs on offer now and will give a brief resumé of them. I agree with a lot of other people that the instructions and recipe book are woeful, I cannot understand why Whirlpool have not addressed this problem as so many people have complained about it. If you are buying this machine and don't have a good idea of how a combination microwave works I would suggest that you buy a good reference book. The Basic Basics Combination and Microwave handbook by Carol Bowen is excellent, not a recipe book as such, but gives a very good guide to timings and settings.
CLOCK: I like the fact the you don't have to display the time as I have several items in my kitchen that already do that!
MICROWAVE: Fine seems same as my old one.
JET START: Fine handy for reheating drinks.
MANUAL DEFROST: O.K. if you are used to using a micro to defrost.
GRILL: Excellent,quick to heat, have used for grilling chops and browning dishes.
GRILL COMBI: Excellent, not sure about all the timings and settings in instructions as not used if for all they suggest.
CRISP: Excellent, have cooked bacon, small chunks of potatoes (not frozen), onions and peppers.
FORCED AIR(CONVENTIONAL FAN OVEN); Excellent bakes great cakes and bread, better than my Bosch oven!
FORCED AIR COMBI: Excellent, although I have not been brave enough to try this for cakes or bread as no timings are suggested!! I have used for roasting and it is v good.
JET PRE-HEAT:Excellent, very fast, I would suggest using for baking.
JET MENU CRISP: Sorry cannot comment as I have not used this function for frozen dishes(don't confuse with CRISP programme)
JET AIR: Haven't used this function as always forget to weigh cake mix before putting into cake tin, also I am not sure if you can use metal or foil dishes for this function, I have emailed Whirlpool twice and asked the question but have had no reply. I guess I could just try it and if it 'arcs' take it out!
JET DEFROST: Very poor and disappointing, hence 4 stars, I have found that the timings are way out and far too short, e.g. 1 min 26 secs to defrost 400g of chicken. I don't think so! even allowing for standing time, usually manually defrost by micro. I would be interested to hear from other people if they have had the same problem as I wonder is it a fault in my machine.
STEAM. Nice feature, also find times a little short even though I like my veg crisp.
Hope this has been helpful and not too long winded.
Word of advice, read the book and leaflet and then read again and again, until you really understand it, I am an experienced cook but new to combi/micros and did have to keep referring to it until I got the gist!
It looks fabulous, buy the black.