Microwave Oven NN-SN686S Stainless Steel Countertop/Built-In with Inverter Technology and Genius Sensor, 1.2 Cubic Foot, 1200W

This Panasonic microwave oven replaced our 30-year old Panasonic microwave oven, which was having a lot of issues with the closing of the door, but otherwise still worked fine. We finally decided to get a new one. This one is 1,200 Watts and slightly smaller than the previous one, but is also an inverter microwave and has many more features than our older one. I like the gray interior which will make cleaning better compared to our older one which had a white interior. Some reviewers complained about the child lock feature which requires an extra button to be pressed to unlock the door upon cooking. Seriously! The manufacturer shows how to disable this feature, but even without disabling it, it’s just a matter of pushing one button to unlock the door. I have no issues with this issue which is apparently required by law. Finally, the price from the seller, Four Seasons Trading Company, is well below other sellers like Walmart and Home Depot, making this an excellent value for the money. They shipped it by FedEx and it arrived within three days in perfect condition! 4/13/2026 Couple of additional points. 1) The microwave has a small LED light bulb to light up the inside of the microwave. This will mean that the bulb will never need to be replaced as LED bulbs last for thousands of hours. 2) The owners manual doesn’t mention it but there is a thin plastic film over the keypad which should be removed by peeling it off. This is typical of many electronic equipment.

The best part about this brand of microwave is that it works - no hassle. My first Panasonic Inverter lasted 15 years. Replaced it b/c I wanted a smaller one. Gave it away to a coworker who says it’s still working 5 years later. Still looks new. So, instead doing the smart thing + buying another one, I bought a Toshiba based on the over 15k reviews. First one came dented. Sent back. Reordered and hated it. Cheaply made, door was noisy to open + close and within a year had to throw it in a dumpster. The back blistered and the inside was stained (could never get any food stain to go away). Idk if I just got a bad one or not, but this Panasonic is hands down a superior machine. Pros: minimalist look, no handle, easy to use, reheat option - did I mention it works??? My fridge + stove are black stainless, but my dishwasher is reg stainless, and the microwave sits right above it on the counter. I was thinking about replacing the dishwasher to match the rest, but the microwave kind of pulls it together, + the look is aesthetically pleasing now, so saved some $ there. Cons: in dim light, the operating panel is harder to see, and I still haven’t figured out how to permanently disable the child lock, but tbf, I haven’t spent any time reading the manual other than having to press 0 to open the door. I think that a child safety lock should be something you have to purposefully activate, not come already enabled. So, if you want a reliable, attractive, microwave that has an inverter and multiple cooking options, I cannot recommend Panasonic enough. The LG models are more expensive and aren’t nearly as attractive. I was tempted to buy the small Breville, but reviews were mixed. Btw…if it matters, Panasonic is one of the few microwave brands that isn’t made in China. That was a nice bonus for me. I’ve had this model a month with no issues. Some ppl didn’t like the dark gray interior, but I do. It’s different and makes it look more expensive than it is. Honestly, if I became a millionaire overnight, I’d still buy Panasonic microwaves. They’ve never let me down.

Ever tried to heat a bowl of creamed wheat cereal in a microwave? If so, you've probably had fun cleaning up the mess it makes when it boils over. Or maybe you just watched it like a hawk, your finger on the STOP button. If you tried to set the POWER to, say, 50% so it would heat slower, you no doubt discovered that it DOESN'T HEAT SLOWER. It takes more time to heat the food, but it's not putting in 50% power. Instead, "conventional" microwave ovens just turn the power on and off so it takes twice as long, but it's at 100% when it's on. This means that your cup of coffee sits there, with the power off, for a few seconds, and then gets a blast of full power for a few seconds. When it's near boiling, the next 100% blast makes it boil right out of the cup. With hot cereal, it's even worse, because the blast that takes it to a boil may well make it swell up into a large blob of cereal and spill all over the turntable. In other words, conventional microwaves can't heat something GENTLY. Slowly, yes, if you mean pulsing maximum power with longer or shorter ON and OFF cycles. My induction cooking surface has the same problem. I want to simmer -- but I can't. Boil rice and leave it on low? No can do -- when turned down to 10% heat, it blasts the pot at 100% for 3 seconds, and then turns off for 30 seconds. But during the 3 seconds on MAX, the rice boils over. It's horrible. The Panasonic "Inverter Technology" doesn't have this problem because it actually DOES turn down the power. If I set it to power level 5, for 3 minutes, it runs at half power for 3 minutes, just like any sane person would expect. It doesn't run at 10 for ten seconds and then turn off for ten seconds, again and again. So the food never gets hit with excessive heat. Warm something at minimum heat? Easy. Power level 1. Gently warm the food for a few minutes without FRYING it for a few seconds every minute. I don't know why all the other microwave mfrs don't do it this way. It makes a HUGE difference in the usefulness of a microwave oven. I dropped one star for a few usability reasons: 1. The power level settings don't make a lot of sense -- 5 doesn't seem to mean 50%, and so you have to get accustomed to what the 10 levels really correspond to. 2. .The interior light should be brighter. Even with Inverter Technology, sometimes you really need to see what's going on inside. 3. The button panel logic requires more button presses than necessary for some common functions. My old oven had 1-6 buttons just turn the thing on at max power for that many minutes. It's a small gripe, but hey, the thing is close to being perfect. 4. It's a bit loud, fan-wise, but I don't bake things in it for long periods (e.g., potatoes), so I don't mind much. 5. I really love the "turntable memory" feature some other brand offers -- for example, if you put in a pyrex measuring cup for any length of time, when it finishes, the turntable keeps turning until it's in the same position as when you started. So the measuring cup's handle is still facing the door. Nice. Am I fussy to want this? Just so I don't have to reach in and twirl the hot container so I can reach the handle? Maybe. In any case, I have no problems with fit and function. I haven't tried the smart mode where it senses steam to adjust cooking time, because the user guide was a bit confusing, and I already know how I want to cook things. Trusting the oven to get it right would require some experiments, and I don't want to waste food or time on that. So it gets 4 stars, but the Inverter Technology gets 10 stars. It's a must-have feature.

I absolutely LOVE this inverter microwave!! I used to sell appliances, and we also sold these (in a larger size). I always knew that when my old GE microwave crapped out, that I wanted a Panasonic inverter microwave next. FIRST, an inverter microwave is SUPERIOR to a regular microwave. It’s more powerful, cooks faster, doesn’t change the texture of your food (ie- frozen bread can be thawed in it and it comes out soft and not ruined), it does a great job with defrosting overall, and doesn’t turn hot dogs into rubbery sticks. Time to heat a cup of coffee to a perfect hot temperature is only slightly more than a minute. I have a small shelf built into my kitchen cabinets on which a microwave sits. It really only can accommodate a small microwave with a small interior. But this fits and it has a nice big interior in which I can put full size plates and casserole dishes. Now let me address some negatives. The sensor technology, which senses steam, doesn’t work the greatest. You have to leave the food uncovered to get it to work its best, which means the possibility of food “popping” and getting all over the interior of the microwave. If you cover the food, even loosely, the steam sensor can’t pick it up. With foods that I can put in without any cover, I often find them not hot enough, even with the additional time feature, but sometimes it’s perfect. So the sensor is hit or miss. One disadvantage is that the directions on frozen foods don’t work with this, so you have to learn how long to cook things. So if your Marie Calander’s meatloaf dinner says 4 minutes on high in a 1200 watt microwave, that’s going to be too long in this one! I did buy the extended warranty (through Amazon) because when I used to sell the larger version of these, I had more than one customer who told me theirs died after a couple years. But the inverter technology is so superior to a regular microwave, that I wasn’t discouraged by that. If it dies after my extended warranty, I”ll just buy another! This was made in Communist China for Panasonic, which is a Japanese company.

Works great

At first glance this appears to be a great buy. It does heat well, has a pleasant end of cycle tone, and is not too loud. BUT, from the beginning the child lock feature was a royal pain in the rear. Every tiny little electrical power glitch would reboot it and then you are at the child lock default which is LOCKED. And the three step sequence has to happen quickly or you have to try again. Sometimes you have to pull the power cord and start over. We had read in reviews that the face is difficult to read and found that to be true unless you have bright lights turned on or leaned down real close. (NO we are not that old or blind) The door was okay to open in the beginning but continued to get harder to open. Then it would lock closed even without a power outage or program change. Yesterday while heating up some holiday food it locked up and refused to unlock through any means. My wife ended up punching it with her fist until it opened. Later it did the same thing for me and punching it didn't work. So I pried it open with a screw driver breaking the latches and today it is in the dumpster. We started using it April 30, 2025 and it is in the trash on Dec 26, 2025. Under warranty at most will get me a replacement. I don't want another one of these POS. We have no kids or grand kids. This child lock thing should be more reliable and designed so you can choose to never have to deal with it if you choose to. Like the LG Neo Chef MSER1590S that has a simple button on the side that with a quarter turn you can turn off the child lock for good or reverse it later with a quarter turn. One of those LG's is on our counter now and operated quieter too.

Great high power microwave! Love it, and it arrived a day early which was great.

I have this model for several years now. It is my first inverter microwave oven, after several non-inverter microwave ovens, and there is no going back. the inverter allows you to heat soups rapidly at 100%, or pasta/rice slowly and evenly at 30% without any popping or burning. This is not the same as the power settings on non-inverter microwave ovens. On non-inverter models, it cycles the power on and off, between 100% and 0%, every 15 to 30 seconds, which can overheat some foods. The inverter literally limits the amount of power to your desired setting without cycling on and off - just a smooth stream of power from beginning to end to allow for even heating without burning.

excelente horno. todo lo calienta muy rapido y bien solo hay que calcular el tiempo de calentamiento de alimentos si te pasas te puedes llevar una no muy grata sorpresa. SOLO PRODUCTOS INVERTER

This is a great microwave. It warms really well, and works across the board on all food types. Noise levels are medium. Would recommend.

Very happy with microwave. Works great, looks great. Exactly as I expected. Great and efficient service

Me gusta porque está mejor que el que tenía viejo, pero no aporta tanto como para decir que es mucho mejor, calienta rápido pero no es tan homogéneo, si es algo sólido como frijoles congelados es lo típico que calienta lo exterior más que lo interior, y si le pones más tiempo pues arde lo exterior y deja tibio lo interior, es la misma tecnología que un micro de toda la vida.

Les comunicó que el producto me llevo muy bien y es lo que esperaba pero aún no puedo opinar sobre él porque aún no lo uso