Breville BMO850BSS1BCA1 reviewA microwave oven is designed to save you time, but I’ve found the stopping, starting, stirring and checking to see if the food I’m re-heating is too hot or too cold can actually take more time than it should. Now that I’ve used the Breville Smooth Wave microwave, I realize not all microwaves need you to do those triple checks.

The Breville Smooth Wave microwave has a soft-close door, one-tap butter or chocolate melting, and smart defrost that doesn’t cook the food you’re defrosting. While using it I’ve been defrosting much more than usual, but it’s the Smart Reheat that’s been my go-to. It makes it effortless to re-heat anything. You don’t have to stand guard by the microwave when warming up food to make sure it’s not over or under-cooked, and that makes a huge difference in time spent in the kitchen.

Appearance and features of Breville Smooth Wave microwave

Breville Smoothwave microwave smart features

The Breville Smooth Wave microwave is 1.2 cu.ft. (34L) microwave with 1200 W of power. It’s compact, so it fits easily on a small counter, and the stainless steel exterior fits in well when you have other stainless steel appliances.

It has a lot of features that go beyond simple reheating and defrosting.

  • Breville Smooth Wave is 20.4″ W (51.81 cm)  x 12.5″ H (31.75 cm) x 17.5″ D (44.45 cm) with handle
  • 12.4″ (31.5 cm) glass turntable that rotates your food while cooking or defrosting
  • Power Smooth Inverter will sense and adjust the power intensity so your food is cooked perfectly
  • Sensor iQ technology measures the humidity released from your food and automatically calculates cooking time
  • Has Smart Cook, Smart Reheat, and Smart Defrost to take the guesswork out of how to best use your microwave and cook your food
  • 15 one-touch auto settings including melting chocolate, melting butter, and pizza
  • Soft-close door so you don’t have to listen to the door slam shut
  • Options to turn the notification beep off or on or turn the volume up or down
  • Stainless steel interior and exterior wipes clean

Testing the Breville Smooth Wave microwave

Breville appliances have never let me down. The brand is known for being solid, dependable, and timeless, and anytime I buy Breville I know I’ve got an appliance for the long haul. I’ve only used this microwave for a week so far, but it definitely lives up to what I’ve expected from the brand.

It won’t over-cook or cook while defrosting

Breville Smoothwave microwave menu

It’s easy to use the Breville Smooth Wave microwave. Once it’s set up all you have to do is tap the button and it will run for 30 seconds. When you turn the top dial it will adjust the length of time, and the bottom dial will choose your power level. You can turn the dial all the way down to defrost or up to full power.

While the dials make it simple to choose a setting, you don’t have to do that with this microwave. It has Sensor IQ Technology to adjust the power for whatever you’re cooking, and it can Smart Cook, Smart Reheat, and Smart Defrost without any guesswork on your part at all. All you have to do is tap one of those buttons, choose what you’re cooking and the weight of the food and the microwave will cook, reheat, or defrost it perfectly.

I used to put a bowl of soup in my old microwave for my son, and I always had to go back and forth a few times to make sure it was hot enough or not too hot. Or, I’d have to stop the microwave, stir the soup, and start it again. When the Breville Smooth Wave reheats food, Sensor iQ will actually detect the steam that’s released so it’s perfect every time. This has saved me so much time, because I’ll just put the food in, tap the button, and go back for it when it’s done.

While I love Smart Reheat, Smart Defrost is also a favourite feature. You put frozen food in the microwave, tap Smart Defrost, and when the cycle ends your food is ready to cook. I was impressed because it’s always difficult to estimate how long you’ll have to defrost a chicken breast, and in my old microwave I’ve over-defrosted the breast so it’s cooked around the edges. I used Smart Defrost several times with the Breville Smooth Wave and it never went too far.

Pre-sets make quick meals easy

Breville Smoothwave cooking chicken

There are several one-touch presets on this microwave that you can use to quickly reheat a beverage, cook a piece of pizza, slices of bacon, or melt butter and chocolate. The microwave automatically adjusts the power level so everything turns out great. I used it for everything from pizza to melting butter and it always came out perfectly. The butter still had some solid left to it, so it wasn’t an oily puddle that wouldn’t blend properly when baking.

Quiet microwave, quiet door close

The Breville Smooth Wave has a soft close door, so when you push the door closed it glides until it clicks shut. I think this is a great feature because I’ve never liked hearing a microwave door slam shut. The Breville Smooth Wave also runs very quietly, so quietly I almost don’t even notice it’s on. It has a similar decibel level to a range hood fan.

The Breville Smooth Wave microwave also has options to adjust the volume of the end-of-cycle notification. It can either beep at a normal volume, very quietly, or you can mute it so you don’t have to hear it at all. There’s also a Child Lock so you can prevent little hands from turning the microwave on when you’re not looking.

Should you choose the Breville Smooth Wave microwave?

Breville Smoothwave microwave review

The 1.2 cu.ft. Breville Smooth Wave microwave is a great size for a family. I used it for big plates and small casserole dishes and they fit perfectly. It’s the easiest way to make bacon or cook a quick pizza, and it really shines when it defrosts food. Nothing I put in it, from frozen ground beef to chicken, was over-done, dry, or had the edges cooked. The presets are great for quick reheating or cooking, and it’s so great to be able to walk away and not worry about whether or not you have to stop the cycle and check your food. Having a microwave that runs this quietly and has a smooth close door is pretty amazing too.

If you’re looking for a microwave upgrade, take a look at the Breville Smooth Wave microwave. It’s available on Best Buy right now.

Shelly Wutke
Editor TV & Home Theatre
I'm a Vancouver freelancer and tech enthusiast. When I'm not writing you'll find me on my farm with my alpacas, chickens, and honeybees. Visit my website Survivemag

702 COMMENTS

  1. If I win the Breville Smooth Wave Microwave, I would make my favourite Salted Caramel Toffee Cookies!

  2. The Breville Smooth Wave Microwave would be a lifesaver, as I’d use it to defrost frozen chicken breasts when I didn’t think to take it out to thaw in the morning.

  3. I’d use the Breville Smooth Wave for many things but one thing I love is popcorn. I make it in a paper bag and add my own butter, salt & nutritional yeast. Nummy. Melting butter has always been hit or miss for me, this microwave would stop me from burning the butter. 🙁 Thanks Best Buy!

  4. I would use the Breville smooth wave Microsoft to make lobster bisque. Nothing worse than Lukewarm bisque.

  5. I’d try defrosting ground beef in the Breville Smooth Wave microwave first. Our current microwave does a decent job (better than the previous one) but all the buttons are symbols and I need a decoder to remember what they all are. This Breville seems a lot more user friendly.

  6. I would first test the defrosting with chicken, to see if the even defrosting claims are true ;–)

  7. The Breville Smooth Wave microwave sounds amazing, just what our kitchen needs! I think the first thing I’d cook in it would be Bacon, something that I find a chore to cook!

  8. Oh gosh – the one-button chocolate melt of the Breville Smooth Wave Microwave would be awesome – I love to bake and this would be a game-changer.

  9. If I won the Breville Smooth Wave 3-in-1 Convection Microwave oven I would use it to make bacon on Sunday mornings.

  10. This is WAY more than a microwave and I’d love to do Homemade Pizza’s for the family

  11. I would love to try the Breville smooth wave microwave for smart cook features so I don’t overturn my popcorn

  12. I would love to win the Breville smooth wave microwave to melt butter and chocolate for my recipes

  13. The Breville Smooth Wave sounds incredible!!! The option that sounds most amazing to me is the soften butter function! I love baking but I always seem to forgot to bring out my butter ahead of time to let it soften at room temperature so this would be such a time saver for me and a function that I feel like I would use often.

  14. I would use the Breville Smooth Wave microwave to make my famous lasagna…..yummy!

  15. When I win the Breville Smooth Wave microwave I will be making all my healthy breakfasts!

Comments are closed.