Toshiba EM925A5A Review
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
This Product Toshiba EM925A5A | |||||
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Awards | Best Microwave for Heating Frozen Food | Best Value Microwave | Best Microwave on a Tight Budget | ||
Price | $115 List $109.99 at Amazon | $120 List $112.99 at Amazon | $125 List $124.95 at Amazon | $90 List $89.99 at Amazon | $82 List $69.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score | |||||
Star Rating | |||||
Bottom Line | This model stood out for its ease of use and great performance with frozen foods, but performed poorly at defrosting | A full-size microwave that is a solid performer across the board with outstanding frozen food heating capability | A middle of the road product for a reasonable price, scoring similarly to many others that were priced much higher | A no-frills, compact, and affordable microwave that will take a little longer to cook your food | Ideal for those on a budget or with limited space, but this model falls short in terms of premium build quality and high-level performance across our evaluated metrics |
Rating Categories | Toshiba EM925A5A | Magic Chef MC110MB | Panasonic NN-SB458S | Farberware 700W 0.7... | Comfee EM720CPL-PMB |
Heating (40%) | |||||
Frozen Foods (30%) | |||||
Defrosting (20%) | |||||
Ease of Use (10%) | |||||
Specs | Toshiba EM925A5A | Magic Chef MC110MB | Panasonic NN-SB458S | Farberware 700W 0.7... | Comfee EM720CPL-PMB |
Measured 45 Sec Heating Temp Rise | 89 F | 106 F | 89 F | 76 F | 67 F |
Measured Weight of Defrosted Meat | 6.9 oz | 12.5 oz | 8.8 oz | 12.5 oz | 11.8 oz |
Average Temperature Difference | 23 F | 7 F | 29 F | 27 F | 13 F |
Measured Unpopped Kernels | 22 | 23 | 8 | 126 | 192 |
Wattage | 900 watts | 1000 watts | 900 watts | 700 watts | 700 watts |
Measured Turntable Diameter | 10.6" | 12.4" | 10.6" | 10" | 10" |
Measured External Dimensions (WxHxD) | 19.2" x 11.5" x 15.9" | 20.6" x 11.8" x 14.7" | 19.1" x 11.5" x 14.8" | 17.3" x 10.2" x 14.1" | 17.1" x 10.1" x 12.4" |
Measured Internal Dimentions (WxHxD) | 13.7" x 8.7" x 12.3" | 13.1" x 8.2" x 12.5" | 13.9" x 8.1" x 12.4" | 10.8"x 6.8" x 10.2" | 10.8" x 6.8" x 10.1" |
Size | 0.9 cu. ft | 1.1 cu. ft | 0.9 cu. ft | 0.7 cu. ft | 0.7 cu. ft |
Child lock | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Our Analysis and Test Results
If you don't have room for many appliances in your kitchen, the Toshiba EM925A5A may be an attractive option, as it's on the smaller side.
Performance Comparison
Likes
This product gave its relatively best set of results with the Hot Pocket and the small frozen burrito in our prepared frozen foods metric. It did an impeccable job heating the burrito, with the left, right, and center areas only varying by an average difference of 1°F and all three measurements were well above the requisite serving temperature listed by the package.
This microwave did equally well with the Hot Pocket, though our judges noticed that the right side was slightly crispier than the left. Unfortunately, that about sums it up for overall top-tier performances when it comes to this product. It did well in other tests but never really placed at the top.
The Toshiba EM925A5A heated our control volume of water fairly quickly in our time trial speed test, increasing the temperature almost 90°F after being heated for 45 seconds. It also performed decently in our leftovers assessment, though the breakfast sausages were significantly hotter than the green beans or potatoes.
It effectively heated the canned soup to the proper serving temperature upon following the reheating directions. In addition, we like that the Toshiba EM925A5A has all the typical convenience features, like one-touch buttons and an auto-start +30 seconds button.
It has decent lighting, doesn't easily slide around on a countertop, and the popcorn preset performed fairly well in our tests. Most of the kernels were popped and none were burnt, though a few areas were a little overcooked.
Dislikes
Regrettably, we found that the Toshiba EM925A5A doesn't seem to heat up all that evenly, at least based on our heat map test. There were very distinctive patterns burned into the marshmallow fluff; some areas were completely uncooked while other sections were fully blackened.
We were also not impressed with how this microwave heated up pizza. The crusts and centers remained cool while the rest of the pizza was piping hot. It delivered similar results with the single-serving frozen lasagna, with the right side remaining much cooler than the left or center.
However, it was in our defrosting metric where we found the performance of the EM925A5A to be the most disappointing. This product not only failed to defrost the majority of the pound of ground turkey we placed in it, but it also cooked a small section. We scraped less than 7 ounces off the block after the defrosting cycle, with the reminder still far too frozen to break apart.
Should You Buy the Toshiba EM925A5A?
Though this product failed to earn any of our awards, it still shined in several aspects, notably in reheating leftovers and heating frozen convenience foods. If those tasks are mainly what you use a microwave for, this will be a decent product at a decent price. It also has a small footprint, although it's not the most compact option out there. If you use your microwave to regularly defrost meat, however, we'd suggest looking at some other top-ranked microwaves.
What Other Microwaves Should You Consider?
The Toshiba EM925A5A is a fairly ordinary microwave, but it is affordable. If you want something a bit more well-rounded, we'd point you toward the high-scoring Toshiba EM131A5C, which carries the defrosting power that the EM925A5A lacks.