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    5 Best Wall Oven-Microwave Combos of 2025, Tested by Our Experts

    These built-in combo ovens earn high marks in Consumer Reports’ tests for heating evenness and broiling

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    Samsung NQ70M7770DG wall oven-microwave combo with carrots and broccoli cooking
    Wall oven-microwave combos, like this one from Samsung, offer an upscale look for a premium price.
    Photo: Samsung

    Wall oven-microwave combos—called combo wall ovens in our ratings—integrate a microwave oven above a wall oven. After decades of evaluating the two appliances individually, Consumer Reports now tests the combination that merges both types of ovens into a sleek, single package, freeing up countertop space.

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    More on Wall Ovens, Microwaves & Ranges

    “Wall ovens and microwaves are fairly different appliances,” says Kenneth Sutton, who oversees combo wall oven testing. Wall ovens rely on evenly circulating hot air to bake, roast, and broil evenly, he says. Microwave ovens generate waves to bounce around their interior cavity, causing water molecules in food to vibrate, producing heat in the process. 

    And yet, he says, manufacturers are forced to integrate two appliances with very different technologies and make them both perform well. “And that didn’t always happen in some of the models we tested,” Sutton says.

    Read on for our selection of the five best wall oven-microwave combos from our tests. To find out how the rest of the models we evaluate performed, see our comprehensive wall oven ratings, where you can filter for price, brand, size, and other features that are most important to you.

    Best Wall Oven-Microwave Combos

    The best wall oven-microwave combos are great at baking and broiling—plus they offer plenty of space.

    How CR Tests Wall Oven-Microwave Combos

    Our test engineers use a combination of scientific measurements and real-world baking to assess wall ovens. First, we bake cakes and cookies on multiple racks to look for even browning. Next, we use specialized high-heat thermometers, called thermocouples, mounted to a broiler pan, looking for broilers that heat evenly while still getting the heating element hot enough to sear. We measure the usable space of every oven to assess oven capacity because some manufacturers count space that you can’t actually use, below the lowest rack position. Last, we bake a foul mixture of foods, including tapioca, egg, and pie filling, onto the walls of every oven, then run the self-clean cycle to gauge how well it works. 

    For microwaves, we assess how fast and how evenly the ovens heat. The speed score in our microwave ratings is based on how fast a microwave heats 1 liter of room-temperature water. For heating evenness, we heat a bowl of cold mashed potatoes for 10 minutes, then take temperature readings in 20 spots.

    How CR Picks the Best Wall Oven-Microwave Combos

    The performance of wall oven-microwave combos varies considerably, with the best model scoring around 50 points higher than the worst on our 100-point scale. Our top picks have the following in common.

    They’re good at baking. Every model we recommend earns a satisfactory score or better for baking. That’s arguably the most important function of a combo wall oven. 

    They’re strong broilers. The top combo wall ovens broil evenly and get hot enough to sear foods at high temperatures. 

    There’s plenty of usable space. The best wall oven-microwave combos featured here have generously sized primary ovens for baking or roasting on multiple racks at once. 

    The wall ovens are easy to clean. The models we’ve selected here have effective self-clean cycles that don’t require excessive scrubbing to get the job done.

    They defrost evenly. The microwave component of each of these top models can evenly defrost frozen foods.

    Is a Wall Oven-Microwave Combo Worth It?

    Wall oven-microwave combos offer an upscale look while preserving precious counter space, making them a reasonable choice if you want that streamlined design—and happen to have a flexible budget.

    After all, they can cost between $1,000 and $6,000, significantly more than what you might pay for an entry-level single wall oven and a freestanding microwave. If you’re really looking for a cost-effective kitchen, a range paired with a freestanding microwave is the most budget-friendly option of all. The ranges in our ratings start around $900, and you can snag many microwaves for under $150.

    Nevertheless, a combo appliance may make sense if your kitchen already has a separate cooktop and wall oven, and you’re looking to replace the latter while also adding a built-in microwave into the mix. But if you bake frequently—and often tackle different items at once—it may be more helpful to opt for a double wall oven and buy a separate microwave instead.

    Already have a range in your kitchen? You can certainly install a separate combo wall oven-microwave, too, but it makes sense only if you’re an avid cook who’ll often make use of both ovens concurrently. Otherwise, it’s a waste of space and money.

    We also don’t recommend wall oven-microwave combos if you depend on the microwave for a lot of your meals. Our freestanding microwave ratings include options that offer far better performance (such as more even heating) than those you’ll typically find built into a wall oven-microwave combo—and they all cost much, much less.


    Paul Hope

    Paul Hope is a Home & DIY Editor at Consumer Reports and a trained chef. He covers ranges, cooktops, and wall ovens, as well as grills, drills, outdoor power tools, decking, and wood stains. Before joining CR in 2016, he tested kitchen products at Good Housekeeping and covered tools and remodeling for This Old House magazine. You’ll typically find him in his old fixer-upper, engrossed in a DIY project or trying out a new recipe.