Quick answer: For most first flats, the Russell Hobbs RHM2076B (~£80–100) is the right microwave — 20L, 800W, digital controls, fits under a wall cabinet, and lasts. If money is tight or the worktop is genuinely small, the Russell Hobbs RHM1731B (~£55–70) is the dependable 17L solo. If you actually cook (not just reheat), the Samsung MS23K3513AK (~£130–160) gives you a bigger 23L cavity and a door that will still open properly after five years.
A microwave is day-one kit
You moved in yesterday. The fridge has last night's curry from the leaving-do, there's half a bag of frozen peas in the freezer compartment, and you need all of it hot in ninety seconds because you've got a hob with no pans. The microwave is the first appliance that actually earns its worktop space — it's not a nice-to-have, it's the thing standing between you and a cold dinner for the next three weeks.
The problem is Amazon sells about sixty solo microwaves between £35 and £250, and they all look broadly similar: a box, a door, a dial or a keypad. The £38 one and the £145 one both heat water the same way. So what are you actually paying for as the price climbs?
Build quality and longevity, mostly. A sub-£40 unbranded microwave usually lasts twelve to eighteen months before the door switch gets flaky and it stops starting. A £60–100 branded solo from Russell Hobbs or Sharp will do five to seven years. A Samsung 23L sits at the top of that range — pricier, but the door hinge and turntable motor are rated for a lot more use.
This guide picks four solo microwaves for a first UK flat. No grills, no combi ovens, no hype. Just the one that fits your worktop, reheats your leftovers, and is still working when you move out in three years.
What you're actually choosing between
Microwaves come in three formats and you only want one of them.
Solo is a plain microwave — one job, done well, cheaper to buy and cheaper to repair. This is what you want for a first flat. Grill adds a heating element under the top to brown food — useful maybe twice a year, not worth the extra £20–30 and the grime that builds up on the element. Combi adds a convection oven on top of everything, turning the microwave into a small secondary oven. Skip combis unless you have no proper oven at all, and even then a £40 countertop oven is a better use of money.
Within solo, you're choosing on four things:
- Wattage. 800W is the UK standard and the right default. 700W works for light reheating in a solo flat. Below 600W, skip it — the defrost function suffers noticeably.
- Capacity. 17L compact models fit a small dinner plate and a mug, nothing more. 20L is the household default and fits a standard dinner plate with room around the edge. 23L handles a casserole dish or a large plate with a lid — useful if you actually cook, pointless if you only reheat.
- Controls. Manual dials are simpler and last longer but give you less control. Digital keypads let you set exact times and use auto-cook presets; the trade-off is a slightly shorter lifespan on the membrane.
- Body and finish. Plastic with a mirror door is cheapest and lightest. Painted steel looks and feels more solid, takes fingerprints, and adds £15–30. Stainless steel is the premium finish — it's what the £130+ models use.
What most people get wrong
These are the mistakes that put a microwave in landfill inside a year, or make you regret the one you bought. Avoid them and you'll spend £60–100 once and not think about microwaves again for five years.
- Buying the cheapest £35 unbranded unit. The saving is £20–30 at checkout and a replacement microwave ten months later. The weak points are always the same — door switch, turntable motor, keypad — and none of them are worth paying a repair engineer to fix on a microwave that cheap. Spend £55–80 on a Russell Hobbs, Sharp, or Panasonic and the same microwave will still be working in year five.
- Buying a combi or grill when a solo is all you need. Combi microwaves cost £180–400 and do three jobs badly — a decent conventional oven and a kettle cover the same ground for less. Grill microwaves add £20–30 and a cleaning chore. If the flat has a working oven and hob, a solo microwave is the right buy. Revisit combi only if you're in a bedsit with no oven, and even then a cheap countertop oven is often better value.
- Over-sizing the capacity for the worktop you actually have. 23L and 25L solos look appealing in the spec sheet because "bigger cavity, same price-ish". In real kitchens, a 23L microwave is 48–49cm wide, 37cm deep, and eats a sizeable chunk of a galley-kitchen worktop. If you live alone and reheat one plate at a time, a 20L (about 44cm wide) is the sensible ceiling. The extra 3L of cavity almost never matters.
- Ignoring door swing and top-vent clearance. Microwave doors open forward through roughly 180°, and the instruction sheet will tell you to leave 5–10cm above the unit for the top vent. Both matter more than people expect. If the door hits your hob knobs when it opens, you'll hate it within a week. If you sit the microwave against the underside of a wall cabinet with no clearance, you're shortening its life. Measure before you buy.
- Thinking higher wattage means faster cooking in any meaningful way. 800W and 900W are both fine; 900W heats a mug of water eight seconds faster than 800W. The bigger factor in whether a microwave "cooks well" is even heating and defrost quality — the turntable, the wave distribution, and the sensor logic. Those are all design choices, not wattage. A well-designed 800W Russell Hobbs reheats leftovers more evenly than a badly-designed 900W no-name.
Measure before you buy: get a tape measure and note three numbers — worktop width available, worktop depth, and the height from worktop to the underside of any wall cabinet above. Compare those to the microwave's external dimensions, then add at least 5cm above and 5cm behind for ventilation and cables. Most "it doesn't fit" returns happen because someone bought a 23L microwave for a worktop that could only take a 20L, or ignored the door swing into a hob knob. Two minutes with a tape measure saves a return trip.
Best microwaves by situation
Best overall: the right default for most first flats
A 20L solo at 800W with digital controls, from a brand with a proper UK service history. This is what most first flats should buy.
Russell Hobbs RHM2076B 20L 800W Digital Solo Microwave (Black)
The Russell Hobbs RHM2076B is a 20L solo microwave in black with a mirror-finish door. 800W output, 5 power levels, an automatic defrost by weight or time, 8 auto-cook menus, a clock, and a 99-minute timer. The turntable is a 24.5cm dishwasher-safe glass plate. External dimensions are about 44cm wide, 33cm deep, 26cm tall — it fits under most standard wall cabinets with clearance to spare.
Why this one: The RHM2076 series is the workhorse of UK solo microwaves. Russell Hobbs has been iterating on this shape and control layout for years — the keypad has a positive click instead of the squishy membrane feel you get on cheap units, the door hinge is stiff enough not to rattle, and the turntable motor is quiet. The 20L cavity fits a standard dinner plate with room to get a tea towel around it, which is the size that actually matters. At ~£80–100 it's the sweet spot between the £40 stuff that dies in a year and the £150+ bracket where you're paying for stainless steel and a name.
Trade-off: The mirror-finish door looks fine in the box and shows every fingerprint within a week — you'll wipe it more than you'd like. The black plastic body scuffs if you knock it with a metal pan, and the interior lamp is dim, so checking food mid-cook through the door is harder than it should be. The keypad works well but the labels are printed on film that will rub off after three or four years of use; annoying but not functionally important.
Best budget: the compact 17L that still does the job
If the worktop is genuinely small or the budget is genuinely tight, 17L at 700W is fine for one person reheating one plate at a time.
Russell Hobbs RHM1731B Inspire 17L Manual Microwave (Black, 700W)
The Russell Hobbs RHM1731B Inspire is a 17L solo microwave in black with a smooth-touch finish. 700W output, 5 power levels, a defrost setting, a 30-minute timer, and a simple two-dial control panel. External dimensions are roughly 44cm wide, 33cm deep, 26cm tall. It takes a 24.5cm dinner plate — just, with no room around the edge.
Why this one: The RHM1731 is the microwave you buy when you want a dependable first-flat solo for the least money that still makes sense. Manual dials mean there's no keypad membrane to fail; the door latch is solid; the plastic is the less-shiny kind that doesn't show every fingerprint. 700W is slower than 800W — add 20–30 seconds to most reheats — but that's the only functional compromise. At ~£55–70, for a solo occupant who reheats leftovers three or four times a week, it's the right amount of money to spend on this category.
Trade-off: The 17L cavity is tight. A standard dinner plate fits, but there's no clearance around the edge, so anything wider than a 24.5cm plate won't spin properly on the turntable. 700W defrost is slower and less even than 800W — a frozen chicken breast needs two rounds of defrost-then-rest instead of one. And the dials have no digital display, so reheating to an exact time takes a bit more eyeballing than a keypad model.
Best for a white kitchen: the design-led 20L
Same 20L cavity and 800W output as the Russell Hobbs, in a white finish with a handleless door and a digital panel that actually looks considered.
Sharp YC-MS02U-W 20L 800W Digital Solo Microwave (White)
The Sharp YC-MS02U-W is a 20L solo microwave in white with a handleless door and a recessed black control panel. 800W output, 11 power levels, 8 auto-cook programmes, an Eco mode, a defrost function, a kitchen timer, and an LED cavity light. External dimensions are around 44cm wide, 35cm deep, 26cm tall; the 25.5cm glass turntable is dishwasher-safe.
Why this one: Sharp's MS02U is the solo microwave to buy if you care about how the kitchen looks. The white version is a proper matte white that doesn't yellow in sunlight, the handleless door is press-to-open (no protruding handle to catch a hip on in a narrow kitchen), and the interior LED is bright enough to actually see what's happening through the door mid-cook. At ~£75–95 it's priced the same as the Russell Hobbs overall pick — you're choosing on finish and form factor, not on function. Both cook food identically.
Trade-off: The press-to-open door is satisfying for the first year and mildly annoying when your hands are greasy — you end up jabbing it with an elbow. 11 power levels is more than you'll ever use (most people set 'High' and forget), so the control panel is busier than it needs to be. The white finish marks more easily than a painted black body if you ever splash tomato sauce on it; clean promptly with a damp cloth, not an abrasive sponge.
Best upgrade: the 23L solo that earns its extra £50
Spend more and you're not buying more power — you're buying a bigger cavity, a tougher turntable motor, and a door rated for more open/close cycles.
Samsung MS23K3513AK 23L 800W Solo Microwave (Black)
The Samsung MS23K3513AK is a 23L solo microwave in black with a stainless steel interior and a textured mirror door. 800W output, 6 power levels, quick defrost by weight, eco mode, and a side-opening door with a flat control panel below. External dimensions are about 49cm wide, 37cm deep, 27.5cm tall. The 28.8cm turntable takes a large dinner plate or a small casserole dish.
Why this one: The Samsung 23L is the microwave that's still working when your friends with cheaper units have replaced theirs twice. The interior is ceramic-enamel — easier to wipe clean than the painted steel of sub-£100 models, and it doesn't stain when a bowl of tomato soup boils over. The turntable motor is noticeably quieter and the door hinge takes a proper slam without loosening. At ~£130–160 you're paying roughly 50% more than the overall pick for a cavity that's 15% bigger and a build that tends to last 7–10 years instead of 5–7. Worth the spend if you cook (not just reheat), have the worktop space, and plan to keep this microwave when you move.
Trade-off: At 49cm wide and 37cm deep, this is a genuinely big microwave — check your worktop can take it and that the door doesn't swing into anything. It's heavier at around 14kg, which matters if you ever need to move it to clean behind. The control layout uses a rotating dial for time and a keypad for everything else; it works well but the dial has a slight wobble that looks cheaper than the rest of the unit feels.
What to skip
Skip these — they show up in search and look tempting, but they're not the right first microwave:
- Sub-£40 unbranded solos. A new microwave every twelve to eighteen months costs more than an £80 Russell Hobbs that lasts five years. The cheap ones fail in the same two places every time: door switch and turntable motor.
- Combi microwaves for a flat with a working oven. £180–400 for a convection oven on top of a microwave, when your actual oven is sitting there free. Only buy a combi if you have no proper oven.
- Grill microwaves. The extra £20–30 buys you a heating element you'll use twice and clean ten times. Solo is enough.
- Travel microwaves under 17L. Built for caravans and student halls. In a flat, they're painful every time you try to heat a dinner plate.
- Retro-styled microwaves that sacrifice interior size. The cream-and-chrome ones on Amazon often have a 20L exterior with only a 17L usable cavity because the retro door eats cubic centimetres. If the aesthetic really matters, get the real thing from Smeg and expect to pay £300+; otherwise buy a plain black solo and spend the saving on something you'll actually use.
Running costs
Microwaves are not a serious line on the electricity bill. An 800W microwave draws roughly 1.2kW from the wall (efficiency losses are real), so three minutes of cooking uses about 0.06kWh — under 2p at current UK rates. Reheat two meals and a cup of something a day, and you're under 10p. Over a year that's about £35, or roughly the price of the microwave itself once.
The cheaper-to-run lever isn't wattage; it's not using the microwave when a kettle is faster. Boiling two cups of water in a microwave takes about three minutes and 8p; a 3kW kettle does it in 90 seconds and 4p. The right tool for the job still matters.
Simple buyer plan
- Most first flats, reheating is 90% of use: Russell Hobbs RHM2076B (~£80–100). 20L, 800W, digital. Buy this and stop reading.
- Tight budget, solo occupant, small worktop: Russell Hobbs RHM1731B (~£55–70). 17L is tight but workable; dials last longer than keypads.
- White kitchen or you care how it looks on the worktop: Sharp YC-MS02U-W (~£75–95). Same function as the overall pick, cleaner design, handleless door.
- You cook properly and want to buy once: Samsung MS23K3513AK (~£130–160). 23L ceramic interior, built to last a decade.
- Whatever you buy: leave at least 5cm above and behind for ventilation, never run it empty, and wipe the interior with a damp cloth and a bit of washing-up liquid every week or two.
Final recommendation
For most people moving into a first UK flat, the Russell Hobbs RHM2076B at ~£80–100 is the right microwave. It's 20L, 800W, fits under a wall cabinet, and it's the size, power, and build that will actually match how you use a microwave — which is mostly reheating leftovers and defrosting mince.
If the budget is genuinely tight in week one and you live alone, the Russell Hobbs RHM1731B at ~£55–70 is the honest compact choice. The 17L cavity is tight and 700W is slower, but it'll do the job for years.
If you cook properly — casseroles, steaming veg, reheating big Sunday dinners — step up to the Samsung MS23K3513AK at ~£130–160 for the bigger cavity and the door that still opens properly after five years of daily use. Worth the spend only if the extra capacity matches how you cook, not because more is always better.
Whatever you choose, buy a solo (not a grill or combi), 800W if you can stretch to it, and measure your worktop first. Those three things matter. The rest is finish.
Kitting out the rest of the kitchen? The best kettle for a first home is the other appliance you'll plug in on day one. For everything else — from the pans you need before the hob to the things people forget until 9pm — the first home essentials checklist covers what to buy when.