New microwave – what are these “combination” thingies then?

I need a new microwave because my current one (5 years old, cheap as chips from Argos) is HOT on the top after a 4-minute cook which is disconcerting.

So I flicked through the cataglogue and these days the cheapest microwave is £32.99, but a few pages on there’s a combination microwave, oven and grill for around £70.

I was having trouble with my actual oven a few weeks ago and while it still works I’m always a little nervous about using it (and it doesn’t seem to get as hot as my old one did either).

So I was wondering… are these combination things worth the little bit of extra money? I like the idea of being able to cook small things, e.g. one piece of frozen fish or whatever, without having to heat up a whole big oven, and I haven’t had cheese on toast for years. But if they’re no good – or if (unlike my experience with microwaves) you have to buy an expensive one in order to get a good one – then I won’t bother.

I’m also intrigued as to how they work/look. Won’t they have to have metal in them to be used as an oven or a grill? How does that work when you can’t have metal in microwaves without it exploding? What do you clean them with, since presumably with a small space there are going to be splashes of cooked-on stuff all over its walls and ceiling after cooking anything greasy (which seems to be just about everything you can cook from frozen) but surely a Brillo pad etc won’t be delicate enough?

Thanks for reading 🙂

[Edit to add: flicking through the Argos catalogue is not going to be the whole of my research into what make/model to buy… I just got that far and then stopped to ask this question.]