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Why every microwave sucks these days

moth.monster

131–140 of 419 posts

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#131
post #45

Instant Pot died primarily due to private equity greed, not because of Instant Pot reliability. In 2017, Cornell Capital bought the company for a total $500M of which $300M was financed by debt. Then 4 years later in 2021, it refinanced and added on debt, bringing the total debt to $535M. $245M was immediately paid out to shareholders as a dividend. Cornell Capital got paid back all the cash it invested in the compan…

Any chance of the lenders reclaiming some of that dividend money? Or was it paid out too long before the bankruptcy?

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#133
post #90

We have a Panasonic NE-1258R. It's a commercial kitchen microwave oven and is built like a tank. It requires a 20amp circuit and it has no turntable because it has two magnetrons . https://www.manualslib.com/products/Panasonic-Ne1258r-Commer... Recommended.

My work had a load of commercial microwaves. Always wondered why they had no turntable. But the buttons on the front never made sense to me. Had to poke around to figure out which one cooked my food in the right amount of time. Not sure if they are all programmable for quick cooking specific foods in restaurants or what.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the concept, but the rotating turntable for the food and plate is silly. I have a Panasonic NE-1022F (sadly, no longer available) and it rotates the antenna under the floor of the unit. That approach enables use of a smaller motor, requires fewer moving parts, and makes the interior very easy to clean.

Interesting, I've never seen a microwave oven without a rotating turntable.

There are a few now, though they're still a minority, we have a Sharp SM327FHS which has the same arrangement - flat bed with a hidden rotating emitter.

Seems good so far.

(It does not have the physical dial though, it has buttons like most other microwaves)

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the concept, but the rotating turntable for the food and plate is silly. I have a Panasonic NE-1022F (sadly, no longer available) and it rotates the antenna under the floor of the unit. That approach enables use of a smaller motor, requires fewer moving parts, and makes the interior very easy to clean.

Interesting, I've never seen a microwave oven without a rotating turntable.

My parents have an ancient one, which they inherieted from a relative decades ago...

It has a button to cycle through the power levels (the typical couple seconds on, couple seconds off duty cycle power levels), and four buttons to set the time: one under each digit (adds one to the digit and overflows to zero), the start button, something for temperature cooking if you have the probe (they don't). Actual buttons, because touch buttons hadn't been invented yet. A total of 8 buttons, plus the door open.

Anyway, no turntable there.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#136
post #120

I have a fancy GE Microwave, its a built in, over the stove job, that is also a convection oven (a lousy one perhaps), but when used in hybrid convection cook mode, its pretty spiffy. The boyfriend does not like using it with the moisture sensor active (he strongly likes to cover his food with a lid, to prevent splatter), but I find just a paper towel is good enough for me - and when left to its normal pre-programmed…

You have a wife and a boyfriend?

It’s the wife’s boyfriend

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#137
post #79

I actually have one the the Panasonic microwaves whispered about at the end of the article, and it's been the best microwave I've ever owned. "Panasonic NNSC688S Mid-Size 1200W Inverter Microwave Oven, 1.3 Cuft, Black Stainless Steel" which Amazon sells for CAD$300, although I see one used is available for $180 - a steal, IMHO. The key word in the description is "inverter". I am very much in the pro-inverter camp. In…

I've also got one, although mine is the larger NN-SN946W model. It has had one odd behavior that has me quite puzzled. I was regularly having for breakfast a microwaved frozen breakfast sandwich and a couple hash browns cooked in a toaster. The hash browns took 10 minutes, and the breakfast sandwich 1 minute. I'd program the microwave for a 9 minute timer stage, followed by a 1 minute cooking stage, and then start th…

First: kudos for RTFM and learning that you could batch operations. Honestly, you might have inspired me to do it, too. Isn't it funny that a microwave with a local wifi network and the ability to run JS/Lua/whatever scripts would be exponentially more useful than "smart" features?

I agree, what you are describing is thoroughly bizarre. When you say that it wouldn't start, do you mean that it wouldn't let you hit the start button at all, or that the timer would run out and then nothing would happen?

The only thing I can think to ask from a debugging perspective is whether there's someone in your home who was using a mode last thing before bed that would have set it in an uncertain state?

Heck, even the moisture sensor, or whether someone opens the door on the last second of a cook before a beep could leave some register in an uncertain state.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#140
post #119

We are considering purchasing a new microwave, so I dipped my toes into the review-water earlier this week. The Wirecutter folks have done an interesting job of disassembling the microwaves from many brands and visually demonstrating that they're all made by one manufacturer. Unsurprisingly, when they test them, they all perform the same, too: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-microwave/

When I was looking for a microwave, I went to an local appliance store because I didn't wanna go to Home Depot etc and get some piece of shit. They told me the exact same thing and that's why they didn't have a huge selection. They basically told me pick the one that looks the best, they all had the same 1 year warranty and same internals. I wasn't gonna get an actual high end microwave without going commercial.
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