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Why every microwave sucks these days

moth.monster

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Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#211

Post by jacknews »

kyleee wrote: post #76
ForkMeOnTinder wrote: post #11

As a chronic comparison shopper, this is a first-world problem that's near and dear to my heart. I think the reason microwaves (and appliances in general) suck is because comparison shopping is so hard. I wish I could get a list of all microwaves and filter by criteria such as: - Does the +30 seconds button start cooking immediately, or do you have to also press "start" afterwards? - Does it beep every 30 seconds aft…

What we really need is a project farm for microwaves

Can you elaborate? I was about to ask are there are concept designs for microwaves, particularly the UI, but other features as well - I'd be interested to see ideas of what microwaves could be.

I don't think the article is correct that the humidity sensor was the last innovation (and actually, how can I tell if a microwave has this, and how is used anyway?) - we also have inverter microwaves recently, as well as combi grill/microwave etc.

EDIT: Oh, I think you meant "Project Farm", the youtube reviewer. Anyway, I'd like to see a 'design farm' for microwave concepts and designs, and appliances in general actually, they all suck.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#212

Post by bambax »

ForkMeOnTinder wrote: post #11

As a chronic comparison shopper, this is a first-world problem that's near and dear to my heart. I think the reason microwaves (and appliances in general) suck is because comparison shopping is so hard. I wish I could get a list of all microwaves and filter by criteria such as: - Does the +30 seconds button start cooking immediately, or do you have to also press "start" afterwards? - Does it beep every 30 seconds aft…

> comparison shopping is so hard

Yes, but it's much worse than it needs to be. When searching for hard disks on Amazon, if you search for "hard disk 8 tb" for example, Amazon will suggest the following criteria on the left side of the page:

Hard Disk Size

4 TB & Above

3 TB

2 TB

1 TB

501 to 999 GB

321 to 500 GB

121 to 320 GB

Up to 80 GB

Really? What is the point of this? How can it not do better?

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#213

Post by raffraffraff »

I still have my stainless steel Bosch microwave that I bought in 2004. It has no display, no buttons. Just two rotary knobs: power, and timer. Simplest thing in the world. I had to replace the turntable motor about 4 years ago, and the replacement part was a generic unbranded "microwave motor" that cost little.

Any time I'm in someone else's kitchen and I just want "900w for 3 minutes" I curse the grid of buttons that show pictures of chickens and fish and who knows what else.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#214

Post by ChoHag »

hotnfresh wrote: post #60
udia wrote: 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…

What are the magic words these people use to get a bank to give them millions of dollars, let them walk off with it, then eat the loss?

[dead]

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#215

Post by Ekaros »

I love how my Samsung with nearly all the features does not do the microwave part evenly... And now I use cheap one that was left in the "condo"...

Maybe I need to look into replacing it with slightly better model with inverter... As power scaling might be useful.

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#216

Post by rrr_oh_man »

dataflow wrote: post #175
chongli wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never go back to a conventional microwave oven. I run mine at 30-60% power pretty much any time I want to reheat food. Running at full power just creates tiny pockets of steam inside the cold food that then explode all over the interior. At lower power the food heats evenly and this never happens! I used to use a lid on all the food I microwaved but I learned recently that microwaves and plastic are not a good…

Your comment seems to completely fail to answer my question? I know what an inverter is. I was specifically asking about Panasonic's Cyclonic Inverter technology, not about inverter technology in general.

To be fair to GP, "Cyclonic Wave" seems to be Panasonic's fancy marketing term for "inverter microwave, but with two magnetrons instead of one".

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#217

Post by dataflow »

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #216
dataflow wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment seems to completely fail to answer my question? I know what an inverter is. I was specifically asking about Panasonic's Cyclonic Inverter technology, not about inverter technology in general.

To be fair to GP, "Cyclonic Wave" seems to be Panasonic's fancy marketing term for "inverter microwave, but with two magnetrons instead of one".

Putting in two magnetrons doesn't automatically imply field rotation, does it? They seem to rotate the fields here for better heating.

Regardless, I've seen inverter microwaves. The entire point of the question was to find out how this technology performs compared to other microwaves (with inverters or otherwise).

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#218

Post by alister »

xapata wrote: post #197
hyeonwho22 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a CR subscription to look at air filters. For good air filtering you really only need a hepa filter ($20) in front of a fan ($20), but CR only analyses the performance of brand name products ($200).

Not exactly. To be comparable to the good air filter products, you'd want to build a cube of air filters and attach the fan so it pulls air through the cube. Fun DIY project, but it's not for everyone. There's a good YouTube video for it.

The DIY cube air filter even has its own Wikipedia entry:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi–Rosenthal_Box

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#219

Post by bambax »

ISL wrote: 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/

Oh this is obviously the main (or only) source of the article we're discussing. Only more interesting and with actual information in it! Thanks!

Re: Why every microwave sucks these days

#220

Post by rrr_oh_man »

somat wrote: post #141
jpalomaki wrote: post #127

Couple of things I'm now looking at microwave: 1)inverter 2)no rotating plate. My understanding is that with inverter the microwave can actually adjust the power instead of doing the on/off/on/off cycle you get with the cheap ones. I guess the rotating plate is there, because it's hard to distribute the microwaves evenly inside the oven. Some time ago I tried to find one without the rotating plate, but the only ones…

The rotating plate is a weird one. I am not really sure why they are found in most consumer microwaves. It feels like a fancy feature? Not having one is definitely the better options. easier to clean for one. Without a rotating plate there will be a hidden metal fan-like object ether in the ceiling or the floor. this is a rotating reflector designed to scatter the waves a bit. Don't consider this a recommendation(it…

> The rotating plate is a weird one. I am not really sure why they are found in most consumer microwaves.

> this is a rotating reflector designed to scatter the waves a bit

I remember watching a daytime documentary testing different microwaves with some frozen pocket and then measuring the surface and core temperatures.

IIRC, the low-quality (=/= cheap) microwaves would basically just Gauss rifle your food with a high powered wave while trying to mitigate it by spinning around the tray.

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