You know how when you microwave a hot pocket, burrito, etc. and the outside is lava but the center is still cold or even frozen? Well, microwaves have a power setting. You can set the power generally from 10% - 100%, usually in increments of 10. You can set the power to a lower percentage and give it additional time such that it will cook slower and heat more evenly.
Every single microwave I’ve ever seen set it either as a percentage or a…perdecage? 1-10. Like I don’t think I can set my current microwave to 73% power; I get 70% or 80%.
Fascinating. What do you do when some microwave meal gives instructions like “3min at 750W”? Or does it say some percentage instead of watts and you just do the math? If so, how do you handle microwaves with different wattages?
What on earth is 70% power
You know how when you microwave a hot pocket, burrito, etc. and the outside is lava but the center is still cold or even frozen? Well, microwaves have a power setting. You can set the power generally from 10% - 100%, usually in increments of 10. You can set the power to a lower percentage and give it additional time such that it will cook slower and heat more evenly.
Your not actually lowering the power, it’s just lowering the duty time.
70% means that it runs only 70% of the time.
Microwaves are either on or off. There is no in-between.
Its the same as running something for 30 seconds letting it sit for 20 then running it for another 10.
It’s also a large reason frozen dinners have you stir them.
There are inverter microwaves that can actually vary the output power of the magnetron, but I know Panasonic had a patent on it for a while.
A convection oven works exactly the same way.
Correct, but I think most people don’t think about that.
And in the case of a microwave, it makes almost no difference if you’re running longer than 30s
I’ve never seen a microwave where you set the power as percentage, it’s always watts. Usually from around 150W to 950W
Every single microwave I’ve ever seen set it either as a percentage or a…perdecage? 1-10. Like I don’t think I can set my current microwave to 73% power; I get 70% or 80%.
Fascinating. What do you do when some microwave meal gives instructions like “3min at 750W”? Or does it say some percentage instead of watts and you just do the math? If so, how do you handle microwaves with different wattages?
We usually get vague bullshit like “3 mins on HIGH*” followed by a disclaimer “for 1200w microwave, cooking times may vary” or some such thing.
That sounds nice but from my experience most people’s eyes glaze over when I start talking about Watts. It seems to confuse most people unfortunately.
Lies. All power all the time.