The Natural Philosopher wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Lieutenant Scott wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Rod Speed wrote:
Lieutenant Scott wrote
Andrew Gabriel wrote
Adam Funk wrote

On a related note, is there a good & easy way to destroy data
CDs? The shredders I've come across with CD slots just scratch
the surfaces up a bit rather than break them into bits.

I had a large pile, and didn't like the idea of feeding them all through the microwave, in case it damaged it.

Does anyone know if you can bust a microwave if there is nothing (or not much to absorb like water) in it?

In theory you can, but decent modern designs allow for that.

Corse all bets are off with the cheapest **** from china.

even the cheapest **** from, china has to be essentially protected against anything a consumer can put in it
because at some point a consumer will..

Will it overheat as there's several hundred watts of microwaves
with nowhere to go but the dummy load in the magnetron?

Normally not.

Not sure if there is no 'load' the magnetron will draw much power at all.

I thought they produced the rated output no matter what.

Doubt itl, where is that energy going to go when the microwave is empty ?

The magnetron doesn't know if there is water in the oven or not.

It must be possible to measure what its putting out.

it does 'know' essentially by the amount of energy being reflected back (or not) which affects the coupling to the
cavity.

What I said in twice as many words.

Then if the microwaves aren't absorbed, they bounce around and come back to the magnetron where they're absorbed by
the ballast or whatever it's called.

Not clear what you mean there.

He knows less microwave theory than you do, so there ya go.

I know more than you do, thanks.

About concrete too.

If there is nothing in the microwave at all, that ballast has to
absorb several hundred watts. I'd assume there'd be some kind of
cutout if it got very warm - I've never heard of a microwave oven
catching fire or exploding simply because the food in it dried out
when someone set the timer wrong.