On 4/8/2017 9:23 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 4/8/2017 8:44 AM, Art Todesco wrote:
Here's a question for all the microwave experts. I know you shouldn't
run a microwave oven empty because of reflected energy back to the
magnetron. But how small can the food be to be safe? Like a
tablespoon of cat food? Or 2 pats of butter? One friend told me to
always put a small glass of water in the oven when heating small
amounts of food. Any ideas?

If I'm melting 2T of butter it i only running 30 seconds. I've never
had a problem doing it and the MW is over 15 years old. I'd not run it
long like that but never had to. Not the definitive answer, but it works
for me.
One thing I forgot to mention, this is a new microwave oven. The old
one quit after 7 1/2 years. The new one is the so called inverter
model. So, lower power settings, rather than just pulsing on and off,
it somehow changes the actual magnetron output. It works really well
for defrosting and heating smaller quantities of food. As for melting
butter, the low power settings work really nice without cause explosions
of boiling water inside the butter.