James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Thu, 28 Dec 2017 03:56:51 -0000, Robert Baer
wrote:

rickman wrote:
James Wilkinson Sword wrote on 12/11/2017 11:50 AM:
On Mon, 11 Dec 2017 04:07:43 -0000, Mary-Jane Rottencrotch
wrote:

On 2007-01-19 12:13, Peter ****er wrote:
Is it really true that turning on a microwave with nothing in it will
break it?

Derp.

It was a sensible question. This could be done by accident.

I interviewed with a place once that was doing something with testing
microwave ovens. They ran them all the time with nothing in them. I
had always read that you should not operate them with nothing to absorb
the energy and mentioned that. I got a strange look from the guy.
Obviously the energy that would be absorbed is within the limits of what
the ovens were designed to get rid of.

STUPID!

Microwave ovens *generate* (microwave) energy and cannot "get rid" of
any of that.

It boils down to how much of a load mis-match (SWR) can the magnetron
("maggie") tolerate.

Nothing will "break", but the maggie may burn out.

There is a block to absorb the energy that comes back. It should have a
thermal cutout on it.

NOTHING to "absorb", IF there is a thermal cut-out that is a BIG clue
to that fact.