"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:04:24 -0000, trader_4
wrote:

On Monday, December 31, 2018 at 2:18:47 AM UTC-5, Diesel wrote:
"William Gothberg"
news GMT in alt.home.repair, wrote:

On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 17:38:04 -0000, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 08:07:42 -0800, Bob F
wrote:

On 12/29/2018 6:37 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Saturday, December 29, 2018 at 9:23:42 AM UTC-5, Bill Gill
wrote:
On 12/29/2018 7:43 AM, William Gothberg wrote:
Shouldn't we have faster microwaves by now giving out a few
kW? They were invented decades ago.
Higher powered microwaves would require higher powered
electric outlets, probably 220VAC (in the USA).

Also it is questionable whether higher powered ovens would be
practical for use. Getting warming times down to a couple of
seconds might not be a good idea. More speed is not always
better.

Bill

+1

That about covers it. Not sure how useful more power would be.
For example, last night I was thawing out a tomato sauce in a
quart plastic container. The Panasonic has a defrost mode that
uses about 30% power and cycles that.


It gets the 30% power by cycling the 100% power on 30% of the
time.

(By the way, adjusting the level does not actually change the
wattage. It simply means the microwave will pulse on and off at
its fixed wattage until the desired level is reached.)

https://lifehacker.com/5974788/famil...-with-your-mic
rowaves-power-settings-to-make-microwave-cooking-a-joy
That was true of the first generation of Microwaves, but the
current
"inverter" driver units actually CAN throttle the power. Inverter
microwaves are much better for defrosting AND cooking.

We've had ours for about 2 years now - replacing our original
that we bought in about 1985.

BIG difference (but the old one would likely still be working by
the time this one dies)

Why is it called an invertor? I thought an invertor was a device
to increase the voltage - like running 240V devices off a 12V car
battery.

It's actually a switching power supply, instead of the old heavy step
up transformer, diode and capacitor system. And contrary to the other
posters reply, there 'inverter' style microwave is NOT throttling the
power going to the magnetron. It's still getting high voltage DC
current, just like the original ones. It's better able to control the
timing period for magnetron on/off cycles as well as independent
control over the magnetrons required filament. the old step up
transformer style fired the element with another tap on the
secondary. so, if the transformer had power, both the filament and
magnetron do too. No way to seperate them in that design.

And why on earth would you not want to cook on full power? I've
never had a reason to lower the power from the maximum of 800W. I
want the meal as soon as possible!

You aren't lowering or raising the power to your magnetron when you
adjust those cooking settings. All you're actually doing is telling
the microwaves computer how long to leave the magnetron on for. Ie:
how fast does it cycle the magnetrons power state. For the old heavy
ones, non 'inverter', it's opening/closing a single pole relay that
controls the input on the primary coil to the step up transformer.
Your 'cooking' settings determine how long that relay stays open and
closes for. That's all. Anytime it's closed, your magnetron (in your
case) is kicking 800watts of microwave energy. You can't adjust that.
What you can adjust is how long it's firing the energy into the
cooking chamber.

Which is in fact changing the power input to the magnetron and the power
output of the magnetron. It's like a 100W bulb on a dimmer. I set the
dimmer to 50%, is the dimmer still delivering 100W? Is the bulb still
putting out 100W? No, it's now 50W.

Not really true with the old microwaves where the on/off cycle was every
10 seconds! All that does is make the food hot then warm then hot then
warm, not very good I would have thought.

Yes, you actually are that pig ignorant.

It allows more time for the heat to move from the
outer layer of a big chunk of stuff like with a leg
of lamb or quart of something you are defrosting
to the inside where the microwaves don't get to.