On Tuesday, 12 February 2019 23:57:22 UTC, John-Del wrote:
On Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 6:21:46 PM UTC-5, wrote:

Semi-related: Will a microwave last longer if lower
power levels are used instead of full power all the
time?

IE: Instead of heating something for the typical one
minute at full power, heating it for two minutes at
half power(or even medium high or 60% if such
setting available)? That way the magnetron cycles
on and off instead of running constantly, and also
the food is more evenly heated.


In total hours, I get much more time on fluorescent tubes when they're on all the time. I have some that burn all the time for security reasons, and others that get turned off when my shop is closed. I get about the same amount of time before failure out of both.

I suspect magnetrons are the same way. For the less time they're actually accumulating during "low power" settings, they're also getting cycled. My guess is it will ultimately make little difference.

Magnetrons generally fail from loss of emission. Fluoro tubes fail from that and from filament breakage, burnout, sputtering & loss of phosphor efficacy. And less common modes like loss of mercury vapour.


NT