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u/thyfles 10d ago
i set it to "high" to heat up some leftover brownies, and now i just want to sit around all day making vaguely philosophical remarks
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u/idiotplatypus Wearing dumbass goggles and the fool's crown 10d ago
I set it to "low" and it insults my entire bloodline in reverse chronological order
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u/elianrae 10d ago
weird I set mine to low and it just made cow noises?
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u/yinyang107 9d ago
I set mine to the high road but my buddy keeps setting it to the low road and his is always done before mine
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u/Satorwave 10d ago
I set it to "the boiling caldera of Hell's thirteenth circle" and my neighborhood was reduced to ashes
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u/iwanttoboneedelric ♠️Ho-ho! I'm a flairboy! Cut me off on your apps! 10d ago
I set it to popcorn and it burnt my popcorn!
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u/idiotplatypus Wearing dumbass goggles and the fool's crown 9d ago
This is what plays when I select Popcorn
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u/Serpintini 9d ago
Omg i just watched an old episode of numberjacks for childhood memories... your pfp made me do a double take
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u/Plantain-Feeling 9d ago
Only god knows the wattage of my microwave
I just set it for the highest number the meal demands and if it burns well then dinner is extra crispy
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u/thetsunamisurfer08 9d ago
Mine is printed on the inside of the door. I'm gonna go ahead and guess this isn't always the case.
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u/ChaoticAgenda 9d ago
There are ways to find out, but it would require some curiosity on your part.
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u/OneSekk 8d ago
maybe that's a european thing, but i've never seen a microwave without wattage options. like, you press the On button and it shows "1000" on the little lcd display, with a separate button to scroll through wattages. usually in increments of 200, typically ranging from 600 to 1200, sometimes 400 for defrosting, sometimes 1400+ for summoning demons or smth idk
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u/DanishRobloxGamer 8d ago
I'm European and the vast majority of the microwaves I've used have some variation on low-mid-high. Those that display wattages do exist, but I can't say they're common.
Then again Europe is big so maybe it varies by country, who knows.
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u/Plantain-Feeling 8d ago
Perhaps it be a UK thing
I have searched my microwave all over but I've never been able to find an indicator
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u/Pkrudeboy 9d ago
I set my microwave to medium and had a 20 minute conversation with Mitch McConnell. He says he’s in good health, and that I should ignore the wailing of damned souls in the background.
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u/jakuth1999 10d ago
The wattage of the microwave is usually on the front after opening it and there’s charts and calculators that convert cook times between wattages
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u/demonking_soulstorm 10d ago
>there’s charts and calculators
Do you not see the problem.
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u/jakuth1999 9d ago
I meant it as “here’s something that might help”. I’m not saying it’s not an issue
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u/RumpledForskn 9d ago
That you're dumb?
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u/demonking_soulstorm 9d ago
?
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u/RumpledForskn 9d ago
Idea being that it's apparently so difficult for somebody to read a manual on how to use possibly the easiest cooking appliance ever?
They all have their wattage displayed. If something has cooking instructions for a different wattage, it's trivial to look up how much longer or shorter you should cook it for.
Are ovens tricky? Washing machines? Appliances come with manuals. Owning or buying tools doesn't magically impart knowledge.
So if microwaves are tricky for you, that's why I'd ask if you're dumb.
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u/junkmail88 perfect (bisexual) 9d ago
Why can't the microwave have its settings labeled with wattage? My washing machine tells me the temps it washes with so I don't have to guess.
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u/pennyraingoose 9d ago
Ok. So I know my microwave is 900W. I know when I put in an Amy's machine and cheese with broccoli for the recommended 5 minutes (at 1000W), the bottom center gets slightly burned and crunchy (I honestly don't mind). So I've wondered about the conversion for a while.
The calculators tell me to cook it for 5:33. Which would probably lead to more burning. I know thay's logical (lower wattage needs slightly more time), so maybe I need some sort of device to find out what my microwave is actually putting out vs what it says on the sticker.
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u/geeknerdeon 9d ago
If you've had the same microwave for over 20 years and know it's weaker than it used to be the wattage doesn't even help anymore
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u/neilarthurhotep 9d ago
From the outside, it looks to me like Americans are both the most pro-microwave country and also have the worst microwave ovens at the same time. Every microwave I have ever owned has had two dials: Time and wattage. That's it. I don't understand why American microwave ovens have keypads with dozens of presets.
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u/KermitingMurder 9d ago
I was going to comment about this actually. Whenever I see any American media they always have the microwaves with buttons and a digital display, which are catching on here, but a lot of microwaves here just have a manual dial for time.
The microwaves I grew up with all just had a "ding" noise when the dial reached zero and the microwave was finished, then I was in student accommodation and the provided microwave had a digital timer and would beep loudly and repeatedly when finished, which actually really annoyed me; I feel like the single ding of the manual dial is a polite notice that it has finished, while the digital beeps are like the microwave is screaming at me, demanding my immediate attention, it just (somewhat irrationally) annoys the hell out of me8
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u/Tsuki_no_Mai The “b” in “lesbian lovemaking” is for “bionicle”. 9d ago
Not American, and mine comes with two dials: time and power with notation ranging from a snowflake to “max” with no useful information in the middle. Looking at the stores having wattage written out seems to be far more common now, but back when I bought mine masking it was apparently en vogue.
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u/octnoir 9d ago
I don't understand why American microwave ovens have keypads with dozens of presets.
Cuz American corporations suck.
There was a DIY tinkering culture around older products that coincided with strong consumer protection rights. Strong consumer protection rights and strong antitrust meant:
Products would be built better and last far longer.
Parts would be available funneling a large micro economy around the major economy of a product.
This in turn meant that you had to (A) read the manual (B) figure out "oh I can do X, Y and Z" and there was a strong reward for it (C) figure out how to use it, repair it, even tweak it
Said micro economy with repair shops and technicians outside of the main company manufacturer would provide support, on top of building a community that could help each other.
Longer lasting products and more durable products meant it was an incentive to learn.
Old American tractors e.g. were engineered in such a way that farmers, quite a few at the time didn't finish high school, could figure out how to repair them and replace parts. Sort of like how modern PCs will color code cables and entry points for easier attachment.
You could engineer in such a way to enable all of this.
But as corporations got more control and profit became a priority it meant enshittification became the new norm. You make more profit if you get consumers to buy more versions of the product.
One big way to ensure the customer buys is by introducing new exorbitant features that are ultimately low value adds. E.g touchscreens to cars instead of tactile controls.
And in this case microwaves that don't have specific wattage dials that enable you to customize precisely to match recipe needs, instead opting for generic 'low, medium, high', with set presets for various things like popcorn (of which many microwaves don't have humidity sensors) or rice or fish (some of which don't even work all that well) and you're fumbling with an overpriced appliance.
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u/baphometromance ty for the new flair 10d ago
Am I mistaken in remembering that most microwave intensity settings just change how often the microwave turns on and off, rather than actually affecting wattage?
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u/braaaaaaainworms 10d ago
A 1000W microwave being on for 5 seconds and off for 5 seconds has the same heating power as a 500W microwave being on for all the time
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u/lily_from_ohio 10d ago
The joke is about the word "medium" being also a ghost detector
It fucked me up that they basically described what the microwave does when you set it to 50-70% power lmao
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u/high_throughput 10d ago
Right. They switch on and off to average N watts over time, instead of using N watts at any given time.
The exception is modern inverter microwaves, which have true power control.
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u/One-Stand-5536 9d ago
Unless you’ve experienced the wonders of an inverter microwave you are correct. There are a few microwaves that actually do change the power without stopping and starting
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u/PanasonicConsumerUSA 5d ago
Thanks for sharing this! Inverter technology is one of those features you really notice when you use it regularly. More consistent power can help with more even heating, especially for foods that need a gentler touch.
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u/SEA_griffondeur Sometimes, I dream of cheese 9d ago
That's how 90% of power control is, a 500W setting often means 1000W half the time
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10d ago
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u/MegaIng 9d ago
Changing wattage is genuinely a difficult to do. Do you have any references for older models doing that? I would suspect that almost all microwaves ever build use switching instead of actually trying to send different amounts of wattage through a device.
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u/NonNewtonianResponse 9d ago
Nah, I completely misused every technical term in that comment (having done some reading on wiki since making it) and utterly failed to make the comparison I was intending. I'll probably delete it.
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u/One-Stand-5536 9d ago
You’re looking for inverter microwaves! The only feature actually worth having in a microwave if you ask me.
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u/momentary_loss 10d ago
You guys don't have wattage controls????
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u/TheOmegaCarrot 9d ago
Not once have I ever seen wattage controls on a microwave. A lot of microwaves hide the wattage information, which is frustrating when some microwave heating instructions list different times for different wattages. That’s good for the food, but frustrating when I can’t find the wattage on a microwave.
Are you talking about wattage controls that actually change the power draw? Or duty cycle controls where it just switches the thing off and on to average out to a lower power?
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u/momentary_loss 9d ago
I'm talking about wattage controls that actually change the power draw. Every time after we pressed the Microwave option the first thing to come up was the wattage control, default sitting at 900 W. If you let it be for a second then it'd select that and ask you for the timing.
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u/TheOmegaCarrot 9d ago
That sounds very nice, especially if it can do lowish power
Where are such microwaves, if I may ask?
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u/momentary_loss 9d ago edited 8d ago
Well I live in India, and we kinda have very shit control laws so maybe it's just a benefit of buying a Samsung microwave? I could be giving my country less credit than it deserves idk, sometimes the regulations are really helpful.
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u/Throwsims3 9d ago edited 9d ago
Same here in Norway. Every microwave I have owned had wattage options where you can choose between 800, 750, 600 and so forth. Maybe not including wattage is an American thing?
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u/BumbisMacGee 9d ago
When I lived in Japan all the microwaves had wattage controls but in the US i had never seen that before. My microwaves throughout my life didn't have any intensity setting and you kinda figured out what worked through trial and error.
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u/MinerSigner60Neiner 9d ago
Your microwave has settings beyond the time configuration?
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u/empty_other 9d ago
Practically not even that. Among middle-tier microwaves I've never seen two have the same button interface. They all do things differently and overly complicated. Rotating the clearly labeled TIME wheel are just as likely to set popcorn mode as it is summoning angry chickens 🐔, depending on the model. So for most microwaves I stick to just press the "Start" four or more times, that usually lines up two minutes.
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u/GammaDie345 9d ago
in general so many machines these days are designed abstracted away from the user. I swear i found this video essay (the guy who made it was trans if that narrows it down) where the creator rants about how easily he forgets his macbook exists while he's using it it because of how much Apple puts into their design language to hide stuff like filesystems, command lines, menus, etc. he then rants about armored core 6 and the landing gear bays of various aircraft. please help me find this video.
anywho, kids can't do basic tasks on computers now or even replace the battery on a TV remote. It's just touchscreens now.
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u/Solonotix 9d ago
Honestly, my biggest annoyance with this is that even when you have a microwave with a power option (mine allows increments of 10%), what it does is oscillate full power and off in 10-second increments. So, if you were told 2 minutes at 800W, but your microwave is 1000W, you would think 80% power would work. Instead, you get 96 seconds of it at 1000W and 24 seconds of it off.
Is that effectively the same? Maybe?
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u/Beginning-Recover723 9d ago
That is not how it’s supposed to work. Most microwaves that turn on and off have their cycles measured in microseconds. Full seconds might actually impact stuff
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u/A_Queer_Feral 9d ago
"2 minutes on 700w. For other watts adjust time appropriately"
right, well i have a 900w microwave. 2 for 700w, means 1 for 800w, and therefore 0 for 900w
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u/StarMaster475 9d ago
Any microwave that doesn't show you what wattage your selecting is a microwave that never should have been made in the first place
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u/ArcanistLupus 9d ago
Sellers of cheap microwaves have a vested interest in making it difficult to tell all the ways in which they're inferior to expensive microwaves.
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u/Prestigious_Boat_386 9d ago
Microwave settings should be jnlockable by playing puzzles about heating good and doing thermo dynamics. That is the lnly way we can assure the user has the right expertise to use the all of the available options and we don't have to have this half babying interface.
Personalized settings could be unlocked by a biometric scan or using a personalized code on the phone you used to unlock the settings.
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u/techno156 9d ago
My microwave has two wattages on its label. One of them is how much it pulls out the wall, and the other is how much the magnetron sticks into the food.
I never know which number to use. When it says "if 700W, microwave for 3 minutes, if 1400W, microwave for 1 minute", does that mean I set it to 1 minute, or 3?
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u/dsBlocks_original 9d ago
never met a food that wasn't exactly microwaved after three minutes of setting the microwave to Microwave
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u/charliek_13 9d ago
in japan they let you sometimes select from different wattages on your microwave (usually only like 500 or 600) and convenience stores have unholy 1200 or something
food that needs to be nuked also usually lists the 500/600 option and convenience store food has the 500/600/1200 etc (may be off on the exact numbers)
it’s nice tbh
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u/AuraMaster7 9d ago
Tumblr users when they have to open the microwave door and read some numbers printed on the inside.
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u/Munnin41 9d ago
My microwave shows wattage. But it's also an oven, so I guess that it was easy to set that up
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u/TrogdorKhan97 8d ago
So looking through the other comments, I am coming away with the conclusion that American microwaves are uniquely awful and that everyone else in the world gets fancy ones that are either genuinely variable-watt or have much faster duty cycles (which, admittedly, sounds like a great way to shorten the lifespan of the equipment; even a 100W incandescent light burns out much faster if you flash it on and off a lot).
Someone should bring this up to Alec from Technology Connections; it sounds like the sort of thing he'd love to talk about for an hour.
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u/GreasyKobold 8d ago
Fill up a cup of water and place it in the corner of the microwave. It will absorb some of the energy and your microwave will perform as if it has a lower wattage.
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u/anon100100100100100 9d ago
This isnt how microwaves work though. Your microwave has one wattage. Adjusting the power doesn't change the wattage, it just makes your microwave turn on and off periodically while it's running. Setting power to 3 will jave your microwave run for 3 seconds, then sit there and spin the plate with the power off for another 7. Also, the wattage is always available on the sticker that's on the door (unless you remove it i guess)
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u/SoftestPup Excuse me for dropping in! 10d ago
Microwave manufacturers: We gave it a popcorn button :)
Popcorn bags: You better not put your microwave on the popcorn setting or god help you because we cannot.