I’ve never seen a microwave where you set the power as percentage, it’s always watts. Usually from around 150W to 950W
Comment on As neglected as the 7 button on a microwave
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 10 hours agoYou know how when you microwave a hot pocket, burrito, etc. and the outside is lava but the center is still cold or even frozen? Well, microwaves have a power setting. You can set the power generally from 10% - 100%, usually in increments of 10. You can set the power to a lower percentage and give it additional time such that it will cook slower and heat more evenly.
brb@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
Every single microwave I’ve ever seen set it either as a percentage or a…perdecage? 1-10. Like I don’t think I can set my current microwave to 73% power; I get 70% or 80%.
brb@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Fascinating. What do you do when some microwave meal gives instructions like “3min at 750W”? Or does it say some percentage instead of watts and you just do the math? If so, how do you handle microwaves with different wattages?
Grostleton@lemm.ee 2 hours ago
We usually get vague bullshit like “3 mins on HIGH*” followed by a disclaimer “for 1200w microwave, cooking times may vary” or some such thing.
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
That sounds nice but from my experience most people’s eyes glaze over when I start talking about Watts. It seems to confuse most people unfortunately.
Matty_r@programming.dev 10 hours ago
Lies. All power all the time.
seralth@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Your not actually lowering the power, it’s just lowering the duty time.
70% means that it runs only 70% of the time.
Microwaves are either on or off. There is no in-between.
Its the same as running something for 30 seconds letting it sit for 20 then running it for another 10.
It’s also a large reason frozen dinners have you stir them.
mememuseum@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
There are inverter microwaves that can actually vary the output power of the magnetron, but I know Panasonic had a patent on it for a while.
JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
A convection oven works exactly the same way.
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Correct, but I think most people don’t think about that.