Comment on To be happy…
terranoid@lemmy.cafe 1 month ago
They’re literally small convection ovens rebranded. They’re not magic.
Things don’t need to be revolutionary to be life changing. Could I have used the convection oven for this one slice of pizza? Sure. Would I ever? Hell no.
But yeah, microwaves really are neat. We’re going to fling these electrons around in these very specific magnetic fields and out pops light you can’t see.
A more efficient and quicker small convection oven you can easily buy for 30 bucks and pop in a cupboard when you’re not using it.
The price really depends where you live, eg: where i live an air fryer can cost 20-40€ , a microwave is often on the 50€ price range
Same here.
Meanwhile a reliable full size oven can easily cost 1000$/€ and consumes much more energy. Not always cheap/easy to install either.
For people on a budget, who often live in a small/rented place, an airfryer’s a life saver. Plug it in, cook something, pop it away if you need some more space. Don’t even need a kitchen. Just use it next to an open window or vent.
A rice cooker is similarly useful. You can use it to cook far more than rice, keep stuff warm, and largely replace a stove top. Once again, often without the need for space of installation.
I feel like a plug in burner and a pot is better than a rice cooker
When I was working in repairs, we got orders sometimes to repair those microwaves. And the only thing that I learned is that if magnetron (coolest technology name in my opinion) died, then it similar to TVs with dead display — price of repair would be basically close to price of whole device.
Meh.
I have an old NEFF microwave. Fixing that involved popping in some new mica paper for a few bucks.
Microwaves are a prime example that if something’s cool doesn’t mean it’s good for it’s job.
Btw, the part of microwave that turns electricity into microwave is called magnetron. Freaking magnetron. I didn’t know real inventions could have names as cool as that.
Microwaves are amazing, but they’re best for liquids or things that can be stirred and don’t need to crisp up.
Microwaves are cool in theory but in practice the food is almost always soggy and mushy. Maybe I just don’t know how to use them, but I’m rarely happy with the result. Even reheating leftovers, I’d rather do in a saucepan
While I had to learn that Microwave ovens don’t magically work on the resonant frequency of water molecules, they do work by inciting motion in dipole molecules, and water with those little H atoms hanigng off to one side is dipolar, so microwaves are rather good at heating them up. This means that you’re sort of working in the same realm of temperatures and humidity as steaming or even boiling, for good or (mostly) for ill.
Heating frozen food specifically engineered to come out okay from a microwave? Well, it’ll come out okay. Re-heating soup or re-steaming tamales (mmmmm. tamales…)? Pretty decent. Heating up anything that wasn’t meant to have “wetness” as a major part of its mouthfeel will go poorly, often disastrously if you don’t try to work around the microwave’s limitations.
Great for vegetables, IME.
I almost never use my microwave or oven because of the air frier.
Microwaves are cool, sure, but they have a completely different utility. If I want a small amount of food hot, it goes in the microwave. If I want a small amount of food crispy, it goes in the air fryer. If I want a large amount of food hot or crispy it goes in the oven, with convection on or off depending on the end goal.
If you want crispy, heat with the air fryer.
If want moist and hot, use a microwave.
Don’t cook soup in the air frier or toast in the microwave.
You’re allowed to mix and match your appliances a little bit, as a treat.
Microwave start to air fryer finish is leftover recover makeover.
Agreed. The only way to a decent baked potato in under 20 mins.
you know what would be a lot cooler? same thing not needing electricity (concentrated solar can get hot enough and heat can be stored in hot oil)
But it wasn’t sunny today and I wanted fries :(
skill issue
For a rain enjoyer, you sure like spreading pro sun propaganda
Just power it using solar panels?
concentrated solar heating gets you there using 1/4 of that space and allows for simple energy storage
“simple” storage of burning hot oil mmhm
You can store the heat in oil, but how do you transfer it into cooking oil? It’s not like you can store it directly in cooking oil since it breaks down with heat.
Heat exchanger? I’m still not sure it’s a great idea though
Yeah it has to be stored in heat-reststant heat transfer oil, that one won’t be edible. How to transfer that heat, like in every step before, using heat exchanger, like coiled pipe where that oil flows used as a hotplate or with air blown through it in air fryer
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
They’re impingement ovens, not convection ovens.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
So it’s an overkill blowdrier, got it.
SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 1 month ago
And a blow dryer is just overkill evaporation.
Nurgus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Waaaaait. Does that mean I can dry my undies in it??
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
If that’s something you want, nobody can stop you.
CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Cheaper version.