Question about microwaves

[rstove02]

It the 'cooking ability' of a microwave dependent on the wattage per cubic foot or just plain wattage?

The reason I ask this is that I had a 1100W 2.0 CuFt microwave that went bad on me and I replaced it with a 1100W 1.0 CuFt model. The new model seems to warm up the same quantities of food approx 40% faster.

 

[George P Burdell]

I always thought it was a function of food quantity and wattage, but your empirical data suggests otherwise.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: rstove02
It the 'cooking ability' of a microwave dependent on the wattage per cubic foot or just plain wattage?

The reason I ask this is that I had a 1100W 2.0 CuFt microwave that went bad on me and I replaced it with a 1100W 1.0 CuFt model. The new model seems to warm up the same quantities of food approx 40% faster.

Most likely you just have a more efficient source for generating the microwaves since you have a new unit.

 

[rstove02]

It could be that the magnetron in the old microwave having lower efficiency due to age or design. But that does beg the additional question, do magnetrons lose efficiency with time?

 

[MrWizzard]

Possibly there are a couple things going on here.

1. Just like a 300 HP Porsche is a lot faster than a 300 HP Mustang. Different engineering.

2. Most of the time when you replace an old with new it will work more efficiently, as there has been ?breakthroughs? in technology.

Take joy in that you get your food faster. :thumbsup:

 

[rstove02]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Take joy in that you get your food faster. :thumbsup:

Heh, I am quite pleased with the new microwave performance. With any type of electronic doohickey I sometimes stop and think up questions about it (mostly how/why types of questions)...unfortunately it is usually right before falling asleep these questions pop into my mind making me lose an hour or two of sleep...damnit.