The Microwave Manifesto

While hosting our interns this summer, my coworker Kevin shared his frustration buying a new microwave. His trials and tribulations led him to a deep dive into the world of microwaves. He wrote pure gold.

I immediately knew what I had to do — a work like this needed to be shared with the world. I titled his notes “The Microwave Manifesto,” gave it a foreword, and put them on microwavemanifesto.com.

I also added a Disqus comment section to the site. For the privacy conscious, I let you opt-in and click a button before loading the third-party javascript.

Here are some highlights.

(5) Clock is optional.

Clock is optional. No one needs yet another thing glowing all night long, but some people are scared of the dark (and maybe scared of looking in a random direction without seeing another clock).

Pure comedic genius.

(7) Inverters were invented in 1925.

Inverters were invented in 1925. They aren’t new or novel, and should be standard on all non-basic microwaves.

I had to Google this one. He’s right.

A cost-saving measure is to pulse the magnetron on and off instead of using an inverter. Full power, then no power, then full power, then no power. The duty cycle determines the cook power level. If you hear a microwave running and it sounds like it’s pulsing, that’s what’s happening.

If they include an inverter instead, the microwave can continuously run at a lower power level instead of pulsing on and off. This produces more even heating. Worse, non-inverter microwaves can easily overcook the edges of delicate foods.

I always assumed that all microwaves were like this. Nope! It turns out I was wrong; I just had a cheap microwave.

The difference in price between an inverter and a non-inverter microwave is minimal. For some LG microwaves, the difference is only $10. This manifesto actually convinced me to change course when I buy my next microwave.

Clicky clicky: microwavemanifesto.com