Microwave Oven Layout

A search for combination and/or built in microwave turned up a few. Over the range with bottom controls exist. That doesn't really answer your question though.

There is a UL requirement for height above a range, so. Side controls would work better there.

Cheers

There's this little thing called a magnetron that has to be routed via waveguide into the oven cavity. So unless you're willing to turn all your food upside down, it goes where it is now, the controls are just a fraction of that footprint. Hey- thanks for the brain teaser of the day tho...

You should have planned for more space.

The control panel isn't the culprit, it's the magnetron and fan that force extra real estate.

. . . and controls have to face the operator, unless they're remote ( aaaagh ! another remote control ! )

The rotator, or uwave-spreader already occupies hight.

Probably the biggest waste of space are the rear corners, but they're no use to the end-user anyways, except to route line cordage, or avoid wall socket protrusions.

You'll see this expressed as a 'bulge' in the back wall of some units, to increase rotator platten diameter.

RL

Rotators are going back a ways, if you mean that fan blade looking thingamajig.

The standard layout is fine, and works fine for making $60 microwaves.

What's you looking for is called a "microwave drawer" and they're all rediculous to use. Its like loading and pulling food from a slide out trash can. Everything about them sort of sucks.

No, I'm asking about a $60 microwave that has the controls above the door, rather than beside it. The part I don't know about, never having taken a microwave apart, is if it's a big deal to try to reposition the rest of the oven layout. Someone has said it's a problem, but that guy sounds like a moron. Another talked about the magnetron, but didn't say it was a problem moving it.

The place I'm in this week has a medium size microwave, wedged diagonally in the corner of a small counter and takes up a much larger portion of the counter than is needed. But there's just no other place to put it really. Turning it parallel to either wall makes it less convenient and still doesn't give back any worthwhile space. But if it were four inches less wide, that would make it worthwhile to sit against the wall rather than cross ways in the corner.

All in all this is one of the more accommodating places I've been in Puerto Rico. Nothing in particular stands out, but it doesn't have many of the many oddities you find here. There are no steps in the floor anywhere in the house or the porches. This may be the first place I've stayed without that oddity. One apartment I was in had a 1 inch rise to the bathroom. With the tile (nearly everywhere is ceramic tile in PR) and the grout about the same color, I stubbed my toe on it a number of times in the dim light. Another place had a flush threshold from patio to inside at one door, but a one inch rise at another door. I guess levels are not popular in Puerto Rico. That same place, had an 8 inch step into the bathroom (not uncommon, maybe for pipes) but no wall. That's right, the bathroom only had three walls, so a full view from the bedroom with a queen and a bunk bed.

Well, that's a drift from the microwave, so I guess I should stop dragging my own thread off topic.

Wow. You sound desperate, or, too much time on your hands.

The magnetron is in fact a fairly sizable device as things go... several inches on a side if I remember correctly. The transformer is of a similar size. In a typical counter-mounted microwave, these two components (and a fan) take up most of the space behind the control panel. The magnetron needs fan cooling.

In the microwaves I've looked at, the RF arrangement seems to follow one of two patterns. In some, there's an aperture on the right side of the cooking chamber, and the magnetron fires through this... ovens like this usually have a rotating platform. In others, there's a metal waveguide mounted above the cooking chamber which carries the microwaves from the magnetron to an aperture with a rotating "fan" which disperses the microwaves... ovens like this often don't have a rotating platform.

In principle I suppose it would be possible to rotate this arrangement on either axis, putting the magnetron and transformer either above the cooking chamber (trades width for height) or behind (trades width for depth). The "behind" approach wouldn't be good for countertops, I suspect, as it would result in a shallow cooking chamber which might not be able to hold an entire frozen dinner (and in that case what's the point? ;-)

I wonder if anyone has ever tried to market a two-piece built-in microwave? (cooking chamber with thin control strip, a separate enclosure with transformer and magnetron, and an RF-tight waveguide connecting them). Seems as if it might work in theory, but getting consumer-safety approval would probably be hellish.

Or, just putting the controls on the door; something like a four-wire USB cord could easily be routed through a door hinge.

I think most of the magetrons are kinda... cubes, though. That and a mode mixer (fan) andtable rotator are always going to be space hogs.

Have you ever taken apart one of the microwaves you reference (i.e., in another article you reference a $60 cost microwave).

The control panel on the side is simply the front cover for the space which holds the transformer and capacitive doubler that drives the magnetron. Most of the space behind the side front panel is consumed by the transformer and magetron (with some extra for the cooling fan and enough room for airflow).

The transformer itself is usually about as wide as the control panel, and often equally as deep, and about 1/2 to 3/4 the height of the volume behind the controll panel. The magnetron generally takes up the remaining 1/2 to 1/4 height of the control panel.

The controls could be moved to the top, or bottom, or onto the door, and you still have to put that transformer volume and magnetron volumne somewhere. If you put both on top (or below) the cooking space, then you get a very tall unit that likely will not fit underneath normal cabinet spacing for normal kitchen countertops. If you put it behind the cooking space, you get an extra deep unit that likely sticks out too far from the wall and/or is too long to fit on a typical depth countertop.

See "Step 7" and "Step 8" here:

photos of what is in the volume behind the control panel. The transformer, magetron, and cooling fan have to go somewhere. Turns out, on the side, with the control panel being the front cover of the volume containing the working guts, is pretty close to the optimal layout, you get the most overall compact unit with that arrangement.

Thirty years ago Mitsubishi had several models with the controls above the door, so it is possible.

not enough purchasers wanted to buy them so they deleted them from their range.

You can have microwave (or rather combo) ovens where the controls are above the heating space (but they are not the $60 ones) more like $600+.

They are not especially small though 600mm width. A quick scan of my local store found just one free standing which meets your requirements (apart from being 2x the price). Every other looked to be the same basic chassis design with different external cosmetic look and feel.

Controls and magnetron are underneath the cooking zone.

Cheap ones it is just so much easier to lump all the active components in a standardised block off to one side of the oven space.

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Shame about the controls. A nice big dial and some Bakelite knobs would work well there.

You can find microwaves with the controls on right (most common, by a huge factor), top (common in industrial settings), bottom (rare) and *left* (rarer still!)

There's little demand for "tiny" ovens as most folks are looking for something in which they can, at least, reheat a plate of leftovers. And, with convection capabilities, "turkeys" are probably the high end of that size range.

[Having turned down an offer to design said controls for a firm specializing in that, many decades ago]

That big line transformer is ancient history and no longer used. For the past ten years or so the industry has gone with resonant converter switching power supplies for magnetron HV and filament power. It saves a LOT of weight and wasted energy too.

Whirlpool makes this for the corner situation:

I don't see weight listed but I doubt it's 5 lbs. So even that hag in PR can carry it.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Not only would it be more narrow, if used in the corner still, it would sit back further, wasting less space behind it in the corner.

Like most "new ideas", they probably wanted a premium price and small microwave are mostly budget units.

Rick, what size footprint are you looking for? I can look it up in our ratings database, there

60+ current US models there. FWIW, the range in dimensions are: Height, 9 to 16" Width, 17 to 30" Depth, 13 to 26" regards, RS