Microwave Oven Layout

here is a typical "Small countertop" model PRICE $69.88 - $98.59 Galanz GLCMKA07BER-07 10 in. high , 18 in. wide, 14 in. deep We have no reliability data on this brand but it performed quite well for evenness and (low) acoustical noise, but poor for speed (I take that to mean low RF output power).

for speed (:: output power) so no differentiator unless we step up to mid-size....

many Small are 10 x 17 x 13 (HWD), e.g.,

Magic Chef HMM770B Midea MMC07S1AWW Open Kitchen by Williams Sonoma Stainless-Steel Microwave Black+Decker EM720CPN-P

but this one is bit shorter, only 9" tall Oster OGCMV207S2-07

Someone else posted this one, Specifications Height: 14-1/8” Width: 15-3/8” Depth: 13-3/4”

Seems intended for this purpose.

At almost $200 it seems I was right about vendors wanting a pretty penny for the convenience.

We do mostly stovetop cooking in my household so the +30 button tends to be the most-used button and the rest rarely to never.

You could probably market a microwave oven with just that control to the younger crowd, nobody under 30 uses the temperature probes or auto-defrost or the "Popcorn" button (will only burn your popcorn) or all that crap.

We use:

- beverage (to reheat tea/coffee)

- reheat (to heat/thaw frozen marinara/bolognese sauce)

- digits (to set timer)

- +30 (bump the time remaining, quick-heat tea, soften butter)

- CLOCK (to force ToD into the display when it is otherwise "timing")

- CLEAR (to discard remaining time on the timer)

Popcorn is best made in hot oil (olive or sesame, despite low smoke point). The "specialty" buttons (and "modes") primarily just adjust the power level and/or duty cycle. But, only save labor if something will be *in* the oven for a long time. It's rare the oven is "on" for more than a minute at a time (though often used to TIME longer intervals).

[I think it takes 2.5 minutes to "heat to serving temperature from frozen" a piece of meatloaf. A bit longer to defrost a pint of red sauce to serving temperature...]

One surprise (that shouldn't have been!) I discovered was that increasing a timer from 60 to 70 to 90 seconds behaves as expected. But, 90 to 100 can catch you off guard!

I'm pretty sure they don't adjust power level, the magnetron is an on/off proposition. They do adjust duty cycle and total time. And the microwave computes total time based up your input. Defrost asks you for the weight to be defrosted, self-adjusts the total time, and hits it with a 33% duty, just as an example, and it works pretty well for just about everything. POTATO works pretty well for baking a medium size potato in about 8 minutes, but if it's a big one, you need to run it through twice. The user needs to be willing to play with and remember the performance. If they're dumb the oven is not going to be a convenience for them But I guess that's true of everything.

It's the economy of scale for the market. If the market is relatively small, the product is going to cost. As usual you're totally out to lunch.

That's not typical at all! It's an old fashioned weakling oven.

the magnetron is about as big as half a beer can. there's room for it in a corner of the cooking box. the big part is the transformer, but you could do an SMSPSU and fit that behind the control strip. The magnetron needs forced airflow to keep it cool but there's ways to handle that. eg: put a fan in the opposite corner

The one we have here has instant start buttons for 1 to 6 minutes and a +30 or you can set the timer, and powere level etc. - if you can remember how!

the active parts are cylindrical, but there are square heatsinks magnetic paths, and radio proof boxes, these parts could all be cylindrical too.

I guess the oven cavity has to be a multiple of half wavelengths at

2.4GHz , which quantises the dimensions which work.

Brian