How long does it take a microwave oven to warm up?

Pan fry your egg rolls, roll so four sides get crispy. Microwaved egg rolls just aren't worth eating. IMHO Mikek

I have an older microwave, that has only 700W. Most directions are for higher power. I find most things are OK if I add 25% to the cooking time. For example, if it says 3 minutes I use 3:45.

BTW, some people have said that if I got a new microwave, it would probably fail before the old one.

The air in the microwave doesn't heat up much. The food does (IIRC microwaves affect water molecules). So the food is cooked by heat the same in a conventional oven. It's just the immediate source of the heat is different (the water in the food rather than the air around it).

Since the hear comes from the water molecules in the food, heat comes from all over. However, the microwaves come from outside and there would be some attenuation in the interior of the food, so essentially it heats from outside.

I have a 30 year old JCPenney microwave (from the time they sold a lot of things rather than just clothes and related stuff).

I discovered mine could be set for 90 seconds (normally an invalid entry, but it works), which saves a little work over the "130" (1 min 30 sec) you're supposed to use.

Once I microwaved one of he free AOL CDs.

Mostly I use the microwave for heating already-cooked food.

One exception is bacon.

Maybe, we have one that was manufactured in 1983, still works fine, but we have two, and this one is not used as much.

Mikek

Shows how microwaves cook unevenly and a few spots got the energy and penetrated.

Just for the record, I consciously used the phrase, because it reminds me of simpler times, harmed only by the extra time it took to turn on the radio or tv. (In the movies, sometimes they would turn something on and it woudl start immediately. I did stay at a hotel once 8 years ago that was also operating in the 30's and it still had the remote speaker/channel selector for the central radio it used then. Each room had one and the patron could swtich between two or three stations, and adjust the volume, so when you turned it on, it went on immediately. Unfortunately, the hotel finally closed.)

I'm pretty sure mine is less tnan 4 seconds becuase I really have used

BTW, if you get one of those slabs of chocolate chip cookies, precut, they say to cook them in a hot oven of course, but 37 seconds per square does a good job. Not like baked, but like a differen4 recipe.

Another reason to know the startup time is if I make two of them, it only has to start-up once, so it needs less than twice the time, but the instructions already say less than twice the time, and their differential is greater than 4 seconds. I think there is some reason for that other than start-up, warm-up time.

My microwave air can heat up to 450 degrees. Well, it's a combo microwave/turbo oven. You can set it so It will alternate between the two modes.

Greg

In the early days of microwave ovens (some of us are old enough to remember when they first started to become common) we tested the unevenness with mini marshmallows.

You were supposed to put a close grid of minimarshmallows covering the bottom and watch them cook. You'll see a pattern of hot and cold spots. That advice came from cooking shows I think.

The early microwaves did not have a turntable. The second generation had a rotating "fan" that bounced the waves around, and the third generation had the now ubiquitous turntable, that helps a lot with evenness of heat.

FromTheRafters posted for all of us...

Get a Binford 6150 MMMMM More power.

I may take your suggestion if I can find the pan.

If I can find the oil.

It's a different taste sensation. Next I should try them with chocolate syrup!

All my power tools are Binford.

It heats any water molecules when they get passed through and start to vibrate faster. If the water content is mostly on the inside (like a pie) it would actually heat from the inside out. If not, it wouldn't heat from inside outwards.

The microwaves still act on the water molecules closest to the surface first. The center will be cold long after the outside burns when you cook on high. That is why they pulse the gun (temp control) and tell you to let things rest. They are trying to get you to wait until thermal conduction can even out the heating. Best is to stir things you can and spread stuff out on the plate.

Not if there is little water on the outside and plenty inside. It vibrates the water molecules. More molecules, more heat. The poster has it right. That's also why you hear pops from small explosions. They occur without the surface burning because there is some localized heating inside that creates steam.

That is why they pulse the gun (temp control) and tell

That is true.