saving money by using less leccy

[Cursitor Doom]

What on earth is that stuff about HMS Belfast's guns??

[whisky-dave]

Yes thats true, and the worse thing you can do is place it near heat to warm up.

Hopefully using the defrost on the microwave should be OK but I don't even do that now.

[whisky-dave]

You can always use an alarm on a smartphone, then you have the problem of working out why the alarm is going off. If I do forget to take something out of the freezer, then I do take it out & I find something else to eat on that day and take the item out for the next day.

The only thing I use the defrost fuction for is to warm up plates now.

[whisky-dave]

You share the same ferret(s), now that is kinky.

[Andrew]

People shiver, cold dogs quiver

[whisky-dave]

I stick one in the microwave set it to 1 min on defrost and the plate gets a bit warm. If I put it on full it gets too warm and can be difficult to carry, as in a bit to hot to carry.

[Cursitor Doom]

Provided you're going to cook it properly and soon after defrosting I don't see any problem.

[Roger Hayter]

If he uses completely non-conductive microwave-safe plates this will probably destroy the magnetron - or, as in my case, the window which must have had some conductive stains on it.

Even with the plates that get "slightly warm", putting them in without water is quite likely to damage the oven. Either get a combination oven or use a generous quantity of water.

[tabbypurr]

Another recycled myth.

NT

[Roger Hayter]

Sorry, my story is true. I accidentally ran my small microwave oven with no RF absorbent material in it and the window between the magnetron and the oven burst into flames with a distinct bang and poured out acrid black smoke. There was distortion of the surrounding panel, and hole. So not reusable. OK, I don't know if this would have happened if the insides had been scrupulously clean, perhaps the magnetron would have just run at low current without a load. But it definitely happened.

[tabbypurr]

...

so no magnetron damage. Your mica window burnt because it had accumulated excessive dirt. This absorbed rf until the dirt caught fire. They need to be cleaned or this sometimes eventually happens.

I've fixed nukes worse than that. A straightforward job, though the cleanup is not quick. The hole is the waveguide between cooking cavity & megnetron.

It does. But the claim that running an oven empty can kill the magnetron is an old myth. Even the first domestic nuke, the Amana Radarange, didn't suffer that problem. The solution of that was one of the things that made domestic ovens possible.

NT

[whisky-dave]

Not that I know of.

I usually put them in the top section of the cooker, the grill if I;m not using it, the oven below keeps the plates warm.

I assume due to the fact that in my kitchen and in the microwave there is a level of humididy i.e water in the air.

I suggest you try running your microwave empty, I'm pretty sure you'll find that it gets warm.

[whisky-dave]

I don't care.

[whisky-dave]

Maybe that;s why they say use a microwavable plate, rathe rthan just the tunrtable. I heard you shouldn't run microwave ovens empty, maybe that's why my Hitachi one I bought in 1988 only lasted until ~2011. My present ones seems OK.

[harry]

No, quite true.

[Tim Lamb]

Umm we used to wet the plates but haven't bothered for years. Stoneware plates so likely to be porous.

[Jim K..]

How do you tell which?

[Jim K..]

Every tinkle helps...

[Jim K..]

How does that work then?

[Jim K..]

Porous plates?

I sprinkle a bit of water on plates, stack em & put em on full power for 30 secs.

How is your plate getting warmed?