[slightly OT] cheap microwaves - how come?

[jkn]

Hi all I'm thinking of getting a new microwave. Not my favourite bit of kitchen equipment by a long way.

I was wondering ... what are the economies made between the ultra- cheapo models found in the supermarkets etc. and the ones you might find in more up-market stores, say John Lewis for reference?

Are there power/electronic/microwave emission compromises made, and/or is it 'just' the usual finish/quality issues? I'd quite like a lightly smaller one than the old Sharp we have at the moment, & wondering if a cheap semi-disposable one is the way to go.

Any specific recommendations for an ordinary 750W or similar gratefully received. I have a particular gripe against the use of 'digital' inputs (keypad etc.) to select an essentially analog variable (time), so I guess sensible ergonomics is a plus for me.

Thanks jon N

[Andy Hall]

I wouldn't describe John Lewis as up-market, but still...

I've taken a look inside several owned by various members of the family, and it's pretty clear that the build quality is somewhat better in the better quality makes - Panasonic, Sharp etc. than in the £70 specials from the supermarket.

I bought a replacement a few months ago (Sharp) based on a few reviews. Generally it seems that the better products do heat more evenly.

Certainly stainless steel seems to command a higher price.

I think you would have to say disposable. The cheap ones aren't economically repairable.

Ordinary now seems to be 800-900w.

I don't think it matters. They all seem to come with a bunch of features that are not that useful. I tend to set power level and time on mine and that's about it. I can't be bothered with the fancy settings and I am not going to cook a 300g pizza from frozen in one.

I did use the cook from frozen function with a carton of soup the other day and that seemed to work OK.

It seems to me that one might as well buy a decent quality one or buy the cheapest and throw it away when it needs cleaning.

[Phil L]

*seventy* quid? - that's a dear one - around here the supermarkets are knocking cheapos out for £24

[Doki]

I know you turn your nose up at Aldi and Lidl, but I'd say John Lewis is about the poshest place you can go shopping for Microwaves. Unless Bang and Olufsen / similar hifi bods have started making them...

[Owain]

That's what I was thinking.

The same model appears in several slightly different fascias and colours. My Tesco £25 is acceptably adequate.

Owain

[Frank Erskine]

I have a fairly bog-standard Panasonic 800W jobbie which has auto-weight and stand/delay settings, which I never use - in fact I wouldn't know how to use 'em unless I RTFM... :-) It's mainly used for thawing out frozen stuff in a 'hurry'; such as bread rolls et al. I'm sure the turntable pleases itself which way it turns, much like ancient synchronous electric clocks!

If you strap out the door interlocks and fix the machine on top of a pole with the door open, I suppose you could use it as a 2·45 GHz transmitter and modulate it with a carbon microphone in series with the mains supply, provided you don't mind a bit of mains hum.

[Andy Hall]

I was talking about the store, not the products....

[Dave]

I am the same. Panasonic all singing, all dancing and I cant be a**ed to even find the manual.

Me too, but the wife does cook scrambled eggs and some veg in it. She used to cook potatoes in it a long time ago, but I did not like the taste, so she has abandoned them now.

If it's owt like ours, the turntable changes direction each time it is powered up :-)

Better still, hook into the main diode and get it to put out SSB :-)

Dave

[Ian]

They all do the same job - cook food. Not very well compared to a proper oven, but they heat stuff up if you're in a hurry. The price difference reflects the fancy features you can get. Mine has a timer so I can set it to cook as I am driving home if I want, or set it to have a bite to eat ready in the morning. You can get them with bar code recognition which is crap and never took off and various wattages. The higher the wattage the faster it cooks. Mine also has "inverter" plastered over it. Instead of pulsing on and off at full power for a "medium" setting, it reduces the supply and cooks constantly on medium if you see what I mean. Mine also has a convection oven which is more like an infra red oven, burning rather than heating! I prefer a proper oven, can't beat them. I would get a really cheap one and just use it for warming stuff up, then throw it out after a few years when it blows up! I would never buy an expensive microwave again. The last one was £250 and lasted 10 years. The one after was £159 from Costco and lasted 2 years. The current one is from Currys and cost £109.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Frank Erskine writes

Spot on. The cheaper motors are synchronous motors and do indeed please themselves in the direction of rotation when turned on. In the clocks there was supposed to be a mechanism that would stop it winding the wrong way, but they often gunk up or wear out meaning you have to switch the old clocks on and off a few times until they run in the right direction.

The random direction nature of cheap synchronous motors means they are often used in disco lights where they will bounce the light about in random directions when their power is pulsed on and off to the beat. If you stall one of these motors it just goes into reverse and carries on running.

[Graham]

They all do, because they *are* powered with a self-starting synchronous motor with no mechanical direction-of-rotation inhibit.

[Frank Erskine]

Old clocks used to have a spinny-thing to twirl to get the clock going in the right direction, until the newfangled gizmo came along that was supposed to nudge it the right way.

I still have a couple of clocks like that - the newfangled type if I remember correctly. I bought them at a car-boot sale, purely for the old-fashioned maroon twisted flex they were attached to, to use for theatre practical props...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Basically they are all te same power unit I reckon, just in fancier cases with more gimmickty hung around. I am stll using a 7 year olkd model that has a mechanical timer, and a power levels switch, and that does all I need.. No complex dials saying '1 baked potatao' - '2 baked potaoes' '3 pot noodles' etc. tec.

Just buy the cheapest bit of shit you can. The rest is all fluff and bollocks anyway.

[Colin Wilson]

I can't even set the clock on my Panasonic - whenever I try, the display scrolls "please read the manual" (sod that, i'm a bloke ffs)

Other than that, flawless performance and i'd recommend them to anyone !

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Owain writes

With the added advantage that when an "experiment" goes wrong you can just buy another one. (After ripping out the salvageable components.)

For some entertainment type "microwave" into youtube to see all manner of dubious experiments.

Incidentally, it's worth mentioning that the transformers inside microwaves put out several thousand volts at a high enough current to terminate your life instantly. Good fun to play with though.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , The Natural Philosopher writes

I looked through the manual and there wasn't even a special setting for light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, candles, CD's or even Dove soap.

[John Rumm]

Probably the only extra feature worth paying for is a stainless interior. The only "cleaver" thing we use on our panasonic is the ability to stick in a sequence of instructions (you know, the "Full Power for three mins, hold for two, medium for three" sort of stuff)

(ours also has a grill facility that was nice in theory until not long after new, SWMBO decided it would be a good idea to soften some frozen butter in it, and over did the timing a tad. Net result was the butter exploded over the inside of the oven, coating the quartz heater element in lots of inaccessible places. Hence any attempt to use the grill now results in so much smoke generation the kitchen soon vanishes!)

personally I like the digital controls, since it can be quite hard to differentiate short durations on some analogue ones - and on a more powerful oven it can make quite a big difference when you just want to heat something small. (e.g. slice of treacle tart - 20 secs, nice an warm, 30 secs, just boiled me tongue!)

[terry]

Agree: El cheapos available here almost everywhere for as lttle as $50 Canadian. Roughly 25 quid!

[dennis]

I can rebadge a Tesco one for you for £3000 if you want to be a snob. ;-)

[nightjar]

My aging Sharp - I keep it because it is set entirely by rotary knobs - always runs clockwise when viewed from above.

Colin Bignell