Nov 05, 2024 04:36 AM By Bilbo378

2

Excellent article with in-depth testing! Thank you. I swapped a cheap no-name model for an expensive Panasonic and saw no difference either, other than it being easier to program with buttons vs an analogue dial. Part of what I paid for was a ‘grill’ function, which turned out to be useless. Does any microwave grill function actually grill food? Maybe the answer is already in the inverter article, I’ll read that next. I do however think it’s slightly misleading to say that the mode stirrers made no difference in the commercial one tested, it certainly did make a difference since there was no turn-table, they were replacing it with a less failure prone part. It’s just that for a home user it makes no sense to spend that kind of money!

Hi Bilbo378!

It’s really nice to hear that you enjoyed reading my work. And it’s a nice sanity check when our users share their personal experiences.

The point I was trying to make in this section of the article:

The commercial appliance we tested—the Panasonic NE-12523—splits its power such that microwaves are output from the floor and ceiling of its cooking chamber and includes two such mode-stirring devices, yet it fails to produce mashed potatoes with increased evenness.

Was not so much about the mode-stirrers, but that the Panasonic NE-12523 splits its microwave output power to be directed simultaneously from the floor and ceiling of it’s cooking chamber - and that even this did not yield more evenly-heated mashed potatoes.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

All the best, Mike

Excellent article with in-depth testing! Thank you.

I swapped a cheap no-name model for an expensive Panasonic and saw no difference either, other than it being easier to program with buttons vs an analogue dial.

Part of what I paid for was a ‘grill’ function, which turned out to be useless. Does any microwave grill function actually grill food? Maybe the answer is already in the inverter article, I’ll read that next.

I do however think it’s slightly misleading to say that the mode stirrers made no difference in the commercial one tested, it certainly did make a difference since there was no turn-table, they were replacing it with a less failure prone part. It’s just that for a home user it makes no sense to spend that kind of money!

Jul 13, 2024 10:03 PM By Madao

1

Were flatbed microwaves tested? People often say they heat less evenly, though that hasn’t been my experience.

Hi, thanks for the question!

Flatbed microwaves aren’t very common in North America for residential use, but we tested one, the Panasonic NE-12523, which is a commercial microwave. We can say that that particular model didn’t provide better or worse evenness than the other microwaves we’ve tested.

Jul 12, 2024 06:09 PM By Blast7705

1

Did you see that there have ever been microwaves with better behavior for popcorn? Technology Connections has a video which talks about the popcorn button on the Sharp Carousel Multi-choice. It’s titled “The Antique Microwave Oven that’s Better than Yours”

Hello Blast7705,

Thank you for taking the time to read the article and comment!

I have seen the YouTube video you are referring to. The use of a humidity sensor to know when popcorn has been cooked long enough is really clever. For one reason or another, this is not a common feature of microwaves (even some microwaves which have humidity sensors for other foods do not use them for popcorn). This is not something we have tested for, but the LG MVEM1825 and LG MVEL 2033F are the two models in our test bench which include this feature.

I would not say that a microwave which uses a sensor to know when popcorn is done would have better behaviour or produce better popcorn, but it may make it slightly easier / more hands-off.

Were flatbed microwaves tested? People often say they heat less evenly, though that hasn’t been my experience.

This is fascinating, and this is why I like you guys, you don’t use reviews merely as marketing, stuff like this is refreshing honesty that’s sorely lacking.

What About Popcorn?

Did you see that there have ever been microwaves with better behavior for popcorn? Technology Connections has a video which talks about the popcorn button on the Sharp Carousel Multi-choice. It’s titled “The Antique Microwave Oven that’s Better than Yours”

Anecdotally, I agree with the test results. When we had to remodel our kitchen we went from an expensive over the stove microwave range hood to a cheap 25$ dorm microwave.

And saw no difference.

I do think that there are differences in programming presets, user preferences (push button to open vs handle) , noise, etc…. That can affect user pleasure in using a microwave. But that’s about it.

I heard that microwaves lose their juice over time. I know that’s a weird thing to mention- that their fuses apparently needed replacement or something- but I wouldn’t know how to test for that or if it’s worth it if the 25$ dorm microwave is still working like a champ.