Ruminations on the ubiquitous microwave.
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- Music by Fran Blanche -
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Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
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Want to sat something but cant…. What a wonderful woman !!!!
This was a very interesting topic!
Wow, that explained what happened to my brothers several years ago.
We were doing breakfast and he put a water container in the microwave (…and I think now, that for any reason the rotation was disabled). As exaggerated as he was usually, I though he set the oven power at maximum power, and I can't say for how long. I was on the other part of the table, and I remember that the oven rang, he opened the door, and I can't tell exactly what he did, but I remember a sound like a shaken gassed coke that is suddenly opened with gas explosion, and I big water splash coming from inside the oven and my brother immediately screaming for the hot water contact.
Fortunately he was partially covered by the oven door, but he got some serious burn at one hand.
Nobody was able to explain what hell was happened and why… until now.🙄
The user's manual of my microwave has another fix:
When heating liquids, always put a spoon inside and try not using an extremely long and narrow vessel.
And yes, a spoon in the microwave won't hurt either the microwave or the spoon, as long as there's water inside.
It happened to me once. When I stuck my spoon in the mug it flash boiled. Luckily not enough to hurt me.
You never forget your first cup of water that flash boils when you stick your spoon in it.
My parents had that Amana Radarange Fran shows the manual for. Worked great for decades. I once in my current modern microwave oven that has a carousel heated up a cup of water for some tea. I heated it for 5 minutes not realizing 2 to 3 minutes would have been enough. I opened the door and the water was not boiling. I dropped the teabag in before taking the cup out. Good thing I did the teabag first because as soon as the teabag hit the water the water boiled like crazy and half the water boiled over instantly. No explosion just an instant raging boiling. I can only imagine what would have happened had I microwaved for 10 minutes.
Put a teaspoon of non-dairy powdered creamer in a mug of hot water after you remove it from being heated to a point of more than necessary. It will foam and spill over quite violently.
One of the few things I remember from chemistry lab: boiling distilled water in new glassware can do this. It is called "bumping". Scratch the bottom of the vessel with something metal so there is an edge for the the boil to "seed". You can use glass chips, too, but that's a very bad idea in the kitchen.
My late partner owned a late 70s J C Penny model with no tray. We bought an aftermarket tray (all plastic for obvious reasons). You'd wind it up and it would turn up to 5 minutes at a time.
I was making turkey gravy in a saucepan one Thanksgiving, and being lazy just drained all the juice into the pan, figuring I'd separate the fat layer later. About the time it was showing signs of beginning to 'boil', it erupted violently, covering the stove, hood, floor with nearly all the contents. Best I could surmise was the layer of fat on top somehow setup conditions for a superheating event, and those first few bubbles piercing it triggered the release. I won't do THAT again! lol
[edit] A theory / explanation from any of you fellow Eggheads of how this happened would be greatly appreciated!
Hey Fran, we recently installed an under-the-counter microwave that opens like a drawer and you load the food from the top. No tray, doesn't turn the food at all. I've thought about the added danger with the drawer-type microwave. When the drawer opens you are looking directly down into the chamber.
There is one type of microwave I know of that doesn't have a rotisserie turntable: Commercial ones that places like gas stations have. I know this because my work place recently replaced all the ordinary microwave ovens with those commercial ones.
In the mid 70's I suffered 3rd degree burns on my abdomen as a result of reaching in our microwave to retrieve a cup of super heated water that suddenly exploded on me. Yeah those old microwaves were pretty basic back then. Some time in the mid 80's there was simple mechanically wound turntable you could get for them to rotate your food. It was never marketed as a safety feature though, but more of a way to get the food to cook more evenly. The only thing it did as far as cooking evenly is rather than have three or four hot spots you would end up with one or two hot circles.
I just want to say "Fran, you are awesome". Thanks for being you
This makes so much sense to me now.
I can confirm this used to be a problem!!
My mum had exactly this experience with a late 70's early 80's Rank Arena microwave without a turntable.
She heated a mug of water to make her coffee one morning, as soon as she went to take it out of the microwave, or she may have just put a spoon in it to stir the water, the water instantly exploded.
Luckily she wasn't seriously burned, she must have had super fast reflexes, and the roof of the microwave took most of the hit😲