• Sentient Loom
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    3 days ago

    I don’t use the microwave. Also I didn’t know there were different heat settings.

    • Klordok@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The power setting makes the microwave cycle between ON and OFF at the given ratio. So at 50% power the microwave will only be heating for half of the cook time.

      • deranger
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        2 days ago

        Modern LG microwaves have a variable power inverter so it’s not PWM. I would imagine they’re not the only ones.

        • DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Nope, pretty much all have a duty cycle. Like 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off, and they keep repeating that or similar for however long the cook time is. If you listen closely you can hear the magnetron kick on and off.

          I believe Panasonic was the only company that sold an inverter microwave that lowered the power output.

                • biscuitswalrus@aussie.zone
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                  3 days ago

                  I’m in Australia, generally, we have cooking instructions and microwaves that talk about wattage and time. Never duty cycle.

                  Eg a sauce packet says 600w 30sec. Press power button until 600w and put it in 30 seconds.

                  I know there’s duty cycles, you can hear them. I don’t know if that’s how it’s converted as a fraction of the 1500 watt maximum (40% duty cycle = 600w) but you hear it turn on and off most on the defrosting preconfigured buttons.

                  Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s all just the same underneath with regional translations.

                  • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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                    3 days ago

                    Well, you ARE an honorary EU member, makes sense that you’d use the clearly more sensible system ;D

                    Tap for spoiler

                    I am joking, it just seems more sensible to me because it’s what I know.

                • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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                  3 days ago

                  This is more interesting than I would’ve thought. I’m also sick right now so I may not be of entirely sound mind.

                  This is what I recognise as a standard Mikrowelle control panel like I’ve been using all my life:

                  You punch in a wattage, turn the knob to set the time, and then you press start. Older models would have a knob for setting watts too. Note the lack of a “popcorn” button.

                  And this seems to be the standard when I ask Duckduckgo for “microwave”:

                  Wot?

                • Verat
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                  3 days ago

                  It might be, where I live in the US all microwaves with a power setting ask you to set the power from 1-10 (implied to be percentages/10) with no hint as to the wattage except the label so you have to hunt for it.