Ease Solo Microwave Oven

Details

A microwave that reheats and defrosts and does nothing else, for a household with no intention of baking. Three numbers on a microwave box are routinely wrong, and all three are checkable if the maker will print what it measured. The first is the capacity. A 20 L oven that measures 17 is ordinary, because the litre figure is often taken to the outer moulding or to a shape the food cannot occupy. Ours prints the internal cavity in millimetres, so you can multiply it yourself: the 20 L is 306 x 306 x 214 mm, which is 20.0 litres, and the other two are on the spec sheet the same way. The second is the power. A microwave advertised as 1200 W is quoting what it draws from the wall, not what it puts into food; the output is about two thirds of that and it is the only number that changes your cooking time. Ours publishes both, measured to IEC 60705, the standard water-load method: 800 W of output from 1200 W of input on the 20 L. The third is the one you cannot see. A microwave leaks at the door seal when the choke is cut short or the interlocks are cheap, and the limit under IS 302-2-25 is 5 mW per square centimetre at 50 mm. Every unit here is measured at the end of the line and has to read below 1, and the figure goes on the certificate that ships with it.

• Internal cavity printed in millimetres per variant, so the litre figure is arithmetic and not a claim
• Output power measured to IEC 60705 and printed beside the input: 700 W from 1050 W (17 L), 800 W from 1200 W (20 L), 900 W from 1350 W (23 L)
• Microwave leakage measured on 100 percent of units at 50 mm, required below 1 mW per square centimetre against the 5 mW limit, and recorded on the unit's certificate
• Three door interlocks, two switching and one monitor switch that blows the line fuse if the other two operate out of sequence, which is what stops a worn latch from becoming an open door with the magnetron running
• Cavity in SS 304, 0.6 mm, uncoated. Painted mild steel is what flakes, then rusts, then arcs, and it is what most cavities in this price band actually are
• Two mechanical dials, one for power and one for time. No menu tree, no auto-cook programme to memorise, no touch membrane to fail in a humid kitchen
• Microwave power adjustable in six steps from 100 W for slow melting and defrost
• Zero standby draw, because a mechanical timer has no circuit waiting behind it
• A litre of water goes from 25 C to boiling in about 6 min 30 s at 800 W of output, which is 313 kJ at 800 W, and you can check that sum
• A ten minute reheat on the 20 L costs about Rs 1.60 at Rs 8 a unit
• Turntable, roller ring, door latch, cavity lamp, door switches and the magnetron are stocked individually rather than sold as one sealed assembly
• Solo means solo. It will not brown, crisp or bake, and a chapati reheated in it comes out soft rather than crisp. If that matters, the convection oven is the machine and this one is not a cheaper version of it
• A mechanical timer is not accurate below about 30 seconds. For a ten second reheat you turn it past and bring it back, which is how every dial timer has always worked
• The turntable is 270 mm on the 20 L, so a large dinner plate fits and a serving dish may not. Measure yours