Testing the June Intelligent Oven
cooksillustrated.com
cooksillustrated.com
A brand new microwave seems to have the same halfassed, user hostile firmware they shipped around 1999, oriented around a fixed segment display. I would like to see some simple additions that would make a world of difference.
* Add some IR temp sensors, for what $5 in parts, that can heat to an approximate inside temp.
* Update the firmware, for example, to stop beeping when you hit Stop. The commands could actually be far simpler than currently: you really just need "boil", "warm", "defrost" and "reheat" commands - let it figure out the energy needed.
It does a pretty damned good job of things. Frozen food will occasionally still have a cold spot, but it’s still way better than following the instructions on the package, which often results in either serious cold spots or a cheese/sauce explosion. For reheating leftovers, it’s perfect.
Edit: my partner informs me that the “keep warm” button does a really good job of making porridge for her too. Brings it up to a “just below boiling” temperature and keeps it there. She just watches it until it looks like the right consistency for her.
Personally I'd love for my microwave to have bluetooth so it'd make my phone beep when it's done.
Meanwhile if I don't want some useless preprogrammed setting, it takes a minimum of 4 keypresses to set a time, to say nothing of power. I can order food online almost as easy ffs.
Toss something in, hit 1 button, ding, open door.
Manufacturers close source things by default but there’s so much improvements the hackers of the world could make to things if we had source code and schematics. I think it’s a real shame that the status quo is closed source by default.
Microwaves are loud enough as it is, you can hear them running from the next room. Strangely enough never seen a toaster with an buzzer though.
This is the best UX of any microwave I’ve ever had - I can start it with the correct time in a single action just by feel - I don’t even have to look at it.
I very much doubt it has any firmware to speak of, or what feature such firmware could possibly offer that would improve my experience.
Food is not thermally transparent. The outer surface will quickly reach the cavity temperature so that's not an indication of the core temperature. The accepted way to measure the core temp is with a probe.
I seem to remember on most it’s something like holding the 0 or 1 buttons for 3 seconds.
Cook's Illustrated is a really respectable magazine, so this recommendation carries some substantial weight for me.
Salmon is surprisingly good, though the June does not get the skin crispy - if you like crispy salmon skin on your salmon fillets you'll still need to do it on the stove.
I also really love how good it is with frozen pizzas. If I want a light dinner, I'll toss a frozen pizza in there and 20 minutes later it's perfectly done and anywhere from 600-900 calories per pie.
I literally have not turned on my real oven since I got it and likely won't until Thanksgiving. I doubt a big turkey will fit in the June.
The pan is insanely easy to clean. It’s the best non stick pan I’ve ever owned. Inside the oven can be tougher. My fiancée likes to make cheese on toast and often it drips to the drip pan and crusts up, but if you keep on top of it it’s not too bad.
Feel free to ask any more questions you might have about it.
This involves putting in some good temperature sensors, and bypassing the built-in controls to put the heating elements under the control of an Arduino or similar controller.
Some even add a cheap graphical LCD that can show a graph of temperature over time, and a simple interface to let you enter temperature profiles to follow.
You can drop the insulation for food use, but thats one of the cheaper parts of a build.
Since temperature is important for reflow (melt the solder without melting your leds and connectors) they have good ways to calibrate them.
This enables “Put a turkey in the oven, and run to the store and pick up the frozen green beans you forgot to buy - you always know how the turkey is doing.”
Here's a few from Panasonic
and Sharp
What other countries is it not common to have an oven?
One top of that there is the issue that if it's not common to have an oven then it's also not common to cook things that would require an oven. So, I have no idea how common these ovens are in Japan in general. Given so many models by so many companies and given they can also be used as a microwave I'd kind of assume they are gaining in popularity. Foods that require an oven are also slowly getting more popular over time but I suspect it's still not common.
This looks like the spiritual successor to the Breville.
My start button turns convection off and on 50% of the time. Annoying, but I just hit it again.