Hacker News Reader

Comment by ponker | Hacker News Reader

You have an actual variable power microwave? Not a duty cycle power control??

Perhaps I was imprecise. It has a stepped dial, with pre-set wattages. Caveat for not being an electrician. ^^

But the “wattages” just pulse the thing on and off right? I’ve never heard of a home microwave that can apply true variable power. If you have one I’ll buy it.

It's marketed as "Inverter Technology"

Most of the major brands in the US have them, now, and the reliability is improving. As I understand it the drive transistors in early models were prone to failure.

More info available here: https://media3.bosch-home.com/Documents/MCDOC03402966_BOSCH_...

Now I am curious of how most microwaves are modulating power.

Every mw I’ve ever owned or used turns the magnetron on and off. If it’s a 1000W unit and you set it to 300W, it’ll only heat 30% of the time. You can hear it from the noise it makes, it’s slightly louder when the magnetron is on.

Wow. So basic.

That reminds me about dishwashers - you put powder or a tablet in a little hatch and I always wondered what happened behind the hatch, does it inject water, disolve the powder, and then pump it around to the jets?

I recently realised. Nope. It just opens the hatch ten minutes into the cycle and the tablet/powder falls into the machine with a clunk.

And many of the door latches are/were heat sensitive strips of metal. When the temperature of the water inside the machine reaches a certain point, and after a period of heating up the metal door latch, the metal deforms and the door pops open. Then after the wash, everything cools down, and the metal reforms. There is just enough tension on the metal latch to make it latch closed and just enough deflection after heating to make it spring open.

P.S. Pro-life tip: Don't forget to refill your dishwasher drying port today with Jet Dry/Glisten/Whatever brand you like, it'll stop your dishes from coming out spotty and helps with the dry cycle.

I've only used jet dry when I got free samples and never noticed a difference. I never have spotty dishes. Maybe it depends on the water.

I believe it does indeed depend on your water supply. And it doesn't help to use it if you do not use the drying cycle on your dishwasher. And here ends my limited knowledge about this nuanced, and I am sure to some, deeply interesting subject.

Wait, there's a drying port? Is that the place where I put the Rinse Aid liquid?

Mind blown. So obvious, and yet I gad always assumed it was a system like in a washing machine, as you described

Reply on news.ycombinator.com