Greetings, today, the topic of our discussion is A Microwave Oven and the types of Microwave Oven that are being used commonly.
Moreover, we will discuss their pros and cons; after that, we will talk about the health risks in using these microwave ovens.
Later in one segment, we will also let you know the price range for each type of microwave oven, to make the right decision, understanding all aspects. I will be telling you what types of Microwave Oven are being used commonly and which one can be economically useful to you In this discussion.
Let’s start our discussion with the introductory passage.
Table of Contents
Origin of a Microwave Oven
Let’s start with some basic concepts of how the use of the oven originated and later on we will discuss different types of the microwave oven. An oven is a machinery that is undoubtedly used for cooking or reheating any foodstuff to make it ready for your meal. Using the concept of producing thermal energy by metals and radiations, after World War II comes to an end, the idea of heating meals with two metals originated.
Bell Labs and RCA were working on this technology. In 1933 Chicago, the machinery was demonstrated. It was a ten-kilowatt radio wave transmitter that cooked potatoes and steaks between two metals.
The first microwave oven was invented by Percy Spencer, who was an American engineer; he used radar technology for this purpose. This radar technology was used in World War II, and the first modern microwave oven was sold in 1946.
Well, it is true, but most of the people do think that a microwave oven works like a standard oven using thermal energy, releasing heat to cook our food. Not really! You are wrong in this aspect; a Microwave Oven uses the polarizing waves to get your food cooked in the least time and efficient manner.
A Microwave Oven can cook or reheat your foodstuff. Its efficiency of cooking faster is directly influenced by the amount of water available in the food. As the water present in your foodstuff reacts with the polarizing radiations of a Microwave Oven and generates thermal energy to cook your food.
Whereas a conventional, gas oven is operated using fire or heat energy. it gets risky to pull it out of your kitchen. Besides its usage performance, a Microwave Oven is helping in the reheating of foodstuff without making it soft or smoggy.
Let’s have a look at different types of microwave ovens so you can choose the best that provides a good value to you.
Types of Microwave Oven
As we have come across the point of understanding a Microwave Oven and its working mechanism. Are you excited to know about different types of a microwave oven? Great! Let’s get into it. Just like me, you would think that there is only a single type of microwave oven available, oh! Now you are getting confused, right?
After excellent extensive research, I found that a broad range of Microwave Ovens that are available in the marketplaces and are used for different purposes. I’m mentioning a few types of microwave oven here that you might know about, and will briefly describe their working and operating industries.
We are going to discuss Solo Microwave, Grilled Microwave, and Convection Microwave Oven in this passage. These types are written as per the need of cooking meals for a huge family or using it for different purposes.
Because one single type of Microwave Oven cannot serve for all the purposes, so let’s know which Microwave Oven will best entertain you.
Solo Microwave Oven:
First type in our list of types of microwave oven is Solo Microwave Oven is just similar to the commonly used ovens. It is used to cook food, reheat your foodstuff, and just to cook some popcorn and noodles. A Solo Microwave oven operates using electromagnetic radiations for cooking and reheating your stuff, and it is used for Kitchen as well as commercial use.
This particular type of microwave oven is the cheapest of the three we have listed here due to its general use and cooking capability. A Solo Microwave can be useful to cook or reheat meals for small families. But when it comes to preparing a bulk meal, it is not an excellent option to go with.
This oven has no much space available to cook a meal for the whole family, but if you try to cook it though the food will be tasteless. For these few reasons, we have thought to tell you about the other two forms of Microwave Ovens which are efficient for this purpose.
A Solo Microwave Oven has a watt range of 500-1500 watts, and the average 1000 watts can be enough for its working. Usually, the price of a microwave oven is dependent upon its cooking capacity and watts to operate.
The oven capacity for a solo microwave oven ranges from 0.5 – 2.5 cubic feet. Microwaves less than 0.6-foot usually operate at less than 900 watts.
Grill Microwave Oven:
Second type in our list of types of microwave oven Grilled Microwave Oven is used for cooking grilled food; many people love to get a fish or any foodstuff grilled. This form of a microwave oven provides a grilled taste to your meal without lighting up any fire outside.
A Grilled Microwave Oven has a grill heater and grill coils allowing your food to get roasted, toasted, and grilled. This microwave is handy to use, and one can use its grill feature with just a simple push of a button.
This microwave oven is a bit more expensive than a solo microwave oven, and maybe people don’t like to pay more for just a grilled feature. Besides this, it has a combo cooking feature that allows an individual to use regular cooking and grill features at the same time.
This combo feature allows you to cook the right amount of food using both elements in the less available time. It is used in wide applications; it can cook and reheat different foodstuffs like a solo microwave.
In addition to that, it is used to cook steaks, grilled fish, and other grilled meals the same as prepared in the outside grill. A Grilled Microwave has a watt range of 900-1700 watts, the higher the watts, the faster the cooking.
Same here like a solo microwave, as the capacity increases the price range also increases. The oven capacity for a grilled microwave oven ranges from 1 – 2.5 cubic feet. Microwaves less than 1-foot usually operate at less than 1,000 watts.
Convection Microwave Oven:
Third type in our list of types of microwave oven is Convection Microwave Oven includes the features of cooking food like solo microwave, grilling the food like grill microwave. It also has a function of baking your foodstuff. It uses a fan to push the heat through the microwave outside, for baking and giving your food a better environment.
In addition to regularly cooking the food, making some popcorn and noodles, grilling your meal fish, it allows you to bake cakes and cookies. A Convection Microwave Oven has a watt range of 800-1700 watts, and these watts are essential as it is working on the latest technology.
The price for the convection oven is not for its oven capacity and watts usage, but it depends on other factors. Its pricing depends on its installation process, installation location, features, and brand you use, its price ranges from 180$ to 2000$.
Moreover, the reason for a high price is these features: Sensor heating, Premium glass door, Easy cleaning, smarter cooking, and Inverter technology. The oven capacity for a convection microwave oven ranges from 1 – 2.0 cubic feet: the more oven capacity, the more watts it needs to work.
Let’s compare them with each other:
As discussed earlier, there are different types of microwave oven available, having various compatibilities. We have discussed a few types in the above passage. we now know all the unique features of every microwave oven that attracts a buyer.
In this particular paragraph, we will discuss how a microwave oven is better from another one and what should a buyer prefer to purchase?
Solo Microwave against Grilled Microwave:
There is a slight difference between solo and grilled microwave as their working differs a little from each other. As their working panel, oven capacity, and watts usage vary a little from each other; they are mostly similar in their functioning too.
An additional attribute that a Grilled Microwave pays to the user is the grill flavor that is the crucial factor. Other than that, there is a little different in their food cooking capacity and efficiency; the grilled microwave uses high watts, so it’s a bit faster.
If you willing to pay some extra bucks to enjoy the grilled steak taste shall go for the grilled microwave. If you are an average user, I will suggest you go for a solo microwave to save your hard-earned money
Solo Microwave against Convection Microwave:
There is a difference between these two microwaves. If you are only using it to reheat your fast food, you are good to buy a solo microwave.
If you are willing to buy a microwave for cooking, frying, and baking purposes, you can choose Convection Microwave. Unlike solo, convection microwave is suitable for cooking different meals and for other backing purposes.
This is because a solo microwave uses different heat sources that make it more efficient to cook some tasty dishes.
Grill Microwave against Convection Microwave:
Here comes the real battle, there is an entirely different scenario with these two microwaves ovens. The grilled, and convection microwave oven serves different purposes, and they have a significant difference in their price range though.
The Grilled Microwave Oven is used for grilled, steak meals. The Convection Microwave Oven serves the purpose of backing some cakes and cookies.
Another difference is that they both operate on different watts; they use different voltages hence have a gap in efficiency regarding cooking time.
No wonder is you enjoy a grilled food then backed one; go for a grilled microwave oven and vice versa
As we have discussed different types of microwave ovens, All the microwaves serve different purposes; we only know solo microwaves because we never felt any use of Grilled or Convection Oven. If you need an oven which can quickly reheat your food, all you need is a Solo Microwave Oven.
In case if you are greedy for grilled meals, the Grilled Microwave Oven is the right choice for you.
And if you bakes cookies and cakes for Kitchen or business purposes, just go for the Convection Microwave Oven.
Now it’s all upon you, your meal size, what oven capacity is required and we wish you a happy shopping!
Economic stability:
While running any industry or even having a good living one should never forget your household income. It is you who only know the value for hard-earned money. We value our readers to guide them through these decisions and provide an honest opinion.
You might have seen different types of microwave oven at our homes, consuming a lot of resources with no results. Well, time is now entirely changed, high technologies got implemented, and we have progressed bit by bit.
In this modern era of having different products. While operating one, we must lookup for the things that are economically stable for us. Instead of using the gas stoves, one should go with a solo microwave oven that fulfills your basic requirements.
From all the different types of microwave oven discussed, A solo microwave is easy to use and handier.
It is super handy to carry, use, clean, and economically stable than other types of machinery. There are broad benefits for these types of the microwave oven; few of them are listed below.
- Speedy Cooking: A Microwave Oven operates on electric current gives quick results,
Moreover, a microwave oven uses its electromagnetic radiation that polarizes the meal and reacts quickly to get our food cooked fast.
- Safe Machinery: A Microwave oven does not correlate with fire, so it is much safer to use; moreover it can be placed anywhere at home. It also has a safety system involved and an excellent material used to make the machinery.
- Avoids Pollution: Unlike other conventional stoves and ovens, it operates using electric current releases, no smoke/ toxins. It also helps an individual to keep the internal environment cool as it doesn’t use fire or natural gas resources.
- Easy Cleaning: A Microwave oven uses the right product skin that enables the user to clear it quickly. Unlike other conventional ovens, one can easily clean it by using a splatter . Read our article How to clean microwave oven from inside.
- Contains more nutrients: A meal cooked using a microwave oven is much more beneficial than an ordinary meal. A microwave oven works on radiations to produce thermal energy. It is functional without using heat, the food doesn’t lose nutrients in this way.
- Economic benefit: A Microwave oven consumes a very less amount of electrical resources. Instead of using conventional stoves and gas ovens, it works quicker, offering financial benefits to the user.
- Occupies less space: A Microwave Oven is much smaller in size than other types of machinery. It can be placed anywhere in the Kitchen as it is very efficient to fit in a small area.
Besides all the benefits you can get while operating different types of microwave oven, there are some drawbacks too. We think that you must understand them and make your decision accordingly.
- Kills Nutrients: When we cook our food using a microwave oven it will make your food nutrient less.
- Dehydration: As discussed earlier, a microwave oven uses the water content of food to get it cooked by polarizing radiations. So the good we get is drier and sometimes unevenly cooked, and will ultimately lead to dehydration.
- Harmful Radiations: A microwave oven can be detrimental as it releases ionizing radiation, which may ultimately affect our immune system. These radiations can be more dangerous when an individual is standing in front of machinery while it is functioning.
- Uncooked food: While cooking a thick meal which is denser than 1-1.5 inches, the food cannot cook equally well. As the radiations in the microwave oven can only penetrate up to 1.5 inches.
- Can’t be used for frying purposes: A microwave oven helps an individual to cook and reheat different foodstuffs. An ordinary microwave oven is of no use for cooking, deep-frying, and roasting purposes.
- Melts ordinary utensil: As we know that microwaves use electromagnetic radiations to generate thermal energy, Sometimes it can also melt/ burn the appliance if it doesn’t use good quality material.
- Shallow space: A microwave oven has too shallow a space that it cannot cook food for large families. It is best to use a solo microwave individually and best for those who live away from their families/ bachelors.
Health Risks:
As discussed earlier in the disadvantages section, you are now aware of what a microwave ovens radiations can affect your health.
In this discussion, we will be telling you some more info and the health risks of using different types of microwave oven.
The most crucial aspect to know here is a microwave oven uses electromagnetic rays to generate thermal energy. This thermal energy (heat) helps to cook the food, for instance, if you are standing close to a functioning microwave oven, it will heat your body in the same way as it heats the foodstuff.
This heat is more vulnerable to our eyes because this part of our body carries the lowest blood. As a result of the lowest blood flow, heat cannot be carried away, ultimately resulting in burns and other health problems.
Moreover, the lens of our eye is particularly sensitive to heath. A user must take safety precautions while handling hot food or beverages.
Tips for operating safely:
We discussed different types of microwave oven earlier now we will discuss tips for operating a microwave oven safely.
- While purchasing a Microwave Oven, don’t go for the cheapest one; instead, buy a branded one which is made using good material.
- Don’t use a broken or warped; keep in mind if the door is bent or damaged, it can cause adverse effects on the user’s body.
- Regularly clean your microwave oven from outside as well as inside, you can use a splatter (mix lemon or orange with water),
By cleaning your microwave regularly, you can be safe from any type of contamination or ill factors.
- Always prefer a user guide before operating different types of microwave oven mentioned above; it has all essential knowledge regarding health care and safety.
We are wrapping up the discussion:
In this article, we discussed every essential element to keep in mind when purchasing a microwave oven. We have also discussed different types of microwave oven briefly to let you easily decide which one best suits your requirements.
We have also discussed the pros and cons of operating different types of microwave oven; maybe you get afraid of some drawbacks. But let me tell you that if you are using the machinery with proper care if you are using it by reading user manuals correctly.
There is nothing to worry about, you just have to follow some essentials, and you can have a good healthy meal. Instead of using old school ovens, different types of microwave oven are suggested.
Personally, I will suggest my readers; go for a solo microwave oven to cook your meals effectively. To avoid overcooking, you can use a timer option. One can just set up a particular time and temperature and just wait to get it cooked.
Operate a microwave oven in a safe environment, keeping it away from the children.
In case your oven is crashed, broken or damaged, get a good repair before using it, because a little risk may lead to a severe health hazard.
If your requirements don’t match to a solo microwave, read out the passage in which we have discussed its types, and you will get your answer.
Hope this article felt useful to you. Let us know which oven is your favorite from our list of different types of microwave oven. in case of any confusion or query feel free to comment below.