Hello there,
I thought i would let you guys know that i finally got around to trying the input power variation to a microwave oven in order to lower the power setting. This is done instead of using the push buttons on the oven because in a conventional microwave oven the lower power levels are achieved by pulsing the magnetron instead of actually lowering it's power in a linear fashion. Panasonic uses an internal inverter to lower power in a linear fashion but i wanted to see if we could do it with a regular microwave oven too.
It worked pretty well. I used a variac to lower the input voltage to the oven and thus attained lower power level settings that way, while the oven is set on the highest level. The normal input power is about 1100 watts to this small oven and i was able to lower it to 600 watts input, and it cooked the food nicely.
The setting of the variac is tricky, but watching the current input or power input from the line helps with the adjustment setting.
If anyone else wants to try this it would be interesting to hear your results.
Comments welcome.
UPDATE 08/17/2017:
It worked down to 300 watts input power and still cooks to some degree. Turned it down to 200 watts input but did not check to see if it was still cooking because i dont need it that low. At 400 watts input i get about 200 watts cooking power (as measured with the boiling water test) so at 300 watts input maybe i get 100 to 150 watts cooking power.
I thought i would let you guys know that i finally got around to trying the input power variation to a microwave oven in order to lower the power setting. This is done instead of using the push buttons on the oven because in a conventional microwave oven the lower power levels are achieved by pulsing the magnetron instead of actually lowering it's power in a linear fashion. Panasonic uses an internal inverter to lower power in a linear fashion but i wanted to see if we could do it with a regular microwave oven too.
It worked pretty well. I used a variac to lower the input voltage to the oven and thus attained lower power level settings that way, while the oven is set on the highest level. The normal input power is about 1100 watts to this small oven and i was able to lower it to 600 watts input, and it cooked the food nicely.
The setting of the variac is tricky, but watching the current input or power input from the line helps with the adjustment setting.
If anyone else wants to try this it would be interesting to hear your results.
Comments welcome.
UPDATE 08/17/2017:
It worked down to 300 watts input power and still cooks to some degree. Turned it down to 200 watts input but did not check to see if it was still cooking because i dont need it that low. At 400 watts input i get about 200 watts cooking power (as measured with the boiling water test) so at 300 watts input maybe i get 100 to 150 watts cooking power.
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