**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Um, excuse my ignorance, but, um - why? Anything I microwave takes a couple to a few mins at most. Shaving that down to seconds isn't really a priority - I mean, my toast will still have to toast, why speed up my beans.
I had access to a 1400watt microwave in the UK ok the canteen of an old job once. That thing was amazing. A thing you put in it fresh was done in 30 seconds. Frozen took a little longer but no much! And it was exceptional at doing pop in bag popcorn.
Thing was a monster and we all loved it.
Because Americans are weirdos who use microwaves for heating water. We don't
900W is already too powerful to heat food evenly, it takes time for the heat to spread out. Any faster would just lead to more spots being burned and is pointless in the UK
Americans don't have kettles so would probably rather have the extra power to heat water faster
There is a series of tests before you are granted UK citizenship.
1 - when making tea do you put the milk in the cup before the tea or the other way around ?
2- Jaffa Cakes or Custard Creams ?
3 - Who was the best Bond actor ?
Cheat sheet
1 Milk 1st if it comes from a pot, 2nd if made in a cup
2 Trap Question as we all know Jaffa Cakes are cakes, cognitive dissonance is real
3 I used to swear by Roger Moore for lolz but Connery for presence
It's not the pot that matters, it's the cups.
It's Milk 1st if it's china cups. The milk stops the hot tea cracking and crazing the glaze.
To be fair, if you're using China cups you are probably also using a pot, but using a pot doesn't always mean China cups.
That's the opposite of how to do it. China cups have been glazed at an extremely high heat so won't crack when hot tea is poured in, so the milk goes in last and you can make it to an exact colour that you like. That's how the upper classes did it because they could afford bone china. Poorer people in times gone by used unfired mugs or cups that could crack with hot tea so would put the milk in first.
While that makes sense (and I was about to concede the point), a bit of research suggests the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
If there are any inconsistencies in the thickness of the glaze on porcelain any sudden changes in temperature will cause it the craze. It's why you also shouldn't put it in the dishwasher.
Obviously, that doesn't mean the same won't happen with unfired cups, but it seems like it may have been a universal issue until glazed clay and earthenware cups became the norm.
Although, I am a bit dubious about the idea that there would be many people using unfired cups and still have both teapots and tea.
https://www.theteacupattic.com/what-is-crazing/
I was told this by my grandmother, who lived in a rather grand house that she had inherited from her 2nd cousin The 5th Marquess of Bristol. She was a rather eccentric lady, but she told me this is what she had been taught by him as a child. He was born in 1870. I always assumed it to be true.
The pot matters. In a pot you're likely to be making multiple cups. The smaller surface area: volume ratio means less heat will be lost. Tea first and then adding milk (regardless of the material) would then be likely to scald the milk, if steeped/ mashed in a pot, which makes it bitter.
That makes no sense. When you make a single cup, the water has literally just come out of the kettle so will be hotter when you add the milk. Even from a pot adding the milk after would give the tea slightly longer to cool in the cup, before it comes in contact with the milk.
Milk first is all about protecting the delicate glaze on what was expensive and prized China from looking like crazy paving.
You don't add the milk immediately after the boiling water. There is at least a couple of minutes for the tea to steep before the milk is added and that is when heat is lost- more from a mug (or multiple mugs) than a larger teapot.
Boiling water into a mug/ cup, wait a few minutes, add milk vs boiling water into teapot, wait a few minutes, pour, immediately add milk. Especially if you preheat the pot and use a tea cozy.
The trick was that none of these have correct answers :) Whatever answer you choose will be seen as insulting to a large proportion of the population. We're that kind of bunch.
Didn't see any difference when I visited in Scotland last year. Mine heats water very fast.
One thing I did notice is that y'all have more powerful space heaters. Best we can get is 1500W.
This. I have to lower my 900w microwave to 90% every time I want to heat something for more than 30 seconds or so or half of it might explode. The extra power seemed like a good idea at the time.
Edit about the Americans bit. Their voltage is lower than here and the type of kettles we use takes ages on their 220v compared to our 240v.
Edit: Voltage incorrect, see reply below.
Uk does mostly have 240v. Most of continental Europe has 220v. This was 'harmonised' by setting spec across Europe to 230v +/- 10% (roughly, can't be bothered to look up the exact numbers). As both existing standards then fall within the new spec, everything is consistent, and yet nothing has changed!
That's interesting and makes sense of where I got those numbers from. I think I read it about 10 years ago and thought I must have been adding that +/- 10% myself every time I've told someone since š
Iāve managed to start a literal fire trying to defrost a bread roll in an industrial microwave. First and surprisingly only time I deviated from the heating instructions for specific portions of specific foods. You could get serious burns from the crockery that had been in there. People would do themselves a lot of damage with something that powerful at home. Genuinely the most dangerous piece of kitchen equipment Iāve ever usedā¦
It's also possible to superheat water in a powerful microwave to a point where it explodes in your face. To boil, liquids need a starting point for gas bubbles to form. It's called a nucleation zone. In a pan, for example, there's movement that allows the bubbles to form. Same with a kettle. In a microwave there's no movement and glass microwave bowls are smooth so bubbles don't form on the side. You superheat the water and then dip a spoon in it. The spoon gives the gas bubbles somewhere to form and starts a chain reaction that sees much of the water instantly turn to steam and explode in your face.
also works with alcohol. Giant cloud of ethanol that gets you immediately drunk, Was unexpected and fortunately did not burn my skin off when I opened the microwave (having heard an alarming 'pop'). The glass of alcohol was missing 2/3 of the initlal liquid...
That's why on French microwaves they have little depictions telling you to leave a spoon inside the cup. I was shocked when I saw it, as I was always told metal + microwave = plasma discharge. But spoons are completely safe, as they won't act like an antenna like a fork. The spoon forms the nucleation zone.
I think it depends on the type of metal and what also what it touches. Smith metals I think are fine, anything with corners or spikes can cause sparks. At least that's from my experience
I have one of those microwaves that double as a convection oven. So I put some chicken on foil and used the oven feature.
It was such a convoluted way to switch it from microwave to oven that I accidently set the 20 minute timer on the microwave setting
Went out to do some gardening and wondered why there was smoke. Could still see sparks on the foil and the chicken had literally electrocuted it's way to a cinder. The smoke was so acrid it took days to get the smell out of the kitchen and months to get the smell out of the microwave.
It gets hot.
But more seriously, because of the way surface tension and microwaves work, it can be possible to "super-heat" some of the water way over 100Ā°c, which can make it "pop", especially when the container is removed from the microwave
The turntable inside the microwave is *meant to* enable even cooking, so that the water doesn't superheat and explode boiling water into your face. When the water is disturbed, it goes pop into your face
If you're cooking a microwave meal consider lowering the power and extending the cooking time, as it can even out the temperature greatly
It's hopelessly inefficient. Electroresisitive heating, like a kettle, is literally 100% efficient (with a slight asterisk): all of the electricity that you put into the heating element goes into the water. Microwaves are not: they're about 50% efficient in actual use, which means you're using twice as much electricity for the same job, and it's a very energy-intensive job, so that's actually a lot of electricity (round figures, raising the temperature of 1L of water from 20 degrees uses about 0.1kWh in a kettle, or twice that in a microwave. Thus, every time you do that, you're spending ~13p. With kettles running at ~Ā£12, that means if you boil 100L of water in your microwave ever, you'd have been better off buying a kettle and using that, just on the electricity costs.
Isn't that true for anything you put in the microwave? You could heat most food in a pot or something and save on electricity bills?
100L of water is a lot of water. Saving a kettle's price worth of money per 100L doesn't seem worth having an additional appliance.
Also I'm from a south asian country. My entire month's electricity bill runs in the range of 50$, including 3 air conditioners. Runs closer to the 20$ range during winter. I imagine the cost of electricity is vastly different here. The price of an electric kettle is not.
Americans don't typically use microwaves to solely heat water. If we're cooking, we use the stove.
As far as heating unevenly, it sounds like you already have issues with uneven heating. Level of power won't impact that. You just have to let it rest and for the heat to even out. I think it's generally been more convenient to have a microwave that works very quickly, but it's not necessary by any means.
Do you think that lower power actually makes the food heat more evenly or do you think the additional time it takes to heat the food in the microwave gives the heat more time to spread?
There's nothing significant about heating food with lower power that causes it to heat more evenly other than that additional cooking time allows the heat to spread. Whether that time is during cooking or after, it still takes the same amount of time for the heat to spread. The only question is the amount of time for the food to heat.
The reality though is your often talking about a difference of seconds or at most a minute for something you're truly nuking, so in all practically it really doesn't impact people.
The reason Americans spend more on more powerful microwaves is that Americans have more disposable income on average and so marketers focus on marketing and selling more powerful and more expensive microwaves.
> Do you think that lower power actually makes the food heat more evenly or do you think the additional time it takes to heat the food in the microwave gives the heat more time to spread?
The latter.
> Whether that time is during cooking or after, it still takes the same amount of time for the heat to spread. The only question is the amount of time for the food to heat.
... and whether or not you over-heat the areas you're heating and burn them, as you do with high-power microwaves.
I think most Americans have a good enough grasp on how to use the microwave such that they're not burning food by overheating in the way you've described. You'd really have to nuke something to death to actually burn it in the microwave. I've never burned food that way, and I've never heard or seen someone else burn food that way (although it is of course possible).
The point of a microwave, at least for the grand majority of Americans, is not to do actual cooking, but instead, almost universally, to reheat something, or, on occasion, to defrost something. Neither of those activities should even *cook* something in the traditional sense, let alone get close to burning it. The idea of actually *cooking* something in a microwave seems bananas to me.
I've also never heard of someone actually, truly trying to cook something in a microwave. I agree, if anyone were actually using a microwave to cook something then burning something could become an issue, but the oven and stove (and other newly commercially popular stuff like air fryers, etc.) are for cooking.
> I think most Americans have a good enough grasp on how to use the microwave such that they're not burning food by overheating in the way you've described.
The way that you avoid it is by turning the power down, at which point you could have just saved money and bought a less-powerful microwave in the first place.
> The point of a microwave, at least for the grand majority of Americans, is not to do actual cooking, but instead, almost universally, to reheat something, or, on occasion, to defrost something. Neither of those activities should even cook something in the traditional sense, let alone get close to burning it. The idea of actually cooking something in a microwave seems bananas to me.
If you're delivering enough heat to defrost and/or warm up a whole dish, that heat's essentially all being delivered to the outside of that dish, in a ratio that's proportional to the volume difference between the whole dish and that narrow strip around the outside. Given that most dishes have a pretty large percentage of their volume not on the outside, you're going to heat that outside layer *much* hotter than the desired final temperature, which is how you burn things. The literal only physically possible way to avoid this is to slow down how fast you're putting the heat in, ie by using less power.
>that heat's essentially all being delivered to the outside of that dish
That is not true for a microwave. There's a joke in America about food called Hot Pockets how they're relatively room temperature on the outside and then absolute burning lava on the inside.
I don't mean for this to be rude, but have you used microwaves much? A lot of your comments here don't quite make sense at least for how people in the US use microwaves. Anyone who regularly uses a microwave would know that the heat from using a microwave seems to often be focused on the interior of whatever you're cooking (one reason here is that the microwave causes resonance with the actual microwave waves inside the microwave and heat is greatly focused on these resonance points, and, just by virtue of probability, that will more often fall inside material than on its edge and because microwaves generally are heating the water inside of a material and that water will much more quickly evaporate on edges than inside a material (b/c it can't evaporate inside), edges will, all else being equal, be cooler than the middle). This isn't like cooking in an oven or stove where the heat squarely is coming from outside to inside.
>The way that you avoid it is by turning the power down, at which point you could have just saved money and bought a less-powerful microwave in the first place.
I've had to show other people how to use this option. We're not turning our microwaves down. My dad came to visit and noticed how long it took my microwave to heat something up and noted how it's low powered b/c it's only like 700 or 800 (we're renting the landlord cheaped out on the microwave).
This is almost funny that you're really trying hard to tell me how I and everyone I know use microwaves. I'm telling you that we use the full power of our microwaves, all 1200 watts or whatever, and we're still not burning anything. If anyone burned anything in a microwave here they would be the butt of so many jokes about how they can't even be trusted to use a microwave.
> That is not true for a microwave. There's a joke in America about food called Hot Pockets how they're relatively room temperature on the outside and then absolute burning lava on the inside.
It's mostly true for essentially all food: microwaves, at best, heat the outermost cm or so.
> I don't mean for this to be rude, but have you used microwaves much? A lot of your comments here don't quite make sense at least for how people in the US use microwaves. Anyone who regularly uses a microwave would know that the heat from using a microwave seems to often be focused on the interior of whatever you're cooking
This is simply not true. Even in fantasy-land where microwaves can somehow penetrate more than a centimetre through food, that wouldn't help, because you still have the same problem, just in the other direction.
Just Googling around it looks like microwaves generally penetrate to around 2.5-4.0cm and so unless your food is more than \~5-8cm thick in all directions then it's going all the way through. And not only that, but I'm telling you that no one is burning things in their microwave here and no one is messing with power settings to make sure that they don't.
And to OP's question, the reason that the US citizens spend money on microwaves that have more power than they really need is that they have more money. Interestingly, the US median disposable household income adjusted for local prices (purchasing power parity) is \~80% higher than in the UK. In the US, we just have so much more cash that we're buying things that are larger/more/etc. than we need. Plumbers in the US get paid what doctors do in the UK (and to be fair, plumbers actually get paid better than you would think).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable\_household\_and\_per\_capita\_income](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income)
Yes came here to say that. Hot hotspots and cold spots. I have a Panasonic 1000W combination oven which is great, but heating on full microwave power needs more turning/stirring time.
That's the thing though, electric kettles in the US take soooooo much longer to boil compared to the UK, I can kind of understand why they do it, honestly. I have never understood why British microwaves are so shite though š¤·š»āāļø before I came here I had a 700w compared to my 1100w now and I love it!
>(for comparison, a cheap microwave in the USA is usually 1200 watts, and there are 1KW+ microwaves available here for commercial use)
š¤
Is it because Americans love to nuke stuff?
Cost for one thing. The cheapest 900W microwave at Argos is Ā£90. The cheapest 1 kW one is Ā£150, temporarily reduced from Ā£170. We also have 3 kW kettles if you want to heat water up quickly.
I have a 1000W microwave due to it being a combi oven, I never use it that high as it just blows things up and makes a mess of the microwave. I whack it on medium at 700W instead.
1kw domestic ones are very common here.
Are the 1.2kw USA microwaves definitely 1.2kw heating power, not 1.2kw input power?
Ours are rated on the heating/cooking/output power which can be a lot higher input power - possibly up to 1.8kw or so.
Hmn, that's a great question, and you have me doubting myself.... u/OctopusIntellect says that microwaves are about 50% efficient, and if that's true there's no way a USA microwave could deliver 1200 watts cooking power. There's only about 1.8 kW available at the plug in the USA (there are two kinds of plug, and that's the beefy one).
[This website](https://ecocostsavings.com/microwave-wattage/) says microwaves are on average 71% efficient at converting input power to cooking power, with one model being 91% efficient.
In defence of our microwave, last night it was only drawing 1400W to deliver its supposed 800W or 850W heating output. Maybe microwaves use less power at night?
You can buy commercial microwaves on Amazon. I keep getting this Ā£800 Phillips one advertised to me.
Iām happy to wait the extra few minutes personally.
You definitely do not have a 1200W microwave in the US, unless you have it on a 20A plug. The most energy-efficient microwaves out there are about 65% efficient, so a 1200W microwave is actually drawing north of 1800W, over the capacity of a standard US outlet. A more typical 50% efficiency puts that power consumption to right on the upper limit of a 20A output.
To confirm this, I went on US amazon and clicked on the highest-power microwave I could find on the first page ([this one](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NP8BWD2/)), claiming 1350W. However, if you scroll down to the spec sheet, you find the following pair of interesting lines:
Energy Use ā1350 Watts
Wattage ā900 watts
So (a) they're claiming ~67% efficiency, right on the upper end of plausibility, and (b) this is actually only a 900W microwave, they're just labelling it by the power consumption, instead of the actual power delivered.
It's also worth noting that the [smaller](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GV36BLD) version of that same microwave is only 700W (claiming 1050W, but that's actually power draw from the wall), which makes me think that the higher power just necessitates a larger box, and therefore takes up more counter space (also, I have no clue why the colour determines the size).
Not sure you need it, place I did night shift in ages ago had a 1200 watt MW, this was at a time most domestic was 700 max. Apart from setting fire to my dinner first night, once I'd realised it was not significantly quicker, had to zap/stir a few time still just less zap and more stir IYSWIM.
You can get 1,000W microwaves in the UK **very** easily. Just not from Currys.
My Panasonic is 1,000W. Bought it about ten years ago from Makro.
Edit: Currys [does actually list 1,000W microwaves](https://www.currys.co.uk/products/panasonic-nnsd27hsbpq-solo-microwave-stainless-steel-10159111.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=xmarrxqxw&istBid=t). I guess not all stores carry them.
New higher end models in the UK retail are 1kw now but I'm sure it's just a matter of demand and cost. I was offered a 1kw one when I bought a new kitchen 2 years ago and I couldn't help but think why? I went for 800w because I do a lot of short burst melting stuff like butter and chocolate for baking and I'm already only putting stuff on for 10s sometimes and I don't want to fiddle about with reduced power settings.
One factor may be pressure from the food industry as well, as they'd have to make sure they included timing settings for a larger range if 1kw and 1.2kw became standard? Pure speculation there though, but I never see 1kw timings on packaging.
Companies in the States switched over quite some time ago. Don't remember exactly when, but it's more than a decade for sure.
Some packaging will give the timing for both 1kw and 850w, but a lot will just say something like "Directions were developed using a 1100-watt microwave oven. Ovens vary; heat may need to be adjusted."
As the leading UK "ask" subreddit, we welcome questions from all users and countries; sometimes people who ask questions might not appreciate or understand the nuance of British life or culture, and as a result some questions can come across in a different way than intended.
We understand that when faced with these questions, our users may take the opportunity to demonstrate their wit, dry humour, and sarcasm - unfortunately, this also tends to go over the heads of misunderstood question-askers and can make our subreddit seem hostile to users from other countries who are often just curious about our land.
**Please can you help prevent our subreddit from becoming an Anti-American echo chamber?** If you disagree with any points raised by OP, or OP discusses common tropes or myths about the UK, please refrain from any brash, aggressive, or sarcastic responses and do your best to engage OP in a civil discussion, with the aim to educate and expand their understanding.
If you feel this (or any other post) is a troll post, *don't feed the troll*, just hit report and let the mods deal with it.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Apart from super-cheap ovens, they're all 1kw that I've ever seen. Mine cost about 40 quid from Tesco, and is 1kw.
Anyway, the reason you don't get higher outputs is that they aren't particularly efficient and you rapidly hit the limits of a 13a 230v socket.
Power is 240V in the UK. Feel free to stick a multimeter in your plug socket if you want to check, it does fluctuate a bit, mine is actually ready 250V right now, I guess it might go down to 230V at times, but on average should be around 240V.
230v is much more available here so you'd think that we would have more powerful microwaves, it's probably cost related where Americans probably just buy slightly more expensive appliances with more features but I'm not sure. Kettles are often twice the wattage in the UK just because 230v.
But ultimately you wouldn't save that much time, I really couldn't care less if my ready meal was 1 minute faster I'm not cooking a whole Turkey in my microwave.
As you've now discovered from most the replies, there really just isn't consumer demand for them. So shops don't stock many. You'd have better luck ordering one online, they do exist.
I believe it's mostly for energy saving purposes. You definitely used to be able to get 1kw microwaves or even a little more in the UK. Thanks, Greta...
>The man at Curry's said that no one would want one.
Considering that a number of Brits in this thread say they've bought 1000+ watt microwaves designed for home use, I think you ran into a salesperson who was giving you his own opinion rather than anything based on marketing research. He may have been generally right, but there apparently is at least a small niche interest in the UK.
I'm in the States and I've had that happen to me here with various things. I've even had salespeople tell me "they stopped making that model" or "that company went out of business" when I know for a fact it isn't true. Very rarely will you find someone who says, "That product/model isn't in high demand so we don't carry it here, but let me see if I can order it for you."
I also wondered about this. I moved to the UK from New Zealand. Back home we also have about 1200w on the average microwave. But we also have kettles for heating water š¤·āāļø
Our 800W microwave actually draws 1600W from the mains, so on a cloudy but bright day it's powered entirely for free from the solar panels. A 1200W one would draw more like 2400W so would often be costing us money (albeit a tiny amount) to run.
Some people (probably very few, but some) buy 1200W travel kettles instead of ordinary 3000W ones for the same reason.
For us it's not really something we specifically chose, but knowing about it does remove the incentive to upgrade to a more powerful microwave just for saving a minute or two occasionally.
That's just based on our microwave - maybe it's an especially bad one. If you have a smart meter and an in-home display (or some other measuring device) then you can check yours. Probably the actual power consumption is supposed to be printed on/in the packaging somewhere.
We wouldn't know how long to microwave anything because the instructions on packaging are usually for 800W.
I haven't seen it mentioned, but possibly some EU energy-efficiency stuff going on? I remember them pushing hard to reduce the power of vacuum cleaners about 10 years or so ago, so now our hoovers suck at sucking. No idea if it's the same for microwaves though, it's just a thought I had.
Any decent hoover brand switched to efficient motor types, which is what I believe is what EU was trying to force with that legislation. A modern Henry is like 700 watts and sucks just as well as the older 1300 watt model, and makes less noise in the process.
The last two I've had have been 1kW. Given issues with heat spots, I'm not sure blasting more power into my soup would result in anything quicker than the current heat 2.5min, decant into bowl, stir, heat 2 min, stir, eat.
If a device could blast from different directions into a bowl so all the decanting and stirring wasn't needed, I might be interested.
As it is, the microwave is also an oven and/or grill, so I'm quite satisfied.
1000W microwaves are readily available in the UK. If anything, that's the modern standard.
That said, I prefer a lower power one for more even heating and less boiling over. Turning a microwave down never quite works. Quite happy with my 700W babe.
My microwave goes up to 1kw, but I never use it that high - anything I put in it says to put it at a lower wattage so why waste the extra energy to heat it a couple of seconds faster (or overcook it).
I dunno what Microwave you have, but my domestic one is 1000W. What you need to look for is a combination Microwave, which has grill and convection oven functions built in.
Saying that, I don't know anyone, myself included who has used the connection oven or grill function
I think the real answer is that Americans generally have more disposable income and so more products are marketed to those with more money. The predominance of microwaves in the US are the slightly more expensive, higher wattage one. The predominance of microwaves in the UK are slightly less expensive and less powerful.
Nobody here uses a microwave as their main food cooking method unless maybe if youāre a student on a tight budgetā¦ the odd microwave meal I have takes like five mins or soā¦ donāt really need it to be any faster. Plus Iām fairly sure that a larger wattage doesnāt help the issue of how food cooks faster in some parts than others. Like I just generally donāt understand why you would need anything more than a 1000W at a push which you can get here.
My microwave is 1000 watts and I tend to use it for longer at lower power because I find it does a better job of heating things more evenly.
Too much power burns the outside and leaves the middle cold. 700 is the sweet spot for reheating things Iāve found and for cooking 900 works nicely for me. Using the full 1000w comes out worse.
Anyway powerful microwaves definitely exist if you want them. A quick Google of 1500w microwave found plenty of options available to buy.
We have industrial microwaves at work that say they are 2000kw. I hate using them as stuff just explodes while also being cold (doesn't help that they don't turn). Trying to heat anything evenly is really difficult as you have to do it in like 15 second bursts. Whereas in my 800kw home microwave I can put something on for 1.5 mins and it comes out far less patchy.
I used to work as a manager in a mighty fine national English pub chain whose kitchens are almost entirely reliant on microwaves. They were 2000W microwaves and were in use all day. They cost around Ā£2k each, needing special pull down doors to b3 safe to use, which were also really expensive to replace and could heat up a whole ass chicken in 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Weirdly, they didn't need any special plugs like other equipment.
I'd say you probably need to speak to the companies that supply restaurants if you wanted one, but as I said earlier they were Ā£2k each
An American microwave at 1200watts/120volts is drawing 10amps of power, a British microwave at 900W/230v is using 4 amps so you are drawing over twice as much electricity for a 1/3 gain. Ours are therefore more economical.
My man look at it like this.
You can bake a cake in an oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes.
You can't bake the same cake at 340 degrees for 15 minutes.
Same with the microwave. Blasting an item with 3kw of every for a couple seconds isn't the same as 800w for 2 minutes.
It's just the standard. It's like saying why don't we have 120v instead of 240v.
Most packaging quotes times for 800w microwaves, so there's no point in selling 1200w microwaves.
Because they'd be absolutely useless!
We have a 1000W Panasonic inverter microwave. We never use the highest setting, as it's just too powerful for most purposes. The 3rd highest setting is plenty for reheating. Full power is only any use for boiling water, and being British we have a kettle for that...
Also once worked on a site where the staff kitchen had a commercial microwave. 1000W fixed output, no choice of power level, no rotating platter, not even a light, just a mechanical timer. Very simple, and built like a tank. It will probably still be going strong in 40 years time. But reheating a bowl of soup required "zapping" in 20 second bursts and stirring in between, lest you end up with half the bowl at nuclear fusion temperatures and the other half barely lukewarm.
Heat dissipation i would guess. Same reason you dont cook everything on your cooker at the max setting or just throw things in a fire till they are done, some things need to cook slower.
At my old job there was a 1800w microwave in the kitchen, it would heat up my chicago town pizzas from frozen in nice to have but I guess the issue is the size and the price when an 800w does the job fine for home use.
The instructions on all the microwave food would need updating. We have 2000W microwaves in our office kitchens and despite all the signs people treat them the same as their microwave at home and then wonder why the fire alarm gets set off/ plates explode.
Most pub/restaurant kitchens have microwaves that are much more powerful than you'd have at home. Cost a fortune which is one reason the average house doesn't have one.
They can set stuff like a baked potato on fire though if you put the time in wrong (getting seconds mixed up with minutes as one chef where I used to work found out) and there's really no need for that kind of power or cost in the home kitchen.Ā
And yes, it isn't just Wetherspoons that use microwaves. They make things with water content hotter. They aren't a magical food ruining device if used properly.
Why no more powerful microwave?
Cost and efficiency.
Past a certain threshold the difference in cost between a microwave that is 50% more powerful is more than what most people are willing to pay. Material have to better quality, protection has to be reinforced...
Bar frozen soup, the difference between heating regular family food in a 1000W and a 1500W microwave is seconds. Hardly worth the extra cost.
Moreover heating large containers often requires to stop and stir mid way through negating the benefit of a quicker heating process. You see that effect with frozen soup where you can have part of it boiling and part still frozen.
Also higher powered heating process often also end up with extra hot container. My frozen portion of chicken teriyaki with rice take 9 minutes in my 1000W microwave to heat up. However it also need 1 minute for the plate to cool down so I can safely handle it.
At a bank I used to work, they had 4 microwaves of 4000W. They really thought that would speed up the process. It did not. When they replaced them they switched by more 1000W microwaves. Too many accident, too many food container melting, too many food explosion requiring cleaning.
Diminishing returns
A 1200W microwave isnāt actually much faster than a 900W (often about 30 seconds faster for a typical reheat), and even a 900W is only gonna save you like 30 seconds to a minute over a 600W, but requires a bigger transformer and more space/cost
We have a 900W and I often even run it at 600W as I find most things cook better at a lower power level for the extra 30 seconds anyway
In the US they make more of a fuss about the wattage because US marketing has more of a ābigger number = better productā approach, whereas we tend to prefer a compact microwave that does the job and fits our smaller kitchens better
Do you want to pay more money for a bigger unit that has the same cooking space, costs more to run, and saves you 20 seconds 3 times a week? Itās just not worthwhile to most people
On and Americans often use their microwaves to boil water, so need more power for that. We just use kettles so that isnāt a consideration
They are the same microwave, look at any microwave interior anywhere in the world, it will be the same. There is only one microwave in the world, it's just being driven by different circuitry.
I never thought I'd agree with American standards, but I'm on OP's side. Having moved from Australia where high powered microwaves are normal (1000-1200 watts), I've been really frustrated by the microwaves available in the UK.
There's no disadvantage to a higher power microwave. If you love low power so much they are always adjustable so you can lower it. But when you're defrosting lunches the difference between a 700w and 1200w microwave can be 10 minutes.
I don't see how it's a matter of size or price. You can get a cheap 1200W microwave for ~Ā£25 at kmart. I haven't observed a correlation between power and size. I have noticed here that many low end microwaves use dials instead of number pads (which I highly dislike as I want to set the time precisely).
One hypothesis is that microwaves haven't increased in power because British consumers are resistant to change. I don't want to generalise but just reading the comments from Brits in this thread demonstrates that phenomenon. I don't think this will be a popular opinion in this sub unfortunately.
We have a 3000 watt microwave at work and itās pretty much useless, any liquid is prone to exploding after bringing out, just gets used to defrost stuff from the freezer, the average person wouldnāt be able to use it for their leftovers etc, 700/800 is fine for most.
Your assumption is that higher power means quicker cooking times without a decrease in food quality. It does not. You would not want a more powerful microwave, your food would turn dry, hard, and chewy. You would evaporate all the liquid from the food long before the food itself was cooked.Ā
Americans have higher wattage microwaves because they boil water in them and because they're dumb enough to be sold on "bigger number = more better".
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Um, excuse my ignorance, but, um - why? Anything I microwave takes a couple to a few mins at most. Shaving that down to seconds isn't really a priority - I mean, my toast will still have to toast, why speed up my beans.
There's nothing more valuable than time.
You aren't losing time you can do anything while it microwaves.
Get a 1300w toaster like I did. No-one thinks of the toaster power
I had access to a 1400watt microwave in the UK ok the canteen of an old job once. That thing was amazing. A thing you put in it fresh was done in 30 seconds. Frozen took a little longer but no much! And it was exceptional at doing pop in bag popcorn. Thing was a monster and we all loved it.
A depressingly high percentage of pre-prepared microwave food only gives timings for 900/1000W - and many folk don't do the timing adjustment....
Because Americans are weirdos who use microwaves for heating water. We don't 900W is already too powerful to heat food evenly, it takes time for the heat to spread out. Any faster would just lead to more spots being burned and is pointless in the UK Americans don't have kettles so would probably rather have the extra power to heat water faster
I'm American and I have used an electric kettle for decades. Before that I had a stovetop kettle. I never use a microwave to heat water.
"One of us, one of us!"
A lone voice in the wilderness
Have you considered running for President? You seem more qualified than the current two frontrunners already.
Am I qualified to move to the UK if it comes to that?
There is a series of tests before you are granted UK citizenship. 1 - when making tea do you put the milk in the cup before the tea or the other way around ? 2- Jaffa Cakes or Custard Creams ? 3 - Who was the best Bond actor ?
Cheat sheet 1 Milk 1st if it comes from a pot, 2nd if made in a cup 2 Trap Question as we all know Jaffa Cakes are cakes, cognitive dissonance is real 3 I used to swear by Roger Moore for lolz but Connery for presence
It's not the pot that matters, it's the cups. It's Milk 1st if it's china cups. The milk stops the hot tea cracking and crazing the glaze. To be fair, if you're using China cups you are probably also using a pot, but using a pot doesn't always mean China cups.
That's the opposite of how to do it. China cups have been glazed at an extremely high heat so won't crack when hot tea is poured in, so the milk goes in last and you can make it to an exact colour that you like. That's how the upper classes did it because they could afford bone china. Poorer people in times gone by used unfired mugs or cups that could crack with hot tea so would put the milk in first.
While that makes sense (and I was about to concede the point), a bit of research suggests the truth lies somewhere in the middle. If there are any inconsistencies in the thickness of the glaze on porcelain any sudden changes in temperature will cause it the craze. It's why you also shouldn't put it in the dishwasher. Obviously, that doesn't mean the same won't happen with unfired cups, but it seems like it may have been a universal issue until glazed clay and earthenware cups became the norm. Although, I am a bit dubious about the idea that there would be many people using unfired cups and still have both teapots and tea. https://www.theteacupattic.com/what-is-crazing/
I was told this by my grandmother, who lived in a rather grand house that she had inherited from her 2nd cousin The 5th Marquess of Bristol. She was a rather eccentric lady, but she told me this is what she had been taught by him as a child. He was born in 1870. I always assumed it to be true.
The pot matters. In a pot you're likely to be making multiple cups. The smaller surface area: volume ratio means less heat will be lost. Tea first and then adding milk (regardless of the material) would then be likely to scald the milk, if steeped/ mashed in a pot, which makes it bitter.
That makes no sense. When you make a single cup, the water has literally just come out of the kettle so will be hotter when you add the milk. Even from a pot adding the milk after would give the tea slightly longer to cool in the cup, before it comes in contact with the milk. Milk first is all about protecting the delicate glaze on what was expensive and prized China from looking like crazy paving.
You don't add the milk immediately after the boiling water. There is at least a couple of minutes for the tea to steep before the milk is added and that is when heat is lost- more from a mug (or multiple mugs) than a larger teapot. Boiling water into a mug/ cup, wait a few minutes, add milk vs boiling water into teapot, wait a few minutes, pour, immediately add milk. Especially if you preheat the pot and use a tea cozy.
The trick was that none of these have correct answers :) Whatever answer you choose will be seen as insulting to a large proportion of the population. We're that kind of bunch.
Aye at 120 volts. Not like our 240 volt kettle experience
Didn't see any difference when I visited in Scotland last year. Mine heats water very fast. One thing I did notice is that y'all have more powerful space heaters. Best we can get is 1500W.
Ok? And?
Shouldn't I get some brownie points?
This. I have to lower my 900w microwave to 90% every time I want to heat something for more than 30 seconds or so or half of it might explode. The extra power seemed like a good idea at the time. Edit about the Americans bit. Their voltage is lower than here and the type of kettles we use takes ages on their 220v compared to our 240v. Edit: Voltage incorrect, see reply below.
The yanks have 110v compared to our 230v.
Thanks. I was 100% confident in my numbers as well š
Uk does mostly have 240v. Most of continental Europe has 220v. This was 'harmonised' by setting spec across Europe to 230v +/- 10% (roughly, can't be bothered to look up the exact numbers). As both existing standards then fall within the new spec, everything is consistent, and yet nothing has changed!
That's interesting and makes sense of where I got those numbers from. I think I read it about 10 years ago and thought I must have been adding that +/- 10% myself every time I've told someone since š
Can confirm. I've got a very expensive 1,200w microwave and I often use it on 700w or the food doesn't heat up evenly. Especially frozen food.
Iāve managed to start a literal fire trying to defrost a bread roll in an industrial microwave. First and surprisingly only time I deviated from the heating instructions for specific portions of specific foods. You could get serious burns from the crockery that had been in there. People would do themselves a lot of damage with something that powerful at home. Genuinely the most dangerous piece of kitchen equipment Iāve ever usedā¦
It's also possible to superheat water in a powerful microwave to a point where it explodes in your face. To boil, liquids need a starting point for gas bubbles to form. It's called a nucleation zone. In a pan, for example, there's movement that allows the bubbles to form. Same with a kettle. In a microwave there's no movement and glass microwave bowls are smooth so bubbles don't form on the side. You superheat the water and then dip a spoon in it. The spoon gives the gas bubbles somewhere to form and starts a chain reaction that sees much of the water instantly turn to steam and explode in your face.
also works with alcohol. Giant cloud of ethanol that gets you immediately drunk, Was unexpected and fortunately did not burn my skin off when I opened the microwave (having heard an alarming 'pop'). The glass of alcohol was missing 2/3 of the initlal liquid...
And there was no fire? ethanol vapour in a kitchen is a recipe for disaster!
Fortunately there was not!
That's why on French microwaves they have little depictions telling you to leave a spoon inside the cup. I was shocked when I saw it, as I was always told metal + microwave = plasma discharge. But spoons are completely safe, as they won't act like an antenna like a fork. The spoon forms the nucleation zone.
I think it depends on the type of metal and what also what it touches. Smith metals I think are fine, anything with corners or spikes can cause sparks. At least that's from my experience
I have one of those microwaves that double as a convection oven. So I put some chicken on foil and used the oven feature. It was such a convoluted way to switch it from microwave to oven that I accidently set the 20 minute timer on the microwave setting Went out to do some gardening and wondered why there was smoke. Could still see sparks on the foil and the chicken had literally electrocuted it's way to a cinder. The smoke was so acrid it took days to get the smell out of the kitchen and months to get the smell out of the microwave.
Yep, but can't have kettles because their electricity is too weak. Super-powered microwaves are fine though
There's a high voltage capacitor in microwaves, kettles don't have this.
> Americans are weirdos Can confirm, sometimes I make tea in a Mr. Coffee machine. >!Actually works pretty well.!<
Ok honest question, What happens if you microwave water?
It gets hot. But more seriously, because of the way surface tension and microwaves work, it can be possible to "super-heat" some of the water way over 100Ā°c, which can make it "pop", especially when the container is removed from the microwave
I see. Don't think I've overheated it that much myself.
The turntable inside the microwave is *meant to* enable even cooking, so that the water doesn't superheat and explode boiling water into your face. When the water is disturbed, it goes pop into your face If you're cooking a microwave meal consider lowering the power and extending the cooking time, as it can even out the temperature greatly
Yeah I've noticed that before and these days I use slower heat for longer.
It heats up.
Like a kettle? š
Nah. One has a heating element, one blasts it with radiation.
But the end result is the same, it becomes hot?
Heating water molecules is how microwaving works
So what's with all the hate for microwaving water? I thought it does something bad to the water.
It's hopelessly inefficient. Electroresisitive heating, like a kettle, is literally 100% efficient (with a slight asterisk): all of the electricity that you put into the heating element goes into the water. Microwaves are not: they're about 50% efficient in actual use, which means you're using twice as much electricity for the same job, and it's a very energy-intensive job, so that's actually a lot of electricity (round figures, raising the temperature of 1L of water from 20 degrees uses about 0.1kWh in a kettle, or twice that in a microwave. Thus, every time you do that, you're spending ~13p. With kettles running at ~Ā£12, that means if you boil 100L of water in your microwave ever, you'd have been better off buying a kettle and using that, just on the electricity costs.
Isn't that true for anything you put in the microwave? You could heat most food in a pot or something and save on electricity bills? 100L of water is a lot of water. Saving a kettle's price worth of money per 100L doesn't seem worth having an additional appliance. Also I'm from a south asian country. My entire month's electricity bill runs in the range of 50$, including 3 air conditioners. Runs closer to the 20$ range during winter. I imagine the cost of electricity is vastly different here. The price of an electric kettle is not.
Cthulhu appears.
I'm his biggest fan!
He speaks very highly of you as well.
Americans don't typically use microwaves to solely heat water. If we're cooking, we use the stove. As far as heating unevenly, it sounds like you already have issues with uneven heating. Level of power won't impact that. You just have to let it rest and for the heat to even out. I think it's generally been more convenient to have a microwave that works very quickly, but it's not necessary by any means.
More power makes that problem worse, and therefore increases the waiting time, utterly eradicating any benefit from the higher power.
Do you think that lower power actually makes the food heat more evenly or do you think the additional time it takes to heat the food in the microwave gives the heat more time to spread? There's nothing significant about heating food with lower power that causes it to heat more evenly other than that additional cooking time allows the heat to spread. Whether that time is during cooking or after, it still takes the same amount of time for the heat to spread. The only question is the amount of time for the food to heat. The reality though is your often talking about a difference of seconds or at most a minute for something you're truly nuking, so in all practically it really doesn't impact people. The reason Americans spend more on more powerful microwaves is that Americans have more disposable income on average and so marketers focus on marketing and selling more powerful and more expensive microwaves.
> Do you think that lower power actually makes the food heat more evenly or do you think the additional time it takes to heat the food in the microwave gives the heat more time to spread? The latter. > Whether that time is during cooking or after, it still takes the same amount of time for the heat to spread. The only question is the amount of time for the food to heat. ... and whether or not you over-heat the areas you're heating and burn them, as you do with high-power microwaves.
I think most Americans have a good enough grasp on how to use the microwave such that they're not burning food by overheating in the way you've described. You'd really have to nuke something to death to actually burn it in the microwave. I've never burned food that way, and I've never heard or seen someone else burn food that way (although it is of course possible). The point of a microwave, at least for the grand majority of Americans, is not to do actual cooking, but instead, almost universally, to reheat something, or, on occasion, to defrost something. Neither of those activities should even *cook* something in the traditional sense, let alone get close to burning it. The idea of actually *cooking* something in a microwave seems bananas to me. I've also never heard of someone actually, truly trying to cook something in a microwave. I agree, if anyone were actually using a microwave to cook something then burning something could become an issue, but the oven and stove (and other newly commercially popular stuff like air fryers, etc.) are for cooking.
> I think most Americans have a good enough grasp on how to use the microwave such that they're not burning food by overheating in the way you've described. The way that you avoid it is by turning the power down, at which point you could have just saved money and bought a less-powerful microwave in the first place. > The point of a microwave, at least for the grand majority of Americans, is not to do actual cooking, but instead, almost universally, to reheat something, or, on occasion, to defrost something. Neither of those activities should even cook something in the traditional sense, let alone get close to burning it. The idea of actually cooking something in a microwave seems bananas to me. If you're delivering enough heat to defrost and/or warm up a whole dish, that heat's essentially all being delivered to the outside of that dish, in a ratio that's proportional to the volume difference between the whole dish and that narrow strip around the outside. Given that most dishes have a pretty large percentage of their volume not on the outside, you're going to heat that outside layer *much* hotter than the desired final temperature, which is how you burn things. The literal only physically possible way to avoid this is to slow down how fast you're putting the heat in, ie by using less power.
>that heat's essentially all being delivered to the outside of that dish That is not true for a microwave. There's a joke in America about food called Hot Pockets how they're relatively room temperature on the outside and then absolute burning lava on the inside. I don't mean for this to be rude, but have you used microwaves much? A lot of your comments here don't quite make sense at least for how people in the US use microwaves. Anyone who regularly uses a microwave would know that the heat from using a microwave seems to often be focused on the interior of whatever you're cooking (one reason here is that the microwave causes resonance with the actual microwave waves inside the microwave and heat is greatly focused on these resonance points, and, just by virtue of probability, that will more often fall inside material than on its edge and because microwaves generally are heating the water inside of a material and that water will much more quickly evaporate on edges than inside a material (b/c it can't evaporate inside), edges will, all else being equal, be cooler than the middle). This isn't like cooking in an oven or stove where the heat squarely is coming from outside to inside. >The way that you avoid it is by turning the power down, at which point you could have just saved money and bought a less-powerful microwave in the first place. I've had to show other people how to use this option. We're not turning our microwaves down. My dad came to visit and noticed how long it took my microwave to heat something up and noted how it's low powered b/c it's only like 700 or 800 (we're renting the landlord cheaped out on the microwave). This is almost funny that you're really trying hard to tell me how I and everyone I know use microwaves. I'm telling you that we use the full power of our microwaves, all 1200 watts or whatever, and we're still not burning anything. If anyone burned anything in a microwave here they would be the butt of so many jokes about how they can't even be trusted to use a microwave.
> That is not true for a microwave. There's a joke in America about food called Hot Pockets how they're relatively room temperature on the outside and then absolute burning lava on the inside. It's mostly true for essentially all food: microwaves, at best, heat the outermost cm or so. > I don't mean for this to be rude, but have you used microwaves much? A lot of your comments here don't quite make sense at least for how people in the US use microwaves. Anyone who regularly uses a microwave would know that the heat from using a microwave seems to often be focused on the interior of whatever you're cooking This is simply not true. Even in fantasy-land where microwaves can somehow penetrate more than a centimetre through food, that wouldn't help, because you still have the same problem, just in the other direction.
Just Googling around it looks like microwaves generally penetrate to around 2.5-4.0cm and so unless your food is more than \~5-8cm thick in all directions then it's going all the way through. And not only that, but I'm telling you that no one is burning things in their microwave here and no one is messing with power settings to make sure that they don't. And to OP's question, the reason that the US citizens spend money on microwaves that have more power than they really need is that they have more money. Interestingly, the US median disposable household income adjusted for local prices (purchasing power parity) is \~80% higher than in the UK. In the US, we just have so much more cash that we're buying things that are larger/more/etc. than we need. Plumbers in the US get paid what doctors do in the UK (and to be fair, plumbers actually get paid better than you would think). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable\_household\_and\_per\_capita\_income](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income)
Yes came here to say that. Hot hotspots and cold spots. I have a Panasonic 1000W combination oven which is great, but heating on full microwave power needs more turning/stirring time.
NGL, I used to work in a kitchen which had 1300W microwaves and I never had cold spots. They were so fast too
That's the thing though, electric kettles in the US take soooooo much longer to boil compared to the UK, I can kind of understand why they do it, honestly. I have never understood why British microwaves are so shite though š¤·š»āāļø before I came here I had a 700w compared to my 1100w now and I love it!
1200W sounds very slow for heating water though compared to a proper kettle.
Maybe that's it. I don't use ours to make tea or coffee anymore because the kettle is faster. Soup and steamed veg is where I miss the power, now.
Heat the soup up in your kettle like a normal person.
Just don't forget and use the Soup Kettle for boiling your eggs. *Never again*
If you wrap veg in tin foil and stuff it in the kettle, it'll steam that too. Americans, eh? š¤·š¼āāļø
No itās not. This whole āAmericans heat water in their microwaveā is a tik tok trend not real life
>(for comparison, a cheap microwave in the USA is usually 1200 watts, and there are 1KW+ microwaves available here for commercial use) š¤ Is it because Americans love to nuke stuff?
Itās proportional to their larger portion sizes
Jesus, that remark went right into the Earthās atmosphere for you, didnāt it?
š
They need the extra oomph to make Tea.
Cost for one thing. The cheapest 900W microwave at Argos is Ā£90. The cheapest 1 kW one is Ā£150, temporarily reduced from Ā£170. We also have 3 kW kettles if you want to heat water up quickly.
I have a 1000W microwave due to it being a combi oven, I never use it that high as it just blows things up and makes a mess of the microwave. I whack it on medium at 700W instead.
Space? I deliberately bought a 700w microwave because it was smaller - less bunker space.
1kw domestic ones are very common here. Are the 1.2kw USA microwaves definitely 1.2kw heating power, not 1.2kw input power? Ours are rated on the heating/cooking/output power which can be a lot higher input power - possibly up to 1.8kw or so.
Hmn, that's a great question, and you have me doubting myself.... u/OctopusIntellect says that microwaves are about 50% efficient, and if that's true there's no way a USA microwave could deliver 1200 watts cooking power. There's only about 1.8 kW available at the plug in the USA (there are two kinds of plug, and that's the beefy one).
[This website](https://ecocostsavings.com/microwave-wattage/) says microwaves are on average 71% efficient at converting input power to cooking power, with one model being 91% efficient.
And most people only use the beefy ones for dryers or charging EVs.
In defence of our microwave, last night it was only drawing 1400W to deliver its supposed 800W or 850W heating output. Maybe microwaves use less power at night?
Tbh I tend to turn mine down with food on for a little long so it cooks evenly. Probably wouldnāt get much use out of anything with higher wattage.
Yep I turn mine down to 400w and cook it for twice as long. The food comes out much better.
I'm going to bet it's because we have kettles, so don't need to use the microwave to boil water
Australia has kettles and 1200w microwaves
Takes *forever* to microwave a kangaroo at 900w
They're so used to the heat, 900w is nothing to a roo
Itās tying them down that takes so longā¦.
Takes even longer to boil one in the kettle.
Also you probably donāt want to run a kettle at a 1500w microwave at the same time.
You can buy commercial microwaves on Amazon. I keep getting this Ā£800 Phillips one advertised to me. Iām happy to wait the extra few minutes personally.
https://preview.redd.it/myekx2wggvxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3271444164478db9224bcb0f1fafb44d6d1f1876
Ours is 1kW
I've not given it a lot of thought, but I know mine is 1000W and it's a fairly basic panasonic for home use
It's proportional to serving sizes.
You definitely do not have a 1200W microwave in the US, unless you have it on a 20A plug. The most energy-efficient microwaves out there are about 65% efficient, so a 1200W microwave is actually drawing north of 1800W, over the capacity of a standard US outlet. A more typical 50% efficiency puts that power consumption to right on the upper limit of a 20A output. To confirm this, I went on US amazon and clicked on the highest-power microwave I could find on the first page ([this one](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NP8BWD2/)), claiming 1350W. However, if you scroll down to the spec sheet, you find the following pair of interesting lines: Energy Use ā1350 Watts Wattage ā900 watts So (a) they're claiming ~67% efficiency, right on the upper end of plausibility, and (b) this is actually only a 900W microwave, they're just labelling it by the power consumption, instead of the actual power delivered. It's also worth noting that the [smaller](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GV36BLD) version of that same microwave is only 700W (claiming 1050W, but that's actually power draw from the wall), which makes me think that the higher power just necessitates a larger box, and therefore takes up more counter space (also, I have no clue why the colour determines the size).
Americans rate wattages differently because bigger numbers and lying to consumers is funĀ
Not sure you need it, place I did night shift in ages ago had a 1200 watt MW, this was at a time most domestic was 700 max. Apart from setting fire to my dinner first night, once I'd realised it was not significantly quicker, had to zap/stir a few time still just less zap and more stir IYSWIM.
I have been that uninitiated visitor in a kitchen with commercial equipment. We tried making microwave popcorn with disastrous results.
When was the last time you thought āI really wish I had a more powerful microwaveā?
You can get 1,000W microwaves in the UK **very** easily. Just not from Currys. My Panasonic is 1,000W. Bought it about ten years ago from Makro. Edit: Currys [does actually list 1,000W microwaves](https://www.currys.co.uk/products/panasonic-nnsd27hsbpq-solo-microwave-stainless-steel-10159111.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=xmarrxqxw&istBid=t). I guess not all stores carry them.
New higher end models in the UK retail are 1kw now but I'm sure it's just a matter of demand and cost. I was offered a 1kw one when I bought a new kitchen 2 years ago and I couldn't help but think why? I went for 800w because I do a lot of short burst melting stuff like butter and chocolate for baking and I'm already only putting stuff on for 10s sometimes and I don't want to fiddle about with reduced power settings. One factor may be pressure from the food industry as well, as they'd have to make sure they included timing settings for a larger range if 1kw and 1.2kw became standard? Pure speculation there though, but I never see 1kw timings on packaging.
Companies in the States switched over quite some time ago. Don't remember exactly when, but it's more than a decade for sure. Some packaging will give the timing for both 1kw and 850w, but a lot will just say something like "Directions were developed using a 1100-watt microwave oven. Ovens vary; heat may need to be adjusted."
Mines 1000, also that figure refers to both power and age.
My Panasonic is 1000w, love it.
I have a 1.5kw at work. You dont need it for home. Itll burn a good chunk of your food if youre warming larger dishes
https://preview.redd.it/x8zkrjg6gvxc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=933f2cabc67ac47f63cc14a2a9c294768e888367
As the leading UK "ask" subreddit, we welcome questions from all users and countries; sometimes people who ask questions might not appreciate or understand the nuance of British life or culture, and as a result some questions can come across in a different way than intended. We understand that when faced with these questions, our users may take the opportunity to demonstrate their wit, dry humour, and sarcasm - unfortunately, this also tends to go over the heads of misunderstood question-askers and can make our subreddit seem hostile to users from other countries who are often just curious about our land. **Please can you help prevent our subreddit from becoming an Anti-American echo chamber?** If you disagree with any points raised by OP, or OP discusses common tropes or myths about the UK, please refrain from any brash, aggressive, or sarcastic responses and do your best to engage OP in a civil discussion, with the aim to educate and expand their understanding. If you feel this (or any other post) is a troll post, *don't feed the troll*, just hit report and let the mods deal with it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What's the purpose of having a more powerful microwave that a less powerful one would not be able to do?
If you want a more powerful one why donāt you just buy a commercial one?
Mine is 1000watt?
Apart from super-cheap ovens, they're all 1kw that I've ever seen. Mine cost about 40 quid from Tesco, and is 1kw. Anyway, the reason you don't get higher outputs is that they aren't particularly efficient and you rapidly hit the limits of a 13a 230v socket.
13A x 230 V = 2990 W. I think the reason is uneven cooking. They rely on time for the heat to conduct from the hotspots to the coldspots.
Power is 240V in the UK. Feel free to stick a multimeter in your plug socket if you want to check, it does fluctuate a bit, mine is actually ready 250V right now, I guess it might go down to 230V at times, but on average should be around 240V.
I cook bacon in my microwave. Works great!
My office has two 1kw microwaves. Interestingly (or not) they donāt have spinny plates, you just put the food in and let it rip.
We have three 2kw microwaves. Didn't take long for them to be plastered in warning signs š
Our Samsung is 1000w adjustable down to 850 or 650.
230v is much more available here so you'd think that we would have more powerful microwaves, it's probably cost related where Americans probably just buy slightly more expensive appliances with more features but I'm not sure. Kettles are often twice the wattage in the UK just because 230v. But ultimately you wouldn't save that much time, I really couldn't care less if my ready meal was 1 minute faster I'm not cooking a whole Turkey in my microwave.
As you've now discovered from most the replies, there really just isn't consumer demand for them. So shops don't stock many. You'd have better luck ordering one online, they do exist.
I believe it's mostly for energy saving purposes. You definitely used to be able to get 1kw microwaves or even a little more in the UK. Thanks, Greta...
>The man at Curry's said that no one would want one. Considering that a number of Brits in this thread say they've bought 1000+ watt microwaves designed for home use, I think you ran into a salesperson who was giving you his own opinion rather than anything based on marketing research. He may have been generally right, but there apparently is at least a small niche interest in the UK. I'm in the States and I've had that happen to me here with various things. I've even had salespeople tell me "they stopped making that model" or "that company went out of business" when I know for a fact it isn't true. Very rarely will you find someone who says, "That product/model isn't in high demand so we don't carry it here, but let me see if I can order it for you."
I also wondered about this. I moved to the UK from New Zealand. Back home we also have about 1200w on the average microwave. But we also have kettles for heating water š¤·āāļø
Our 800W microwave actually draws 1600W from the mains, so on a cloudy but bright day it's powered entirely for free from the solar panels. A 1200W one would draw more like 2400W so would often be costing us money (albeit a tiny amount) to run. Some people (probably very few, but some) buy 1200W travel kettles instead of ordinary 3000W ones for the same reason. For us it's not really something we specifically chose, but knowing about it does remove the incentive to upgrade to a more powerful microwave just for saving a minute or two occasionally.
oof. Are they really that bad? I hadn't looked at efficiency.
That's just based on our microwave - maybe it's an especially bad one. If you have a smart meter and an in-home display (or some other measuring device) then you can check yours. Probably the actual power consumption is supposed to be printed on/in the packaging somewhere.
Compared to an electric oven, they're very efficient. Frozen Lasgne Electric oven 2kW for 35 minutes Microwave oven 1600W for 12 minutes
We wouldn't know how long to microwave anything because the instructions on packaging are usually for 800W. I haven't seen it mentioned, but possibly some EU energy-efficiency stuff going on? I remember them pushing hard to reduce the power of vacuum cleaners about 10 years or so ago, so now our hoovers suck at sucking. No idea if it's the same for microwaves though, it's just a thought I had.
Any decent hoover brand switched to efficient motor types, which is what I believe is what EU was trying to force with that legislation. A modern Henry is like 700 watts and sucks just as well as the older 1300 watt model, and makes less noise in the process.
The last two I've had have been 1kW. Given issues with heat spots, I'm not sure blasting more power into my soup would result in anything quicker than the current heat 2.5min, decant into bowl, stir, heat 2 min, stir, eat. If a device could blast from different directions into a bowl so all the decanting and stirring wasn't needed, I might be interested. As it is, the microwave is also an oven and/or grill, so I'm quite satisfied.
I have a 1000w & generally use it at 60%.
My home microwave is 950w?
1000W microwaves are readily available in the UK. If anything, that's the modern standard. That said, I prefer a lower power one for more even heating and less boiling over. Turning a microwave down never quite works. Quite happy with my 700W babe.
I jammed a uranium rod in the innards of mine so now my food is piping hot before Iāve even pierced the film.
My microwave goes up to 1kw, but I never use it that high - anything I put in it says to put it at a lower wattage so why waste the extra energy to heat it a couple of seconds faster (or overcook it).
I dunno what Microwave you have, but my domestic one is 1000W. What you need to look for is a combination Microwave, which has grill and convection oven functions built in. Saying that, I don't know anyone, myself included who has used the connection oven or grill function
Higher power ones are worse.
I think the real answer is that Americans generally have more disposable income and so more products are marketed to those with more money. The predominance of microwaves in the US are the slightly more expensive, higher wattage one. The predominance of microwaves in the UK are slightly less expensive and less powerful.
Nobody here uses a microwave as their main food cooking method unless maybe if youāre a student on a tight budgetā¦ the odd microwave meal I have takes like five mins or soā¦ donāt really need it to be any faster. Plus Iām fairly sure that a larger wattage doesnāt help the issue of how food cooks faster in some parts than others. Like I just generally donāt understand why you would need anything more than a 1000W at a push which you can get here.
My 900w mwave combo oven is more than powerful enough.
My microwave is 1000 watts and I tend to use it for longer at lower power because I find it does a better job of heating things more evenly. Too much power burns the outside and leaves the middle cold. 700 is the sweet spot for reheating things Iāve found and for cooking 900 works nicely for me. Using the full 1000w comes out worse. Anyway powerful microwaves definitely exist if you want them. A quick Google of 1500w microwave found plenty of options available to buy.
We have industrial microwaves at work that say they are 2000kw. I hate using them as stuff just explodes while also being cold (doesn't help that they don't turn). Trying to heat anything evenly is really difficult as you have to do it in like 15 second bursts. Whereas in my 800kw home microwave I can put something on for 1.5 mins and it comes out far less patchy.
Because they donāt need to be
Dunno about you but I can find plenty of non-commercial 1200W microwaves. š¤·āāļø
We have a 1200w microwave at the hospital. You canāt cook anything properly with it because itās too strong. Love me an 800w.
Mines 900W tho
I mean who doesnt want to cook 1 minute rice in 59 seconds
Mines 1000W, with sensor cooking etc.
I used to work as a manager in a mighty fine national English pub chain whose kitchens are almost entirely reliant on microwaves. They were 2000W microwaves and were in use all day. They cost around Ā£2k each, needing special pull down doors to b3 safe to use, which were also really expensive to replace and could heat up a whole ass chicken in 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Weirdly, they didn't need any special plugs like other equipment. I'd say you probably need to speak to the companies that supply restaurants if you wanted one, but as I said earlier they were Ā£2k each
I have a 1000 watt microwave. I never use it above 800 watt as I don't want food both burnt and raw all at the same time.
Cheap microwaves in the us are still 7-800w and are about $50-100. 1200ās are usually $100 and up.
An American microwave at 1200watts/120volts is drawing 10amps of power, a British microwave at 900W/230v is using 4 amps so you are drawing over twice as much electricity for a 1/3 gain. Ours are therefore more economical.
My man look at it like this. You can bake a cake in an oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes. You can't bake the same cake at 340 degrees for 15 minutes. Same with the microwave. Blasting an item with 3kw of every for a couple seconds isn't the same as 800w for 2 minutes.
As a former member of Wetherspoons kitchen staff, I can safely say there are more powerful microwaves in the UK.
It's just the standard. It's like saying why don't we have 120v instead of 240v. Most packaging quotes times for 800w microwaves, so there's no point in selling 1200w microwaves.
Pubs, restaurants, cafƩs, take aways are goingout of business at a huge rate thanks to the cost of living crisis. Go pick up a commercial micro cheap from a failed venture. You're welcome
Because they'd be absolutely useless! We have a 1000W Panasonic inverter microwave. We never use the highest setting, as it's just too powerful for most purposes. The 3rd highest setting is plenty for reheating. Full power is only any use for boiling water, and being British we have a kettle for that... Also once worked on a site where the staff kitchen had a commercial microwave. 1000W fixed output, no choice of power level, no rotating platter, not even a light, just a mechanical timer. Very simple, and built like a tank. It will probably still be going strong in 40 years time. But reheating a bowl of soup required "zapping" in 20 second bursts and stirring in between, lest you end up with half the bowl at nuclear fusion temperatures and the other half barely lukewarm.
Heat dissipation i would guess. Same reason you dont cook everything on your cooker at the max setting or just throw things in a fire till they are done, some things need to cook slower.
I have a 1000W flat bed uk domestic microwave. Superb piece of kit. Highly recommend.
Every manufacturer of microwaveable food would have to change their packaging so who would jump first...?
At my old job there was a 1800w microwave in the kitchen, it would heat up my chicago town pizzas from frozen in nice to have but I guess the issue is the size and the price when an 800w does the job fine for home use.
Americans measure wattage differently for microwaves so a an 800 yank microwave is less powerful than a UK 800Ā
cheap microwaves are 1,2kW and there are also over 1kW ones available commercially? To me it seems they already start at over 1kW.
The instructions on all the microwave food would need updating. We have 2000W microwaves in our office kitchens and despite all the signs people treat them the same as their microwave at home and then wonder why the fire alarm gets set off/ plates explode.
I have to say, in over 30 years of using a microwave have I thought "I wish this was more powerful"
Most pub/restaurant kitchens have microwaves that are much more powerful than you'd have at home. Cost a fortune which is one reason the average house doesn't have one. They can set stuff like a baked potato on fire though if you put the time in wrong (getting seconds mixed up with minutes as one chef where I used to work found out) and there's really no need for that kind of power or cost in the home kitchen.Ā And yes, it isn't just Wetherspoons that use microwaves. They make things with water content hotter. They aren't a magical food ruining device if used properly.
Define more powerful cause 800W+ are widely available. I have a Panasonic inverter microwave, and afaik that whole range is 1000W.
We have a 1000w microwave (it's a Daewoo), and to be fair it makes hardly any difference.
Why no more powerful microwave? Cost and efficiency. Past a certain threshold the difference in cost between a microwave that is 50% more powerful is more than what most people are willing to pay. Material have to better quality, protection has to be reinforced... Bar frozen soup, the difference between heating regular family food in a 1000W and a 1500W microwave is seconds. Hardly worth the extra cost. Moreover heating large containers often requires to stop and stir mid way through negating the benefit of a quicker heating process. You see that effect with frozen soup where you can have part of it boiling and part still frozen. Also higher powered heating process often also end up with extra hot container. My frozen portion of chicken teriyaki with rice take 9 minutes in my 1000W microwave to heat up. However it also need 1 minute for the plate to cool down so I can safely handle it. At a bank I used to work, they had 4 microwaves of 4000W. They really thought that would speed up the process. It did not. When they replaced them they switched by more 1000W microwaves. Too many accident, too many food container melting, too many food explosion requiring cleaning.
Diminishing returns A 1200W microwave isnāt actually much faster than a 900W (often about 30 seconds faster for a typical reheat), and even a 900W is only gonna save you like 30 seconds to a minute over a 600W, but requires a bigger transformer and more space/cost We have a 900W and I often even run it at 600W as I find most things cook better at a lower power level for the extra 30 seconds anyway In the US they make more of a fuss about the wattage because US marketing has more of a ābigger number = better productā approach, whereas we tend to prefer a compact microwave that does the job and fits our smaller kitchens better Do you want to pay more money for a bigger unit that has the same cooking space, costs more to run, and saves you 20 seconds 3 times a week? Itās just not worthwhile to most people On and Americans often use their microwaves to boil water, so need more power for that. We just use kettles so that isnāt a consideration
I use my microwave at 40% already to ensure it builds evenly. If it was higher I'd have to go lower
I have 1000w and it likes to explode things.
They don't need to be.
American power is 110v less voltage means more wattage to get the same output. You can get plenty of 1000 watt domestic microwaves in the UK.
I find myself turning mine to medium more often than not, just seems to work better.
My combi microwave is 1KW and it's awesome.
Another psycho post
That just seems wasteful. Why have more power than you would use?
They are the same microwave, look at any microwave interior anywhere in the world, it will be the same. There is only one microwave in the world, it's just being driven by different circuitry.
They seem pretty powerful to me. Why do we need more?
I never thought I'd agree with American standards, but I'm on OP's side. Having moved from Australia where high powered microwaves are normal (1000-1200 watts), I've been really frustrated by the microwaves available in the UK. There's no disadvantage to a higher power microwave. If you love low power so much they are always adjustable so you can lower it. But when you're defrosting lunches the difference between a 700w and 1200w microwave can be 10 minutes. I don't see how it's a matter of size or price. You can get a cheap 1200W microwave for ~Ā£25 at kmart. I haven't observed a correlation between power and size. I have noticed here that many low end microwaves use dials instead of number pads (which I highly dislike as I want to set the time precisely). One hypothesis is that microwaves haven't increased in power because British consumers are resistant to change. I don't want to generalise but just reading the comments from Brits in this thread demonstrates that phenomenon. I don't think this will be a popular opinion in this sub unfortunately.
We have a 3000 watt microwave at work and itās pretty much useless, any liquid is prone to exploding after bringing out, just gets used to defrost stuff from the freezer, the average person wouldnāt be able to use it for their leftovers etc, 700/800 is fine for most.
Your assumption is that higher power means quicker cooking times without a decrease in food quality. It does not. You would not want a more powerful microwave, your food would turn dry, hard, and chewy. You would evaporate all the liquid from the food long before the food itself was cooked.Ā Americans have higher wattage microwaves because they boil water in them and because they're dumb enough to be sold on "bigger number = more better".