Metal In The Microwave

[hech54]

Do you regularly put metal objects in your microwave(like a spoon in your coffee - fork or spoon in a bowl)?

[lordsmurf]

Last time I did that, I had a fire on my hands.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Why take chances?????

I WANT TO LIVE!!!!!

Kevin



--urban myths aside I don't think it would be wise to do if it's noted in the manual NOT TO ---

[VCDHunter]

No I don't and your poll title needs ammending "do you metal in your microwave" doesn't make any sense.

[ViRaL1]

I have accidentally on occasion. Pretty colors.

I usually just stop it and take out the offending object.

[hech54]

your poll title needs ammending "do you metal in your microwave" doesn't make any sense.

That was a joke....Metal....Meddle
Pronunciation: 'me-d&l
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): med·dled; med·dling /'med-li[ng], 'me-d&l-i[ng]
: to interest oneself in what is not one's concern : interfere without right or propriety.

[Heywould3]

do i REGULARLY? [hell and no] but i have without thinking.. i have put my CDrs in there to "format" them actually i did that to see all the nice designs it makes on them. want some fun.. put an egg in there.. hard boiled or un-cooked.. just leave it in the shell :P

[yoda313]

Hello,

[hell and no]

Wouldn't it have been easier to type:

HELL NO???????

Kevin

[VCDHunter]

That was a joke....Metal....Meddle

I'd dispute that.

[hech54]

"That's My Story(and I'm Sticking To It)"..

[pacmania_2001]

That was a joke....Metal....Meddle

I'd dispute that.

I guess you had to be there. Oh wait... I was and it still crap. :P

[Heywould3]

Wouldn't it have been easier to type:

HELL NO???????

Kevin

Well.. it may be easier to type it that way.. but then it would just go by un noticed.. and im not always looking for the easy way to do things.. :P

[yoda313]

Wouldn't it have been easier to type:

HELL NO???????

Kevin

Well.. it may be easier to type it that way.. but then it would just go by un noticed.. and im not always looking for the easy way to do things.. :P

Hello,



And looking to be the center of attention probably

Kevin

[hech54]

The reason I ask is:
The fear of metal in the microwave seems to be a regional "thing". I grew up on my mother's screams NO METAL when microwaving. The way she said it....you'd think the earth's rotational force would be reversed and we'd all go hurdling into space if I hit that button with that spoon in there.
Here in Germany....almost nobody has ever heard of "No Metal In The Microwave"...if they know that phrase...they got it from American TV shows shown in Germany(translated of course).
I found this out while attempting to read the heating instruction on a boxed fish fillet. The fish comes in an aluminum tray which is sealed on top in celophane....it says to place the container in the microwave for 4 minutes....then heat in a regular oven for the other 20 minutes.
I asked my wife and she says "Yea....why not...I do it all of the time". Nothing happens to metal in MY microwave....spoons, forks, knives....Hmmm.

[VCDHunter]

"That's My Story(and I'm Sticking To It)"..

8)

No I don't put metal in the microwave as the last time I did it there were sparks everywhere.

[Cobra]

Ever wonder what happens when you microwave fire?



That's the aftermath, and here's what actually happened:

https://www.videohelp.com/~cobra/Compressed.avi

[hech54]

Why can you put a can of frozen concentrate juice in the microwave? The metal doesn't spark or burn.
The microwaves in a microwave oven consist of electric and magnetic fields. Since electric fields push on electric charges, microwaves cause electric currents to flow through any metal objects they encounter. These movements of current don't necessarily cause any problems in a microwave oven. In fact, metal objects only cause trouble in the microwave oven when they are so thin or narrow that they can't tolerate the electric currents that flow through them or when they have such sharp ends that electric charges leap off them as sparks. A thin object like a twist-tie can't tolerate the currents and becomes very hot. Its sharp ends also allow charges to leap out into the air as sparks. But the thick, rounded end of a juice concentrate can easily tolerates the currents sent through it by the microwaves and doesn't have the sharp ends needed to send charges into the air as sparks. It doesn't present any problem for the microwave oven.

I left a spoon in my food and I put it in the microwave by accident. Is it dangerous to eat the food after it was put into the microwave with a metal object. Does it have any radiation? Could it cause cancer?
The spoon will have essentially no effect at all on the food. Metal left in the microwave oven during cooking will only cause trouble if (a) it is very thin or (b) it has sharp edges or points. The microwaves push electric charges back and forth in metal, so if the metal is too thin, it will heat up like the filament of a light bulb and may cause a fire. And if the metal has sharp edges or points, charges may accumulate on those sharp spots and then leap into space as a spark. But because your spoon was thick and had rounded edges, the charges that flowed through it during cooking didn't have any bad effects on the spoon: no heating and no sparks.
As far as the food is concerned, the presence of the spoon redirected the microwaves somewhat, but probably without causing any noticeable changes in how the food cooked. There is certainly no residual radiation of any sort and the food is no more likely to cause cancer after being cooked with metal around than had there been no spoon with it. In general, leaving a spoon in a cup of coffee or bowl of oatmeal isn't going to cause any trouble at all. I do it all the time. In fact, having a metal spoon in the liquid may reduce the likelihood of superheating the liquid, a dangerous phenomenon that occurs frequently in microwave cooking. Superheated liquids boil violently when you disturb them and can cause serious injuries as a result.

[stiltman]

I can put metal in my microwave. Hell the thing has a metal rack in it to begen with. Bad part is, the waves don't go through metal, so where ever there is metal what you're warming will be cold

[Goober57]

A few years ago I put a ceramic dish in the microwave.
When I turned it on a spark flashed from the dish to
the door. The oven was ruined.

What I didn't realize was that the dish had a gold trim
ring on it! End of oven.

Side note............Many many years ago I worked in a
factory. At lunchtime a guy put his TV dinner in the
microwave. He set the timer for 30 minutes!!! Also,
the dinner was in aluminum. At that time, metal was
prohibited in microwaves. We stopped him before he
turned it on!

_____________

[Dr. DOS]

Our Microwave comes with metal racks and a metal food 'probe'

[Capmaster]

I've occasionally put one of the gold leaf plates at home in there, but usually catch myself before I turn it on. Once I didn't, but luckily I was only warming a roll and it was only on 10 seconds or so. The gold leaf got pretty warm My coffee cup at work has gold leaf too and I have to watch that I don't microwave it or it'll start sparking.

Using a thicker metal object won't hurt a microwave because it's absorbing the RF energy, quite efficiently. It's when you run it with nothing in it that you roll the dice

A work acquaintance tested his microwave's output power by putting a bar of pure copper in it, of precise dimensions, measuring the temp, then microwaving it for a short time. Then he measured the temp again and calculated the output power of the power oscillator (the device that generates the microwaves). It was dead nuts on according to the oven's spec

[hech54]

Aluminum Foil (Wrap) in a loose ball makes for some nice fireworks....but other than that....I've never experimented until now.

Goober...supposedly if the paint on the inside of the microwave is missing due to an accident...the microwave is still useable.

[BJ_M]

good explanation hech ...

dont forget microwave popcorn bags and some microwave dishs and some microwave bags which have a thin layer of foil in them

[Goober57]

Goober...supposedly if the paint on the inside of the microwave is missing due to an accident...the microwave is still useable.

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

Didn't want to take any chances using it so
I tossed it out. It was an older model.

Learned a good lesson though! 8)

_______________________

[Capmaster]

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

That's the RF shield and the grid size is sized for the RF frequency.

Good thing you tossed it, else you'd be microwaving everything in the vicinity every time you used it

[Goober57]

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

That's the RF shield and the grid size is sized for the RF frequency.

Good thing you tossed it, else you'd be microwaving everything in the vicinity every time you used it

The new microwave oven must be missing that piece.

I have a microwave receiver on the roof for our security cameras.
When I use the oven the video picture is blanked out.
The receiver and oven are far apart.

Wonder it my brain is being scrambled too.

I never liked those ovens. Uneven cooking.

_____________

[Capmaster]

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

That's the RF shield and the grid size is sized for the RF frequency.

Good thing you tossed it, else you'd be microwaving everything in the vicinity every time you used it

The new microwave oven must be missing that piece.

I have a microwave receiver on the roof for our security cameras.
When I use the oven the video picture is blanked out.
The receiver and oven are far apart.

Wonder it my brain is being scrambled too.

I never liked those ovens. Uneven cooking.

_____________

Did you buy it new? Are you sure it doesn't have some conductive pattern sandwiched in the glass, like the old school windows with the chicken-wire in them?

We had an old vintage 1982 Tappan that would cause certain satellite channels to go berserk and break up when it was running. It turned out it was right on the inside of the exterior wall the satellite dish was, and it was in a side lobe of the dish's pattern.

I was still concerned, so I borrowed an RF sniffer from work, which I've used to check the safety of microwave telemetry systems we have used, and the range goes all the way down into the microwatts per square centimeter ....orders of magnitude lower than the highest allowable level, which is many tens of milliwatts/cm^2 IMSC. Well, the leakage from the microwave oven was so low, all the way around the unit, that it didn't even register on the lowest scale of the sniffer. 8)

Satellite gear is SO sensitive that it can be scrambled by many near-frequency sources of even the lowest power. It doesn't necessarily mean you're turning your eyeball lenses opaque every time you heat up some tea

[Goober57]

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

That's the RF shield and the grid size is sized for the RF frequency.

Good thing you tossed it, else you'd be microwaving everything in the vicinity every time you used it

The new microwave oven must be missing that piece.

I have a microwave receiver on the roof for our security cameras.
When I use the oven the video picture is blanked out.
The receiver and oven are far apart.

Wonder it my brain is being scrambled too.

I never liked those ovens. Uneven cooking.

_____________

Did you buy it new? Are you sure it doesn't have some conductive pattern sandwiched in the glass, like the old school windows with the chicken-wire in them?

We had an old vintage 1982 Tappan that would cause certain satellite channels to go berserk and break up when it was running. It turned out it was right on the inside of the exterior wall the satellite dish was, and it was in a side lobe of the dish's pattern.

It has the small grid pattern.

The receiver outside is for our cameras. It operates on 2.4ghz.
I believe the oven might operate on the same frequency.

Probably not a problem, unless a thief is breaking in
while I'm heating my soup!

I apologize to hech54 for straying off his topic! :P

___________

[Capmaster]

No, zapped a hole through the perforated grid that
was on the inside of the door.

That's the RF shield and the grid size is sized for the RF frequency.

Good thing you tossed it, else you'd be microwaving everything in the vicinity every time you used it

The new microwave oven must be missing that piece.

I have a microwave receiver on the roof for our security cameras.
When I use the oven the video picture is blanked out.
The receiver and oven are far apart.

Wonder it my brain is being scrambled too.

I never liked those ovens. Uneven cooking.

_____________

Did you buy it new? Are you sure it doesn't have some conductive pattern sandwiched in the glass, like the old school windows with the chicken-wire in them?

We had an old vintage 1982 Tappan that would cause certain satellite channels to go berserk and break up when it was running. It turned out it was right on the inside of the exterior wall the satellite dish was, and it was in a side lobe of the dish's pattern.

It has the small grid pattern.

The receiver outside is for our cameras. It operates on 2.4ghz.
I believe the oven might operate on the same frequency.

Probably not a problem, unless a thief is breaking in
while I'm heating my soup!

I apologize to hech54 for straying off his topic! :P

___________

Yes, that's close to one of the common frequencies. It's also close to DirecTV/Hughes frequencies for some channels.

So you're saying the glass does have a grid pattern in the glass? If so, it sounds like it's OK.

Sorry hech ...I'm guilty of threadjacking too (<prepares a "Get out of yellow card free" card for hech's future use>)

[yoda313]

Hello,

I'm guilty of threadjacking too (<prepares a "Get out of yellow card free" card for hech's future use>)

WHAT????

A free shot at posting warez or politics just for you doing what you ALWAYS do (hijack threads)?????

Boy I want one of those freebies....

Kevin