The follow-up

The poofy hair is SUPER on-brand with "No Effort November"

Dangit, now I have that little microwave diddy stuck in my head. Thanks a lot Alec!

Jurassic_Jacob

I just went through electronic store e-shop and all models were between 600-800W and no Popcorn button :) It's probably because cooking in MW was never a thing here. Heating up precooked food yes, but actual cooking not much.

After the final close up shot of the screen I can't help seeing the little binder icon as an angry face with a long nose. Until recently we had a 500W microwave from the 80s, it wasn't far away from the 'standard' power for the UK.

Matt Tester

Here in the UK we've got a 2017 Ikea (rebranded Electrolux) microwave combi oven, which is 1000w - much to its detrement. The oven part is a lot better than the microwave part because the magnetron control software is just plain broken. The magnetron pulse-width cycle period is about two minutes, which means even on the lowest power (100w) the magnetron is on for 12 seconds in every 120. This results in the outside of whatever food you're warming getting vaporised, but just below the surface is frozen solid. This is even more ridiculous for short durations because if you put something on at 100w for 15 seconds, rather than the magnetron coming on for 1.5 seconds, it's on for 12 - so it's not 100w at all. This is especially annoying when you're trying to melt butter for example, it literally burns the surface before the magnetron switches off, even on the lowest power modes. And adding to the ridiculousness is the power designation being watts - yes, its 100w over a period of two minutes but it's most definitely not 100w whilst it's vaporising the food! It also has a lot of the auto-cooking functions that your Sharp oven has - though without the cool animations. I never knew it used steam detection however. I'll have to try that out, thanks Alec, I always learn something new with your videos! :D

I'm in Serbia and just looked up several of most popular microwaves in an electronics store. It seems that most are 700-800W, but there are outliers from 1200-1400W. I guess 700 is just good enough for most uses. The Kettle listing has a filter by power option, so here's the number of kettles per W: 800 W: 1 1100 W: 5 1200 W: 1 1300 W: 1 1500 W: 5 1630 W: 3 1800 W: 1 2000 W: 17 2150 W: 6 2200 W: 56 2400 W: 18

TheEdgeOfRage

To add another answer for your microwave power question: In Germany most microwaves seem to be 700-900W and I've also never heard of a popcorn button until I saw your video.

Same in Iceland. Most microwaves are 700-900W. My parents have a 1000W Samsung one, but it's the only one I have seen.

Örn Arnarson

In my experience 800/900 W microwaves are the default here in the UK and a very quick look on Amazon.co.uk backs that up.

popping a slight buzz

Galen Thurber

Brilliant video - thanks! Could the two sensor failures were because it had a cup of water in rather than the expected ingredients? Or is that more sophistication than even this marvel could muster.

yup, I'd add that 1000w have been around a wee while longer than the past "few years" (I bought my old one 20 years ago) but they're weirdly still not standard and most people seem to have 750-800w which possibly explains why so many folk here think microwaves are useless. The idea of 1300w domestic microwaves slightly blew my mind. Though I think our commercial ones are in that range.

In Austria the majority of microwaves especially the cheaper ones are 700W-800W. I've never seen a Popcorn Button IRL.

Magnus Köhler

Wow...looks like you're losing weight like dry ice in the desert! Congrats - but be careful because if you keep going like that the only job you'll be able to get is being an x-ray model. Ever consider doing a video on x-ray tech?

CURTISSCOTT

Our UK Microwaves have typically been 650 to 750 for since the 80s and 90s Then 800w until the past few years where 1000w+ are starting to appear alot more. I have a 1000w but its quite new. But could tell you how popular 1000w+ are though. Also you don't tent to get Popcorn Button or Setting on UK Microwaves. The original Magnetron was i belive to have been a Tube. But the later british version "cavity magnatron" is not a tube. These are what we use in microwave ovans.

Sean Yem

The perfect microwave would include a device to cool down your frozen entrees using cooling fans and heat sinks sourced from spare parts provided by The 8-Bit Guy. I suppose it would only work with entrees on trays...Ba-Dum-Tissss! Oh, and the thumbnail is definitely high art.

Mark Hesse

Hopefully, YouTube will stay up for the next 35 minutes so I can watch the whole video. ;)

Michael Dunn

There are several videos on YouTube to control a microwave with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino (Look for things like "Raspberry Pi Microwave"). Most of the ones I've seen still use 7 segment LEDs, but add a web server. One of the guys started a recipe database. You can take the ideas and controlling code, and add your own screen (maybe touch screen?) to get to the functionality of 1996!

Mike Bird

I think the power draw of the magnetron would be the same, just the amperage would be halved going from 120V AC to 240V AC.

Linh Pham

Wouldn't the same magnetron at 240 volts show 1/2 the power from 120? So a 1kW 120v would be 500W 240v? Or am I messed up on something?

Mike Bird