Thursday, April 14, 2011

An Older and Trustier Microwave Oven


About five years ago, I won a $50.00 gift certificate from work for Home Depot and it gave me the opportunity to finally replace my 1981 vintage Sanyo microwave oven which power was probably only 600 watts and had a 15 minute dial timer. I chose a larger sized and more powerful Magic Chef oven with programmable buttons and such. It worked very well for awhile but in the past year, it has been heating unevenly so much so that a couple of my melamine plates broke. This normally should not happen. First, if this story sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because I had blogged about replacing my old 1981 toaster last year but unfortunately I couldn’t find the link. After the second plate broke last week and didn’t even heat the chicken on it, I was desperate and hungry. Fortunately I didn’t dispose of the old Sanyo which I kept in storage in my garage. I brought it back in the kitchen, cleaned it up a little bit then resumed heating my dinner. Other than taking a couple more minutes to heat the food due to the lesser wattage, the oven worked just fine. Would you believe that the smaller Sanyo weighed heavier than the bigger Magic Chef? Could it be that the components of the older machine were heavier because they were more durable and built to last longer? This may be a case of newer not being necessarily better even if it came with fancy electronic buttons. If not for the gift certificate, I probably wouldn’t even have bought the Magic Chef oven. Now that oven is gone and relegated to what it was: a piece of garbage. The Sanyo has returned to its usual spot in the kitchen. So if any of you have a bigger though old microwave oven that still works that you don’t use anymore, please consider giving it to me instead of throwing it away. That way, we can freecycle.
Let me add this: the old Sanyo still has an old fashion ding when the timer finishes instead of the beep beep beep of new microwaves. It probably has a real bell inside it and not an electronic one. Forget about preprogrammed and programmable buttons, the Sanyo only had two settings: Cook and Defrost. My only minor problem with it is that my tall 16 oz. travel mug doesn’t fit inside when I have to heat water for instant coffee. Here is my solution:
The short and fat behemoth of a mug has a capacity of 20 oz. and much cheaper than buying a new microwave oven. Believe me, this picture doesn't do it justice because it looks more like a soup bowl with a handle and lid.
So other than the smaller size of this trusty old oven, it works like a charm. They sure don’t make them like they used to.

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3 comments:

warmislandsun said...

I purchased a small Sanyo microwave at St Vincent de Paul about 12 years ago. Mine seems to be of the 1980's, too - it still has the dial and the bell. Mine is not as fancy as yours. It only cooks - no defrost. I love my microwave. I paid $5 for it. Best investment ever. This is my favorite way to be "green".

Noel DLP said...

Thanks for that tip. I should look for working appliances in a thrift shop next time I need one.

Viraj said...

Good work. thank you for such kind of great information. For More

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