Small microwave

Gdetrailer wrote:
Iwave cube microwave is 600W magnetron output, however, it is no longer in production..

You can search for it if you like..

The only other possible way is to get a Panasonic INVERTER microwave.

They operate a bit different from standard microwaves.

Standard microwave ovens use a big heavy 60hz step up transformer to feed the magnetron. This setup has no way to control the output wattage of the magnetron.

Instead wht is done for "lower power settings" is the magnetron is turned on at full power then cycled off for a percentage of time. The result is averaging the heat level by changing the on vs off time.

Panasonic Inverter microwaves use an inverter to step up the voltages to run the magnetron. The oven can REDUCE the output power of the magnetron by reducing the voltage to the magnetron.

Somewhere (and I can't find the post now) I had run across some posts on a different forum discussing this and they had a chart with the power levels vs the input wattage consumed.

If I remember correctly, the 40% setting of a 950W Panasonic inverter microwave should get you down to a level that your 1000W gen might handle.

The downside of this is it WILL take forever to warm/heat/cook..

For instance, a 1200W output microwave will take about 1 minute to heat a cup of water to boiling..

950W micro would take 24% longer..

950W micro at 40% power is like a 380W micro taking 60% longer to warm/heat/cook

With 380W, you may as well use OTHER means to warm/heat/cook food that are much faster at less cost..

Those inverter micros do not come cheap.

I have the small panasonic inverter, 0.8 cu ft true inverter. love it. I will disagree with the heating time and cost.

even at 50% power it does NOT take twice as long to heat, maybe 25% longer to heat water. The main reason is that a lot of microwave energy is reflected back and as long as what you are trying to heat is not large, say a cup or two of water, it will heat reasonably fast event at lower power. Now if you fill the entire cavity with a large bucket of water or veggies, yes it may take twice as long. A big mug of water takes about 2 minutes to bring to boiling for DW's tea if the teapot isn't handy, and reheats a mug of tea in less than a minute. Frozen veggies a few minutes, shake and add butter, and another minute or so and they are ready.

and the panasonic 0.8 cu/ft is a little over $100 delivered on amazon. I'd say pretty cheap.

your correct on the 40% for a 1000VA generator. I have a complete chart on mine of VA vs power level. 50% power is around 800VA, and I routinely run it at that level from my 1000VA sine wave inverter without any issues.

Iwave cube microwave is 600W magnetron output, however, it is no longer in production..

You can search for it if you like..

The only other possible way is to get a Panasonic INVERTER microwave.

They operate a bit different from standard microwaves.

Standard microwave ovens use a big heavy 60hz step up transformer to feed the magnetron. This setup has no way to control the output wattage of the magnetron.

Instead wht is done for "lower power settings" is the magnetron is turned on at full power then cycled off for a percentage of time. The result is averaging the heat level by changing the on vs off time.

Panasonic Inverter microwaves use an inverter to step up the voltages to run the magnetron. The oven can REDUCE the output power of the magnetron by reducing the voltage to the magnetron.

Somewhere (and I can't find the post now) I had run across some posts on a different forum discussing this and they had a chart with the power levels vs the input wattage consumed.

If I remember correctly, the 40% setting of a 950W Panasonic inverter microwave should get you down to a level that your 1000W gen might handle.

The downside of this is it WILL take forever to warm/heat/cook..

For instance, a 1200W output microwave will take about 1 minute to heat a cup of water to boiling..

950W micro would take 24% longer..

950W micro at 40% power is like a 380W micro taking 60% longer to warm/heat/cook

With 380W, you may as well use OTHER means to warm/heat/cook food that are much faster at less cost..

Those inverter micros do not come cheap.

frecku wrote:
Thanks for all the great responses.

Unfortunately the Samsung mw620wa model is no longer available, parts only.

Do you have a model number for either of your Panasonic Inverter microwaves ? My initial search found the smallest one to be 1.2cu ft which would correspond to 1200 Watts. That is probably not it.

Other option is to go with a good inverter but the distance from the battery bank to the converter would necessitate access through the floor and a 4/0 cable to minimize voltage drop. Not my first choice.

Mine is the 0.8 cuft, 950W model. it fit in place of the exisiting microwave in the trailer.

I ordered it from Amazon, since most stores didn't carry the small one.

here is a link to the one I bought

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00785MVRA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The 950W is the output power of the magenetron, actual VA consumption is around 1200VA at 100% power IIRC. When I got ours I hooked it up to my kilowatt meter and measured the VA consumption from 10% to 100% power to determine (a) actual VA draw at 100% and (b) VA draw at various power levels to determine the max power setting I could use with my 1000VA sine wave inverter.

50% power level works very nicely with my 1000VA sine wave inverter.

One thing to keep in mind. Virtually ALL appliances you buy will in almost all condition never draw the nameplate power, but something less. The reason is that for U.L. testing the mfg must state the absolute max power draw under worst case condtions. Designed products that needed to meet U.L. when working and one thing a mfg never wants to do is UNDERSTATE the max draw. So typical operating condition with a line voltage near nominal will normally be less than worst case draw.

Thanks for all the great responses.

Unfortunately the Samsung mw620wa model is no longer available, parts only.

Do you have a model number for either of your Panasonic Inverter microwaves ? My initial search found the smallest one to be 1.2cu ft which would correspond to 1200 Watts. That is probably not it.

Other option is to go with a good inverter but the distance from the battery bank to the converter would necessitate access through the floor and a 4/0 cable to minimize voltage drop. Not my first choice.

time2roll wrote:
Panasonic makes a full size "inverter" microwave that actually reduces power consumption at the selected lower power options. I think it goes down to 600 watts input before it cycles the magnetron for even lower settings. Most microwaves just draw full power and cycle the magnetron at the "lower" power levels.

When you have utility power you can run at the high power levels.

we have a panasonic true inverter. excellent solution. and actually I did some power monitoring and it never cycles the inverter, even at 10% power. Our unit will draw just over 800VA at 50% power, so for the OP it should work just fine with the honda 1000 as long as you set the power level to something around 50% when running off the Generator. And at 50% power, it takes about 3/4 the time full power does to do things like heat water, cook some frozen veggies, etc.

So, if you get one, put a big mug of water in the unit, fire up the generator and see what power level you can run before turning on the overload light on the generator. I'm guessing something around 50-60% assuming you have everything else turned off.

We run it quite often when dry camping off our 1000W sine wave inverter.

Another vote for the Panasonic.

I’ve got a GE microwave in my camper that is one of the lowest lowest wattage units made. If I remember right the mag is rated at 600 watts. The total watts was about 950, and my Yamaha 1000 could actually power it at low elevations if it wasn’t too hot. To help it out I installed a 1500 watt inverter, and now I can run the microwave anywhere for as long as needed while the Yamaha is running. The camper battery supplies about half the wattage and the generator supplies the rest.

:):)

Based on your experience, it sounds like the microwave ovens are about 50% efficient or so.

Therefore if your generator is rated at 900 watts continuous, you need a 450 to 500 cooking wattage microwave.

Interesting information.

Safe travels.

Panasonic makes a full size "inverter" microwave that actually reduces power consumption at the selected lower power options. I think it goes down to 600 watts input before it cycles the magnetron for even lower settings. Most microwaves just draw full power and cycle the magnetron at the "lower" power levels.

When you have utility power you can run at the high power levels.

i run a 600watt output samsung mw620wa only has 2 knobs no digital display off of my honda 1000. you need the lowest power microwave you can find. this one might work Westinghouse Microwave