Having a little debate with my Mom about microwave turntables
 

I took the turntable out of my microwave because I kept bumping it which knocked it off it track, and it was hard for me to get it back on track. I simply put my hard plastic bowls and plates on the center of the track, and it rotates my food. I think it works just as well, and I don't worry about bumping stuff.

She says microwave manufactures put the turntable in there for a reason, yet she cannot give me a reason.

So, besides catching a few messes, which isn't that biga deal with me anyway, is there any other logical reason to use the turntable?

I believe its there for convenience and evenly cooking food. Also good when you have more than two things in there at once (not that frequent), but it would take an engineer ... properly designed.... Hence - I'm not interested in getting into a debate on it. Sorry.

Neither of those is a problem for me.

1. I don't cook, I heat.
2. Mine has a triangle track with a sufficently sized center circle. I place my stuff on the center, and it rotates,heating evenly.

N other words, an attached and secured turntable.

Understood. I'm not asking to start a debate.

In addition to the reasons given (easier to clean, giving more platform space), the food gets raised a bit higher. Depending on the make of the microwave, there might be a slight advantage there, but not a particularly strong one, I wouldn't think.

Early microwaves didn't heat so evenly, to the point where food prep directions suggested they give their food a quarter turn halfway through cooking it.

Most frozen food doesn't heat evenly anyway -- where it thaws first cooks faster, because water heats faster than ice in a microwave. Thus people came to believe that all microwaves heated unevenly, and all would benefit from turntable.

Correctly designed non-M.B.A.-driven microwaves can cook without the turntable. Utterly cheap ones, though, may cook better by moving the food during cooking. What is really needed, though, is some sort of orbital thing like the sanders and waxers. I've cooked foods on a turntable where the food was heated in a circular pattern. An orbital pattern would solve that. Innovators and patriots take note.

A bit of movement can help prevent boiling-water-explosions as well.

Also, if you insist on using MBA style microwaves use a GFCI outlet in a lead lined concrete home.

besides helping the food to cook evenly, as has been mentioned (helped along with stirring or rearranging the contents, if necessary, midway); it's easier to keep the oven clean.

Are you cleaning the oven?

Stop bumping the turntable, use the turntable tray thingy, and make your mom happy by stopping arguing about it.

As I keep saying, my food rotates fine on the track alone.

H E L L O??? Unsteady hands...DUH. :rolleyes:

And make sure the power lines going to your house are buried, it is the only patriotic way to install utilities.

Forget all 'at noise!

Look, just tell me where I can find one with an attached turntable.

just do your best. I don't think you'll find an attached one, because it would be too hard to clean.

Yeah, I was responding to UT, who was talking about the need for rotating at all.

Putting a plate or bowl slightly off center on a turntable will in theory heat it more evenly than if you center it perfectly on the turntable. Every microwave has "hot spots" depending on how the microwaves bounce around withing the reflective walls of the oven. The waves are emitted from one source and create a pattern the way they bounce off the walls. Sometimes they are in phase and create a hot spot, sometimes they are out of phase and kind of cancel each other out. The very middle of a microwave may be a hot spot or a cool spot. Probably varies by oven.

I've seen physics experiments done in microwave ovens without turntables where a glass casserole dish is packed tight with marshmallows and the marshmallows are cooked under close observation. As soon as they start to melt, the oven is turned off. You can clearly see where the hot spots are because the surface of the marshmallows is melted in those spots and nowhere else, and you can even measure the wavelength of your oven by measuring the distance between those spots.

Having said this, there's probably no noticeable difference centering your food rather than putting it slightly to the side on the turntable.

Boiling water won't explode. Water that has had all the oxygen, which allows it to make bubbles (boil), usually by heating, forgetting and reheating, can be superheated. That's the stuff that can erupt when you add something, stick a spoon in it, or sometimes just moving it. Superheated water, is more like hot oil... very dangerous.

First, sorry for the sarcasm. Second, what about a replacement turntable for mine? It's a GE; part #: 3850W3W081A. I can't find one.

Did you throw the turntable away? could you have it adapted so it's easier to put back on the track?

I imagine your mum's worried about you consuming too many microwaves if your food has hotspots, or some such. I remember when microwave ovens came out in the UK, people were convinced that if the food wasn't properly rotated, the radiation would kill them. She would be of the right age to remember all of those scares, and such things can stay at the back of your mind like superstitions.

She loves you, she's just trying to look out for you.

A quick google shows that you can get turntable-free designs, but they are expensive and the consumer guides seem suspicious of the design -it's done to increase capacity.

http://products.howstuffworks.com/sh...ven-review.htm

Which would imply that turntables are probably needed to heat the food properly in the cheaper models.

That said, I can't see that what you are doing is dangerous, so if you're happy with the quality of the heating of the food, there shouldn't be a problem.

Yep.

Never thought about it.

Not really. Most things I heat up are only for 2 minutes. Never had a problem without the turntable. The center of the triangular in mine is circular, so it's kinda like a turntable. If I had a digital camera, I'd take a picture, and show yous guys.

Total bullshit. I feel fine.

I try to keep her updated. She's "with it." :D

I know.

I know it's BS, you know it's BS, she knows it's BS, but somewhere hidden at the back of her mind there may be a teeny tiny nagging whatifitsreallytruethatyoucandiefromeatingtoomanymicrowaves nugget of superstition.

That's just one of the mom superpowers.

.

I dunno. Maybe, but I ain't askin'. :D

I've always scrambled eggs in the microwave using the turntable (full, half and then at the very end quarter turns). It gives me an easy indication of when to stop and stir. But saying that, I've cooked plenty of food when the turntable has been off whack (ie not turning) and not noticed any difference.

I'd say if you're not using it with any real precision (just heating up) it makes no difference.