Infrawave Oven

[Slava]

I just picked this up yesterday thinking that it would be a good substitute for a microwave that I wanted to replace anyway. I'm wondering if anyone else here has any light that they could shed on this product? (pun intended!).

I just wonder if anyone else has used one, and what your thoughts are. I was debating returning mine...I haven't used it yet but its not very similar to a microwave to say the least.

[skins]

i know a guy who has something like that on his bbq. doesn't even know how to use it.

[redforever]

http://www.infomercialratings.com/pr...e_oven_reviews

[alltherage]

Where did you get this thing? It sounds pretty cool IMO, Black and Decker make a good product, and the reviews speak for themselves. Easy to use, tough to clean.

Meh, Microwaves and Ovens suck to clean too. Everything you cook with sucks to clean.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by alltherage

Everything you cook with sucks to clean.

actually i think we can make it more basic then that, how about, it sucks to clean. I don't think i've ever enjoyed cleaning something.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by alltherage

Where did you get this thing? It sounds pretty cool IMO, Black and Decker make a good product, and the reviews speak for themselves. Easy to use, tough to clean.

Meh, Microwaves and Ovens suck to clean too. Everything you cook with sucks to clean.

I bought it at Canadian Tire ($150) after hearing about it. I pulled it out and used it tonight. I really like it....its totally silent, which is nice and it cooked dinner in about 7 minutes which is a good perk. If you eat a lot of frozen foods (which I don't) then this thing would be a dream (except that a lot of the packaging can't go in there).

As far as cleaning goes, you're going to be cleaning baked on food. It sucks no matter what the cooker is to me!

[NuclearFart]

I dont know if you want to get rid of the microwave, as I suspect they work differently. The infrared would cook from the outside -> in, while the microwave has the capability to cook from the inside out. I would think that the infrared might dry out alot of [microwave type] foods out externally.
________
GM LT1 ENGINE HISTORY

[Slava]

Originally Posted by NuclearFart

I dont know if you want to get rid of the microwave, as I suspect they work differently. The infrared would cook from the outside -> in, while the microwave has the capability to cook from the inside out. I would think that the infrared might dry out alot of [microwave type] foods out externally.

Does the microwave really do this though? I mean honestly...I've heard this for as long as I can remember, but the outside of edges of things are always much hotter and the interior can be ice. It makes me wonder if its one enormous marketing campaign!?

[alltherage]

Originally Posted by Slava

Does the microwave really do this though? I mean honestly...I've heard this for as long as I can remember, but the outside of edges of things are always much hotter and the interior can be ice. It makes me wonder if its one enormous marketing campaign!?

Not to mention... things are supposed to cook from the outside in. Fire doesn`t cook the inside of a steak first, nor does and oven, a bbq, a microwave... nothing! And why would you want it to?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Slava

Does the microwave really do this though? I mean honestly...I've heard this for as long as I can remember, but the outside of edges of things are always much hotter and the interior can be ice. It makes me wonder if its one enormous marketing campaign!?

Nope.

This is not the case as microwave ovens deposit heat the surface of the food in much the same way as conventional ovens. The difference is that microwaves penetrate the food deeper,which is influenced by the density of the food and depends on the water content of the food. The depth of penetration is also down to the length of the microwave, with shorter microwaves penetrating deeper.

link

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Slava

Does the microwave really do this though? I mean honestly...I've heard this for as long as I can remember, but the outside of edges of things are always much hotter and the interior can be ice. It makes me wonder if its one enormous marketing campaign!?

Microwaves operate at 2.45GHz, where water acts as a near perfect load. Basically when you microwave food, you are heating up the water content which heats up your food. If you cooked something that had no water content, it wouldn't heat up at all.

I think there were questions about proteins mutating from microwaves, I don't know much about it, but I know its a concern.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Nope.

link

hmmm even ignoring poor grammar, I don't see anything scientific/hard fact on that website. From what I remember of chemistry/phyisics 101, a microwave range frequency is specific to the unique hydrogen-oxygen-hydrogen angle found in water causing it to vibrate/oscillate very quickly. This rapid movement of the water molecules causes friction amongst themselves which of course generates heat from within. The depth of heating would of course be dependant upon the microwaves penetrating into the food, but it is quite penetrating relative to the other methods mentioned.

Convection ovens work nothing like this, as they rely on air molecules laden with kinetic energy (aka heat) to transfer energy to adjacent molecules when they touch, your food in this case, and hence outside-in.

Infrared waves transfer energy directly into the first molecules the waves strike, being absorbed in the process by the molecule. This energy is subsequently released as heat to the surrounding molecules, and so on and so on. Outside-in.

The other thing about a microwave is that it is a microwave "field" that is not even. Because of the way the microwaves are generated, there are specific "hot spots" within the 3D volume of your microwave that generate more molecular vibration than other spots. This also contributes to the complaint of uneven heating.
________
Homemade vaporizer

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by NuclearFart

The other thing about a microwave is that it is a microwave "field" that is not even. Because of the way the microwaves are generated, there are specific "hot spots" within the 3D volume of your microwave that generate more molecular vibration than other spots. This also contributes to the complaint of uneven heating.

Yeah, exactly. I'm not so sure about that link. Microwaves in microwave ovens are generated by magnetrons (http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/magnetron.html) which give you a messy freq distribution. Each magnetron producer will give you a different freq spectrum based on how they make their cavity's.

You do get hot spots since you basically have reflective surfaces all around the microwave. Thats why you have that rotating guy in the middle to heat up food.

And yeah, 2.45GHz is the freq of operation for microwaves, where water heats up really fast (think of it as a perfect resistor).

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Microwaves operate at 2.45GHz, where water acts as a near perfect load. Basically when you microwave food, you are heating up the water content which heats up your food. If you cooked something that had no water content, it wouldn't heat up at all.

I think there were questions about proteins mutating from microwaves, I don't know much about it, but I know its a concern.

Depends what you mean by proteins "mutating". If you mean the act of denaturation - whereby a protein molecule permanently unfolds/refolds into different shapes - then you are referring to the act of cooking. Whether its an open flame, microwave, boiling water, or whatever source of heat, you are denaturing protein when you cook it. That's why it permanently changes texture/taste/colour when you cook. You don't even need heat to do this, as acidic/basic chemicals like lemon juice, vinegar or baking soda will do the same.

Are foods cooked by microwaves harmful? No, as it is just cooking your food with an alternate method of heat transferance.
________
ALCOHOL REHAB FORUM

[NuclearFart]

Hey Slava, before you return the microwave, could you test this out for us? Maybe try heating the same type of food in both at equivocal energies/similar positions and see what the heat distribution is like.
________
Alaska Dispensary

[Slava]

I can do that for sure...although the microwave I have is quite old....which is why I want to replace it. I think that I'll be keeping the infrawave though...its pretty slick.