I have an 800 watt microwave oven, how do I uses it at 600 watts?

Question

Strange question, but I have a small microwave craft kiln which is designed for a 600w microwave.
The instructions say, if using a higher power microwave to turn it down. I need to know which setting to put it on - I have in the following order :
low
defrost
medium low
medium
medium high
high

Does anyone know which setting would be nearest to 600w on an 800w microwave?

I can't contact the company as they are in Japan and I got the kiln second hand. Thanks in advance :-)

Thanks everyone for you answers. Thomas, that would be great if you could work it out for me, but I understand if your too busy :-)

Answer 1

I recommend you start at the medium setting and see if your kiln works properly. I doubt that the settings are evenly distributed between zero and 800 watts.

___ = low
___ = medium-low
___ = medium
___ = medium-high
800 = high

If medium does not get the kiln hot enough, THEN try moving up to the medium-high setting.

If you had a Kill-a-Watt device, you could check your microwave's input to see what the wattage is for each setting.

If time permits, I'll try taking some measurements on my microwave and updating this answer later this weekend.

My microwave is 1200 watts with ten power settings. For every setting, the input wattage is around 1770 watts. Moving to power setting # 5, you could hear the oven cycle the magnetron on and off about every 10 seconds. Ten seconds on, ten seconds off. The average power is then 50% of the rated output.

I thing you're back to trial and error. Put a large bowl of water in the microwave and run it for a couple minutes on each setting. You will hear the unit cycle the magentron. Count the seconds of the on and off cycles. 600 watts is 75% of your microwaves rated output. You're looking for a setting where the "on time" is 75% of "on time + off time".

Example:

On for 10 seconds
Off for 2 seconds

10 ÷ (10 + 2) = 10 ÷ 12 = 83%
83% of 800 = 664 watts

On for 10 seconds
Off for 3 seconds

10 ÷ (10 + 3) = 10 ÷ 13 = 77%
77% of 800 = 616 watts

I think this is as close as you're going to get.

Good luck.

Answer 2

800 Watt Microwave

Answer 3

600 Watt Microwave

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
I have an 800 watt microwave oven, how do I uses it at 600 watts?
Strange question, but I have a small microwave craft kiln which is designed for a 600w microwave.
The instructions say, if using a higher power microwave to turn it down. I need to know which setting to put it on - I have in the following order :
low
defrost
medium low
medium
medium...

Answer 5

There is probably at least a 50% chance that the steps are even. That is low=133W, defrost=267W, med low=400W, med=533W, med high=667W and high=800W.

When you turn down the setting, the oven actually cycles on and off at full power. Medium high might be 5 seconds on, 1 second off. You can see this happen if you measure the oven current with an analog ammeter. You might be able to hear it happen if you listen closely to the hum of the oven.

Answer 6

Cook everthing on HIGH, Just add time , If it says 20secs. then cook for 30secs. Rule of thumb says add 10 seconds for every 100 Watts. Simple Hu! Just don't cook your thumb!