That sounds bad

[leapinlew]

Unless I'm mistaken, cellphones use microwave radios to communicate, and the level of microwave radiation coming from a cellphone is significantly stronger than what you would get by measuring the levels outside a microwave oven, so it's probably neither here nor there unless you've already given up the cellphone, which, I might add, you actually hold against your head for long periods of time.

Or maybe I'm just wrong about that.

Still, do your taste buds a favor and ditch the microwave.

what?

I'd gladly give a few years off my life to save the decade it would take to warm up food.

[boykster]

I'd rather wait a bit and enjoy my food because it tastes good.  I have to admit with Shmokes on this one, I'm not a big fan of food heated in a microwave.  I use ours to thaw frozen foods (veggie burgers for the wife) and heat water for tea.  Other than that, I'd much rather use a pot on a stove to heat soup, and the oven for other stuff.  I do miss having a toaster oven, great for quick reheats...

[ChadTower]

Or maybe I'm just wrong about that.

I don't carry a cell phone.     I think I might be one of the only people in the US left under age 70 and over 10 who can say that.

[shmokes]

I use ours to . . . heat water for tea. 

I'm convinced that tea tastes better when heated on the stove or, if you have one of those water coolers that hold the 5 gal. jugs that also has a hot tap (which is actually much faster and more convenient than even a microwave).

I don't know if the microwave does nutty things to the minerals in the water, or if it's just that it's so easy to superheat water in a microwave (not boiling, but well past boiling temperatures) and it scalds the tea.  At any rate, I used to use the microwave for tea, but now I always use a teapot or the hot water tap on my water cooler and it tastes better, psychologically at the least.

AS for the toaster oven, I can't live without it.  We had one break and it was replaced within two days.  Our toaster oven gets used on average at least once or twice per day, I'd guess.

[shmokes]

what?

I'd gladly give a few years off my life to save the decade it would take to warm up food.

This is nonsense.  You're so used to using the microwave for these types of things that you have exaggerated in your head how long it takes on a stove-top or in an oven.  Throw a can of Campbell's soup on the stove and heat it.  Time this.  It takes a few minutes tops.  Now do the same thing in the microwave.  It also takes a few minutes.  The microwave will win, but seriously not by very much.

[Dervacumen]

Both RF and Microwave.  Check this out: Microwave Cell Phone[\url].

[ChadTower]

I don't know if the microwave does nutty things to the minerals in the water, or if it's just that it's so easy to superheat water in a microwave (not boiling, but well past boiling temperatures) and it scalds the tea. 

This is nonsense.  You're so convinced the microwave is bad you have exaggerated in your head the effect it can have on the heated item.


EDIT:

To try this out, I taped a 1.5" square and .25" thick piece of cheese to the microwave door.  I put a mug of water in the microwave and ran it for 60 seconds on high.  The cheese was straight out of the fridge.  After 60 seconds it was still cool but warmed more than it would have been in 60 seconds on the counter.  Not much more, but it was probably warmed by the microwave a tiny bit.  My microwave is small and not very powerful, an older economy model.

[boykster]

didn't your microwave die?  How did you test this out?

 

[ChadTower]

The dead one is in the shed, I got a small old one off Freecycle a couple weeks ago. 

[shmokes]

Wanna have fun with a Microwave?  Put a lightbulb in a mug of water so that the metal part is submerged, but the rest is sticking out the top.  Put it in the microwave (why the ---fudgesicle--- do I automatically want to capitalize the first letter of microwave all the time?) for ten seconds.  It will turn on.  I ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- you not.  The microwave oven will be fine; don't worry.  But the lightbulb will turn on when you run the microwave.  It's awesome.

[shmokes]

To try this out, I taped a 1.5" square and .25" thick piece of cheese to the microwave door.  I put a mug of water in the microwave and ran it for 60 seconds on high.  The cheese was straight out of the fridge.  After 60 seconds it was still cool but warmed more than it would have been in 60 seconds on the counter.  Not much more, but it was probably warmed by the microwave a tiny bit.  My microwave is small and not very powerful, an older economy model.

It sounds like you're testing the hot dog thing and not the superheated water thing. 

As far as the tea tasting better, I fully acknowledge that that could be in my head.  But the superheated water thing is definitely not.  People actually get injured by this fairly frequently.  A microwave oven often heats water well past boiling temperatures without actually boiling it.  Then, when the water is disturbed, such as after it's been taken out of the microwave and is being held right under someone's face, it will basically explode because it is so hot that when it is disrupted enough to start boiling it ---smurfing--- goes to town.

[danny_galaga]

Cell phones work on RF, not microwave.

its all electromagnetic energy. from wikipedia:

Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and nation to nation. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic microwaves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole, or building.

just different lengths in the spectrum. infrared is at the low end for instance, you have light, ultravoilet, radio etc...

[ChadTower]

It sounds like you're testing the hot dog thing and not the superheated water thing. 

I didn't say anything about testing superheated water.

[shmokes]

Well, you quoted my bit about superheated water and then started describing your experiment with the words, "To try this out . . .," so it seemed like that's what you were referring to.

[billf]

We were just in Boston for the Boston Marathon - my wife ran it.  Before leaving town the next day we stopped in a Dunkin' Donuts.  I had a cup of the hottest coffee on the planet.  No microwave used - it came right out of the pot on their hot plates used to keep the coffee hot.  I put a lid on it and it stayed hot for a very looong time.  I think this coffee was just a degree from the boiling point.  So you can get water/coffee superheated without using a microwave.

[ChadTower]

Well, you quoted my bit about superheated water and then started describing your experiment with the words, "To try this out . . .," so it seemed like that's what you were referring to.

Ah, yes, good point.  That was an edit that got thrown in at the end of the thread.

Dunkin Donuts is known for giving superhot coffee.  There is a Dunkin Donuts about every thousand yards here. 

[billf]

There is a Dunkin Donuts about every thousand yards here. 

Yeah, I did notice that

[ChadTower]

And they're constantly building new ones.  I live in a town of 8000.  There are four Dunkin Donuts.  There is also a Honeydew Donuts. 

[billf]

And they're constantly building new ones. 

Not sure if this is the case in the east, but in the midwest it seems Walgreens are constantly popping up.

[ChadTower]

Boo Walgreens.  Go CVS.

[Chris G]

I've been wondering where all the donut shops went to - now I know.  Seems like Safeway is the only place to get a donut around here these days...

[Harry Potter]

Cell phones work on RF, not microwave.

its all electromagnetic energy. from wikipedia:

Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and nation to nation. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic microwaves with a cell site base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole, or building.

just different lengths in the spectrum. infrared is at the low end for instance, you have light, ultravoilet, radio etc...

OH shut up Mr know-it-all.

 

[DrewKaree]

As far as the tea tasting better, I fully acknowledge that that could be in my head.  But the superheated water thing is definitely not.  People actually get injured by this fairly frequently.  A microwave oven often heats water well past boiling temperatures without actually boiling it.  Then, when the water is disturbed, such as after it's been taken out of the microwave and is being held right under someone's face, it will basically explode because it is so hot that when it is disrupted enough to start boiling it ---smurfing--- goes to town.

http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp

Define "fairly frequently". 

Picking the cup up is stated to be enough to cause this rare phenomenon in testing, so the odds that someone is steady-handed enough to pull it out of the mic and bring it to a place under their face is sketchy at best, and unless it's happened to you, the "explosion" could simply be enough to raise the water up and out of the container it's in and not the "cover the walls" type of explosion implied.

Save your face from asploding water and throw a stir stick in whenever you heat water in the mic.  Problem solved  

[ChadTower]

I've had superheated liquids from a microwave pop on my wrist a few times.  As it's boiling, it generates bubbles, yes?  Well, when you pull it out without giving it a chance to stabilize (now that the heating energy is removed), it shifts the liquid, causing any major air bubbles in the liquid to suddenly jump to the surface.

I haven't had it happen with just water but I've had things with sauce pop a sudden splash on my wrist.  Hurts like a ---smurfette---.  It's not hard to prevent with only a little care but it's one of those things that you have to actually see happen before you know it might.

[Grasshopper]

It's a genuine phenomenon and it's happened to me several times. For example, if you add sugar to coffee (and presumably any other beverage) that's been superheated in a microwave, the coffee will suddenly boil over in an explosive way. It's actually quite dangerous.

[grantspain]

just a bit a stupid info(probably everyone knows anyway) if you get some 12volt wedge bulbs sit them on some paper and put them in a microwave you get a pretty light show

[shmokes]

Drew, your rolling eyes guy suggests that you actually take offense to my talk about superheating water, which I find comical. 

While the Snopes page does classify superheated water in a microwave as "true, but rare"  and goes on to say that you will probably go your whole life without seeing it, it backs up this assertion with a bunch of quotes from the FDA and scientists that say nothing about it being rare and, in fact, are cautioning people about the existence of the phenomenon and precautions that should be taken to avoid injury.  And while Snopes calls it "true, but rare", hoax-slayer, urbanlegends.about.com and howstuffworks just call it "true".

Superheated water is not rare at all.  I see it on nearly a daily basis.  I heat water up in the microwave which I then drop a bag of frozen breast milk in.  As it happens, I always use a Pyrex measuring cup.  I didn't know until I read the Snopes site that glass was the most likely surface to cause the phenomenon, but there it is.  Anyway, I heat I'd say about 1 1/2 cups of water for three minutes.  About 5% of the time it is boiling when the three minutes is up.  Usually it is not.  It has NEVER started boiling when I picked it up and removed it from the microwave.  The moment I drop the block of breast milk in, though, it starts boiling very rapidly, though only for a few seconds, which is understandable considering the block of ice I just dropped in it reduces the temperature of the water in short order.

Got any Pyrex in the house (if not, you should; best measuring cups on the planet).  If so, I guarantee that you can reproduce the phenomenon yourself with very little trouble.  Like I say, I see this almost every single day.

In short, 

[ChadTower]

Should you be dropping the milk into water THAT hot?  I'd be concerned about scorching the milk.  It clearly wasn't designed to come into a 100c degree environment.

[Buddabing]

I think the superheating water has to do with not having any sites on the glass that bubbles form on.

Shmokes should try a different vessel to heat his water in.

Also, I'm curious whether his microwave is one that has a rotating tray inside.

[shmokes]

It does have a rotating tray.  I don't think I'm scorching the milk, probably because it is so cold.  At any rate, if I am, Maddy must like scorched milk.  I think that I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, though, cos I've got it down to a science as far as heating the water exactly hot enough that it worms a 4 oz. block of milk up to the proper temperature, even if I forget about it for a couple extra minutes.  Sucks to take frozen milk and heat it up too hot, so you just have to put it back in the freezer for a few minutes, all the while the baby is crying for food.  Likewise, it sucks to drop the water in and walk away to keep the baby happy only to come back a few minutes later to find that the water is room temperature and the milk still has a little ice cube in it.  In this case, the microwave's ability to superheat water is actually pretty handy.

[shmokes]

It clearly wasn't designed to come into a 100c degree environment.

I bet god is reading this thread right now, thinking to herself, "WTF?  I specifically put brief contact with a 100c degree environment into the breastmilk spec.  Someone's getting fired over this."

[ChadTower]

I bet it's harsh when God fires someone.

[billf]

I bet it's harsh when God fires someone.

Yeah, probably more harsh than what microwaves do to water!

[shmokes]

Superheated blood.

[shardian]

Since we are on the superheated subject, just wanted to throw out there that decaf coffee is made by superheating coffee. I'm not sure what else they do, but the superheating allows it. At superheated temps, fluids tend to do weird things.

[RayB]

[shmokes]

Great video.  Just so y'all don't think I'm mad, I am not heating my water that hot to warm up breastmilk.  It just starts boiling a bit.  Rapidly, but nothing explosive.   

[ChadTower]

There isn't much more to heat than boiling, bro.  A couple degrees more and it's not water anymore.   

[shmokes]

Actually, yes there is.  That's what superheating does.  Under normal conditions the water will turn to steam at the boiling point, but without imperfections or particles to encourage the first bubble the water will continue to increase in temperature without boiling.  I imagine, but don't really know too much about it, that to get really really hot you have to have controlled conditions.  I don't know how hot a microwave can get tap water in a glass container (I'd think distilled water could get MUCH hotter).  But I do know that my water never boils like the stuff in the video when I drop in the breast milk.

[ChadTower]

Water has to be under some sort of pressure in order to stay liquid at a temp much higher than 100c.  Pressure keeps the molecules packed even though they are trying to space out and convert to gas.  I am not all that convinced the water is superheated nearly as much as it is simply not expelling the potential energy in the bottom of the container.  Given more time, it would do that without trouble, so maybe it's just that the water in a microwave gets raised to 100c so fast that it doesn't have a chance to expel the gas being formed in millions of molecular sized spots.  Then, when you shake the container, or add something to it, poof the gas molecules start to meet and shoot upwards as heat does.

It has to conform to basic physics, which is to say in order to heat a liquid above its boiling temperature you have to apply pressure in order to keep it from becoming gas.