I'm on board whenever it happens!  I'm easily annoyed by burnt popcorn before all kernels have popped, which is how my Panasonic inverter likes to render it -- on the "Popcorn" setting to add insult to injury.

Yes, I own a fabulous space age avocado Penncrest popper and it does a beautiful job, but microwaving is so much faster and provides a disposable container.  Besides, if I'm going to invest that amount of time and trouble, I might as well toast up some blanched almonds.

Great news Phil, Question can we retrofit this to the 1958 Hotpoint Electronic cooking-center at the warehouse ?

Then, great - the power loss to run a magnetron is easily 30-40%.

BUT - we've all seen the super short lifespans of so many appliances. I'd want a SS microwave oven to last longer than the two years max. we have gotten out of the Panasonic Inverters.

Audiophile types often still prefer tubes for audio equipment. And so...I wonder if a solid state microwave will find acceptance in audiophile circles. Or will audiophile types feel magnetron microwaves have warmer, smoother food?

LOL

Although.. more seriously, one tube amp maker has used the example of microwaves to show that tube technology isn't dead. So much for that example. LOL

BUT - we've all seen the super short lifespans of so many appliances. I'd want a SS microwave oven to last longer than the two years max. we have gotten out of the Panasonic Inverters.

Yes, we have seen how long things last. Or don't last.

Being cynical, I personally won't expect a new solid state microwave to last a long time. It might be marketed as potentially longer lasting since there is no longer a magnetron tube, of course, but would companies improve overall quality to match the longer potential life? I doubt it. Not in this era. And being fair to makers of microwaves, there is the problem of getting normal people to pay extra for better build quality. Most people want the cheapest price possible at Walmart or Target. Even I am somewhat like that--although for me it's cynicism that "nothing here will last, so might as well get the cheapest choice!"

One of the greatest advances in computing was the replacement of vacuum tubes with solid-state switching components.

Not only did things speed up, the reliability also went through the roof.

Great!

One of the greatest advances in audio recording came about when sound engineers figured out that those of us with absolute pitch weren't making it up and the manner in which SS clips versus the way tubes clip is relevant to dynamic range...and, in short order SS recordings sounded really good.

I don't quite believe that SS components have indefinite lifespans, there's too much evidence about micro-cracks and silicon atoms wandering, to name but two confirmed limitations.

What excites me about replacing magnetrons - better frequency control (wouldn't be hard), fewer mechanical components, higher efficiency (again, wouldn't be hard).

What worries me: I've had tens of microwaves through the years and never seen a magnetron failure. Every single time one has had to be replaced it was because the SS electronics had failed, usually a logic component. There's no reason to believe the perfectly awful consumer electronics to which we've all become accustomed in household appliances will improve. None.

I look at it this way - once we get past the early 1980s, how often do automotive electronics actually fail? Relatively seldom. Safety related, nearly never. But who amongst us can say the same for electronics in heat, steam, wet, high temperature stress home appliances? 

I look at it this way - once we get past the early 1980s, how often do automotive electronics actually fail? Relatively seldom. Safety related, nearly never. But who amongst us can say the same for electronics in heat, steam, wet, high temperature stress home appliances?

Unfortunately, I think there is more pressure on car companies to engineer the stuff to last better than a microwave. If a car has massive electronics failure at 5 years old, the PR could sink the company. Few people will complacently replace a $20,000+ car that wears out/has really expensive problems prematurely. It's even worse for a car company if it's a safety issue. Even a minor safety issue recall can hit the news heavily.

The problem is...there is no real pressure on appliance makers. If there was some huge safety problem, that might be one thing. But when something wears out earlier than it should, most people just shrug and--at most--say "that's the way things are built these days!" And then they go to Target to buy something of similar quality (or lack of).

Of course there's another aspect to this - since Reagan killed the middle-class rise up the ladder, people not only like having appliances cost the same, year in, year out - they can't afford to pay more for better quality.

since Reagan killed the middle-class rise up the ladder, people not only like having appliances cost the same, year in, year out - they can't afford to pay more for better quality.

Quite true.

I know the quandary of can't afford to pay more. It's something I deal with all the time... Which is one reason I like shopping used--it's a way of getting better quality than I can afford with my new dollar. And when I do buy new, and have to buy cheap, I shudder a bit because I know I'm not able to get something lasting.

I'm probably not alone. I remember my mother's mixer breaking, and we went to the store to replace it. My mother decided on the $13 mixer. Thirteen was a fitting number, not just the price, but also the luck we had in the long run with the mixer. But at the time, it was appealing, because it was the cheapest thing in the store at a time when my mother's finances were not their most robust. My grandmother tried to talk my mother out it, and get something better, but cheapest mixer won the contest that day.

That mixer was not very good. It worked, after a fashion, but it was not as good as the mixer it replaced. And it lasted less than two years before it started acting up. The previous mixer had lasted 20 years, and had been more heavily used during at least half those years than the new mixer.

So...it would have been better to spend more than $13 on a mixer... I think even my mother recognized that at the time (she'd used the "lasts longer" partly to justify buying more expensive coffee makers).

Although...my grandmother became very cost conscious herself, given the realities of retirement income in modern America. Towards the end of her life, she bought a new mixer only barely better than our $13 wonder. It probably wasn't $13, but I'm betting it was one of the cheapest mixers in the store.

I guess I must have gotten a good one built on a Wednesday or something, LOL.

I have a Panasonic 1100 watt inverter microwave oven that was new and came with the house I bought 16 years ago.  I've been really lucky **knock on wood** as it gets used daily and the only thing that's happened is the light bulb inside burned out about a year ago. 

Kevin

That's probably not quite the right word for them, but there are two systems for distributing the radiation more evenly.

You know, while technically correct, 'radiation' just isn't working for me. It always leads to 'ionizing' vs. 'non-ionizing' discussions.

Let's say energy.

Turntables have many advantages - they can result in food being really evenly cooked. They have two disadvantages - the closer you get to center, the less well they work, not working at all in the center. Their second disadvantage is that the are by their very nature limited to a smaller size of container than the cavity can hold.

Wave stirrers, done well, let the entire cavity be used and distribute the energy evenly throughout.

Those ancient Montgomery Ward/JC Penny and Sears ovens had wave stirrers and cooked really evenly. I remember them.

I don't think anyone expects a magnetron to last indefinitely, but at this point in my life, my anecdotal experience with kitchen electronics versus automotive tells me the things are built to fail.

A good wave stirrer and movement mechanism - some now go side to side - produces very even results.

We won't get better ones until we have solid-state emitters capable of staying on frequency - then we can do several different time and frequency and phase variations, eliminating the need for much of the ultra-high voltage and energy losses we now face.

Given my background in IT, I'm the last person to hold onto a technology which can be replaced with a better one. I just have my doubts that the manufacturers will make any attempt to produce products built to last. The earliest consumer microwave ovens still work after 50+ years because they were too expensive not to be 1)built to last and 2)not be fixed when they failed.

Many good MWOs have both, and in my experience having both is the best way to go.

In Germany to doubt for a second that planned obsolescence is part of company design today.

In fact, I know it is. They really do plan for the things to fail and electronic components are ideal for that.

Transient response and perfect (absolute) pitch.

Jim, you're welcome to my perfect pitch. It's a curse, a congenital disease and a major source of nausea and headaches.

It's why I defend Andrea Bocelli when my non-dilettante music loving friends decry my 'taste' in singers. It's why I was forced to play the violin as a child/teen/student even though I'm horrid at at. Can you imagine the agony of playing in an orchestra filled by people who can't discriminate pitch closer than an octave who are playing fretless instruments?

The stupid discussions about how it's all cultural and tempered scales 'prove' blah, blah, blah.

Pass. Totally, completely, pass. If only I could. In my next life, no freckles, skin and hair colour besides pink and orange and normal hearing. 

As to the lifespan of vacuum tubes - it's all over the place. Just like transistors - we now know that silicium atoms wander out of of place (a lot like Teflon creep or aluminium flow, though the process is, of course, totally different) and that's that for a lot of solid state devices which we once believed were going to last indefinitely.

I'd expect a 40 year old magnetron to be coming to the end of it's life, too - but I know a few real Amana RR that are still running perfectly well from that long ago, so - who knows? The transformer, capacitor, diode and tube are all still available so, worst case, it's all repairable.

For that matter, there's youtube clips on repairing the most typical Panasonic Inverter failures on all three generations, and all the repairs are pretty easy. It's mainly (shocking, I know) discreet components which go. So, maybe I'll think about one again. I sure do miss the 1350 Watts....