Anyone have a Panasonic microwave with the new "Inverter" technology? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Perry]

Supposedly this microwave is the only one with the revolutionary "Inverter" which produces power differently than other microwaves. All other microwave ovens, if you set them to Power Level 5, pulse on and off at 100% power. Panasonic's new microwave outputs the selected power level 100% of the time with no pulsing. They claim that this results in better results, no overcooked edges, etc. They say you can actually keep it on Level 2 continuously and food will stay warm without overheating.

Anyone have one of these?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Sounds cool!

 

[Jay H]

Sounds alot like the new bicycle light technology... there's a bunch of newer "Digital" headlights that sounds odd, what's so "digital" about headlight technology. What they describe as digital means the way the power is applied to the lights. Supposedly they have some kind of technology which makes the light go on and off so fast that it's unnoticeable to the human eye and you can have your standard 12v NiMH battery last XX% longer than the so-called "analog lights".

Me, I thinking an inverter microwave would invert all your hot dogs so the skin is on the inside but that's just my warped sense of humor, I guess!

Jay

 

[Jay Heyl]

My parents got a new microwave for Christmas and I was really impressed with the speed and all the gizmos that were on the thing. Mine is over 20 years old and still working okay, but after seeing their new one I started thinking about replacing mine. The Panasonic Inverter sounded like an interesting idea. I haven't used one, but Consumer Reports had a short review of microwaves in a recent issue and I noticed the Panasonic Inverter models got only so-so scores. I don't know that that really means much. CR sometimes structures their tests in very bizarre ways. It did get me thinking that I'd want some first hand reports before I'd pick one up though.

 

[Mike_Ped]

Did you mean panasonic is the only company to use this technology? Because most (if not all) of their micros have that function. I have one of those. It's a good micro, but, its still a micro....nothing to write home about!

Mike

 

[Peter Yee]

Mike,

Actually, Brian's description of how most microwave ovens work is correct -- they always apply full power, but they may not apply it all the time. In order to give you those "lower" power modes (like defrost), virtually all other microwave ovens will turn the power off for various periods, the lower the setting, the longer the power is off. This doesn't mean the food just sits there -- most ovens will continue to spin the food (if equiped with a turntable), and will run the fan. If what Panasonic says is true, this would be an innovation. Whether it really improves the cooked food is a different question. It's not apparent to me that it does.

-Peter

 

[Mike_Ped]

What I meant was that most PANASONIC micros (if not all) have that "innovation." I thought Brian was saying that there was ONE micro he saw that had it. I was just letting him know they (Panasonic micros), almost all had that function, so there is a bunch of different models to pick from. Sorry to make that confusing.

Mike

 

[Jay Heyl]

I looked at the Comsumer Reports article again last night. The two Panasonic inverter models they included in the review both got "good" ratings for two of the three categories (though I forget what these categories were) and a "fair" rating in the third category. The third category was defrost performance. This is rather odd because Panasonic claims their units defrost 49% faster than typical microwaves. The CR review did have some comment about the defrost mode being difficult to set up. Perhaps they didn't really figure out how to use it.

 

[Brian Perry]

I ended up buying the Panasonic NNT790SS ($189 shipped from ABT Electronics), and based on my extensive testing, you guys are right...it's just a microwave.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I just bought one to replace my dying 14 year old Quasar.
Not having a clunk noise and power surge everytime the magnetron cycles on is nice. The unit has a turntable, which the Quasar did not, yet runs much more quietly, and is also much quieter than my ex's new Sharp.
It will successfully soften a cube of butter without melting part of it, which the old one would not.
Other than that it's just a nuker like any other, but does seem to heat more evenly than most others I've tried.
Defrosting meat is about twice as fast, with less hot-spotting or partially cooked spots.
The old Quasar was a Matsushita product, same as the Panasonic, and lasted 14 years, so I expect this one to hold up well.
One odd thing, when I place a cup of coffee in it to reheat kinda toward the outer rim of the turntable near the door opening, the turntable always stops at the same position as it was when I put the coffee in so I don't have to reach around to the back of the oven, and it does this regardless of how much time I set it for--how do they do that??

 

[Ryan Wright]

One odd thing, when I place a cup of coffee in it to reheat kinda toward the outer rim of the turntable near the door opening, the turntable always stops at the same position as it was when I put the coffee in so I don't have to reach around to the back of the oven, and it does this regardless of how much time I set it for--how do they do that??

You sure it's not coincidence?

This can be easily done with stepper motors, but I see no reason why anyone would go to the effort and expense to install a stepper in a microwave turntable.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I figured it out by accident today. Set the timer for 1:33 and the coffee cup ended up toward the back of the oven, not in front as always before.
The turntable must be running at exactly 6 rpm, that way it returns to the exact same position every 10 seconds. Since I've always reheated coffee before at 1:20, 1:40, 2:00 any time that ends in 0, it always stopped in the same place it started. Still kinda cool.