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What microwave should I get?


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Hello all I have a 1996 mini cruiser with solar electricity panels and a very large inverter. What kind of microwave can I get that will work with the inverter?  Is there a small microwave which does not use a lot of amperage that will not knock out my inverter?

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Large inverter is subjective, some people think 700 watts, some think 4000 watts.  Need a bit of clarification on that.

I ran a large 1000 microwave on a 3600 watt modified sine wave inverter with no issues except the clock went haywire on inverter, but the timer worked ok.    Jim

 

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8 hours ago, gringostar said:

Hello all I have a 1996 mini cruiser with solar electricity panels and a very large inverter. What kind of microwave can I get that will work with the inverter?  Is there a small microwave which does not use a lot of amperage that will not knock out my inverter?

All conventional microwave ovens use the same power regardless if sold as "700 watt" or "1500 watt."  Even when on the lowest setting. That's around 1400 watts every time they cycle on.  The only microwave ovens that actually use less power when on a low setting are inverter-microwaves.  As far as I know, only Panasonic makes them.  

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8 hours ago, gringostar said:

Hello all I have a 1996 mini cruiser with solar electricity panels and a very large inverter. What kind of microwave can I get that will work with the inverter?  Is there a small microwave which does not use a lot of amperage that will not knock out my inverter?

Hopefully your Minicruiser is an 86, not a 96.  Conventional microwave ovens work by running "full throttle" when on LOW or HIGH heat.  They pulse, on and off and just do it less when on LOW.  That is why you cannot lower the amp-draw on them.  An "Inverter Microwave" does let you turn down the amp draw in increments.  So at 1/2 heat it draws 1/2 the amps.

When it comes to inverters running microwaves in general - the inverter is only part of the problem.  Battery input is the other.  Even with a large inverter (2000 continuous amps or more)  - you usually need at least two "house" batteries to keep the input voltage from dropping below 10.5 volts.  If it does that for even a millisecond - many inverters will trip off.  I run a 1000 watt microwave (conventional) with a full-wave, 2000 watt inverter in my camp hooked to a pair of 120 AH batteries.   In my little Toyota Chinook - I have a 1200 watt mod-wave inverter, two house batteries, and a Panasonic Inverter microwave that works well. 

If you are using a modified-wave inverter - and only want to buy a cheap microwave - if you can find one with a mechanical timer and NO digital controls - it will work better.  Hard to find now-adays and they are MUCH more tolerant to the power made by modified-wave inverters.  Last winter, my local Walmart had a big sale with them for $36 each (I got two).  

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JD, you're educating a lot of us here.  I may have to replace the little Sharp cube i was planning on using with one o them Panasonics. 

on the battery drain issue, would it help any to run the engine while microwaving and for a few min thereafter?  I commonly do this while running power tools off the 1000w nverter hooked up to the truck starting battery (didn't have house batteries in it for years)

Edited by payaso del mar
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Great information.  Thank you!  I'll run my microwave and see what happens.  Yes, it's a 1986 Mini-Cruiser.  Thak you!

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1 hour ago, payaso del mar said:

JD, you're educating a lot of us here.  I may have to replace the little Sharp cube i was planning on using with one o them Panasonics. 

on the battery drain issue, would it help any to run the engine while microwaving and for a few min thereafter?  I commonly do this while running power tools off the 1000w nverter hooked up to the truck starting battery (didn't have house batteries in it for years)

Yes, running the engine - even with having the engine at idle speed - is often all the extra boost needed to run a microwave OK.

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