Hacker News Reader

Comment by imglorp | Hacker News Reader

Can we talk about commodity kitchen hardware?

A brand new microwave seems to have the same halfassed, user hostile firmware they shipped around 1999, oriented around a fixed segment display. I would like to see some simple additions that would make a world of difference.

* Add some IR temp sensors, for what $5 in parts, that can heat to an approximate inside temp.

* Update the firmware, for example, to stop beeping when you hit Stop. The commands could actually be far simpler than currently: you really just need "boil", "warm", "defrost" and "reheat" commands - let it figure out the energy needed.

View on HN

I’ve got a Panasonic that I think I got from Costco a year ago. Not sure the model, but it says “The Genius” on it. It fails the “updatable firmware criteria” as far as I know, but it has some kind of passive food temperature sensor. There’s a button labelled “sensor reheat”, and the vast majority of the time it’s all I use.

It does a pretty damned good job of things. Frozen food will occasionally still have a cold spot, but it’s still way better than following the instructions on the package, which often results in either serious cold spots or a cheese/sauce explosion. For reheating leftovers, it’s perfect.

Edit: my partner informs me that the “keep warm” button does a really good job of making porridge for her too. Brings it up to a “just below boiling” temperature and keeps it there. She just watches it until it looks like the right consistency for her.

I use the keep warm feature on my instant pot as an alternative to a microwave. I'm not paranoid about microwaves - I just don't like constantly cleaning them.

So instead install a weight sensor and estimate based on that how long to zap stuff. There has been 0 progress in microwaves for a long time now, while many many easy improvements seem rather obvious to most people.

Personally I'd love for my microwave to have bluetooth so it'd make my phone beep when it's done.

My cheap unbranded microwave has a dial to set the power (which is always on max) and a clockwork dial to set the time, which also starts the oven when turned.

This is the best UX of any microwave I’ve ever had - I can start it with the correct time in a single action just by feel - I don’t even have to look at it.

I very much doubt it has any firmware to speak of, or what feature such firmware could possibly offer that would improve my experience.

I agree completely. Knobs are very intuitive and self-indicating. The very first microwaves used that UI:

https://www.radarange.com/

A dial for power and a dial for time is the way to go. Everything else is just overcomplicating the solution.

Also, could we please add some form of accessibility? As somebody who is visually impaired, microwaves win for least accessible devices in my life. The non-tattle buttons are near impossible to use. We just got a new microwave at home and the buttons even seem to be capacitive so it is even harder to use.

You can still buy microwaves with spring-loaded timer knobs where a given angle corresponds to a fixed amount of time. The blind people I know all have them.

The really simple firmware change I've long wanted is when the oven finishes, start a count up timer in the display.

I have an LG inverter microwave and it has an annoying "cute" song it plays when it finishes (and periodically to remind you unless you open the door). There seems to be no way to shut it up without opening it up and disconnecting things.

This is why I genuinely feel like this stuff should be open sourced. There is no way that the firmware in a modern microwave is providing them some competitive advantage. Not everyone can recompile firmware but some helpful individual on a forum could dive in to it, provide an updated build, and share flashing instructions.

Manufacturers close source things by default but there’s so much improvements the hackers of the world could make to things if we had source code and schematics. I think it’s a real shame that the status quo is closed source by default.

Have pulled open every microwave I've owned and cut the speaker. Dozens of buttons, not a single mute switch.

Microwaves are loud enough as it is, you can hear them running from the next room. Strangely enough never seen a toaster with an buzzer though.

Agreed. I honestly perfer the 70s dial to most modern interfaces. One step, done.

Meanwhile if I don't want some useless preprogrammed setting, it takes a minimum of 4 keypresses to set a time, to say nothing of power. I can order food online almost as easy ffs.

I liked the food service one I used years ago. 9 buttons, numbered 1-9, and they ran the oven for 10x seconds at a pop. Add one button/latch to open, and it was a simple as it could be.

Toss something in, hit 1 button, ding, open door.

My very cheap microwave does that same behavior only it's in minutes. It also has a 30 second button. Save for heating pancake syrup (a 10 second job) I rarely set a time explicitly or wait to cancel a button press early.

Add some IR temp sensors, for what $5 in parts, that can heat to an approximate inside temp.

Food is not thermally transparent. The outer surface will quickly reach the cavity temperature so that's not an indication of the core temperature. The accepted way to measure the core temp is with a probe.

Look at the UIs on commercial microwaves, sold for restaurants. On many, the designs are what commenters here are looking for - I suppose busy restaurant kitchens don't want to bother with the nonsense either. They cost a bit though.

I have one like that, a Miele with a temperature probe that commumicates with the oven. It does a lot of other things automatically too, holds temperature very accurately, great oven. They exist.

Did You know the vast majority of modern microwaves have a keypress sequence to turn off the beeping?

I seem to remember on most it’s something like holding the 0 or 1 buttons for 3 seconds.

Yes but that wasn't my complaint. If it begins beeping, opening the door or pressing cancel should stop the beeping immediately. Every Mike I've every used has continued the beeps until it was good and done. Poor UI easily fixed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com