Fun video about microwave oven now vs thirty years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0
"The Antique Microwave Oven that's Better than Yours" by Technology Connections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0
"The Antique Microwave Oven that's Better than Yours" by Technology Connections
I don't think it's gotten any less bad to run an empty microwave, but maybe we've realized starting it accidentally isn't that common, and/or we've gotten complacent.
I inherited it from my mother who had used it for years.
It is much easier to control than the ones with keypads; if I need extra time I just turn the dial.
Most modern ones allow you to add 30 seconds with just the push of a button.
#analogmasterrace
They were an emerging high-tech appliance for avant-garde consumers, they were going to be expensive so they had to be big and strong.
They were huge and heavy, you had to be able to cook a whole turkey.
I was an appliance-repairing college student at the time, when these went out it took two delivery operators to pick one up and put it on the customer's countertop. A refigerator usually only needed a single driver.
In the sales showroom they were giving free microwave cooking lessons to introduce the skills needed to make the transition. A factory representative would come regularly to conduct a culinary demo. In hindsight more of an appliance enthusiast than a food enthusiast. In the advanced classes they would prepare an entire holiday dinner, and we could partake in the surplus.
Few foresaw that more often younger unskilled family members than ever would one day be conveniently using ovens without supervision.