Microwaves: Are you a 99 seconds or 1 minute 40 person?

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Microwaves.

Last night, my husband made me a hot milk. He brought it over wanting to know if it was warm enough, so I naturally asked him how long it had had in the microwave. I usually give it 1 minute 45 seconds. Anything passed 1 minute 50 seconds on full power and it will boil over which is annoying because we could just press the quick start button twice and walk away if it wouldn't boil over on 2 minutes.

So I program in 1 minute 45 seconds, and press start. 4 buttons... My husband decided on 99 seconds and start because it was only 3 buttons which left me thinking. I know it's only 1 button press extra but would you key in 1 minute 40 (or 1 minute 39 for those who like to be precise) or would you key in 99 seconds?

 

[Elawin]

I've never had a microwave with a quick start button before I got my new, seemingly cat proof, 800W one. Each press of the button on this adds 30 seconds, so 3 presses and it's away, so I'm a 1 minute 30 seconds person. I taste it and, if the milk still isn't hot enough (which is rare), then I press the quick start button again but usually take the mug out before the time is up and clear the memory. In fact, I rarely use the actual timer at all. Where I used to work, the staff rooms had 1000W microwaves in - now they really were a challenge!

 

[Lynne Guinne]

I voted "99", but I also will run my finger down the display and chose "1-4-4". I figure why move my finger over one digit when I'm already sitting on the "4".

We sometimes need to be creative with time inputs since our "5" ceased to function about a year ago. Everything else works fine, so why replace?

 

[Yorky]

Our microwave has a button for grill and a button for microwave. As far as I can determine, the timer works on minutes and/or 10 second increments on either microwave and/or grill settings. It has some strange little pictures of items of food also.

I haven't bothered about it much as I hardly ever use it.

 

[Francesca]

I never use a Micro Wave except on rare occasions to re-heat something ..

And even then, I prefer stove top ..

 

[Morning Glory]

My microwave (as far as I'm aware) doesn't allow incremental seconds except in chunks of 30 secs (like @Elawin's).

 

[Elawin]

My microwave (as far as I'm aware) doesn't allow incremental seconds except in chunks of 30 secs (like @Elawin's).

Mine does increments of 5 seconds up to 1 minute, then 10 seconds up to 5 minutes, 30 seconds up to 10 minutes, 1 minute from 10-30 minutes, and 5 minute intervals thereafter. It only has function buttons. To set the time, you have to turn a knob, but what that does depends what function button you have pressed. Another reason just to keep pressing the quick start button

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Curious. Ours allows you to press the number pad and press start or the quick start button in 30 second intervals (lukewarm milk or boiled over milk).. There is also a series of programmed options that we never use and the ability to drop the power (1200W) in 10% intervals.

 

[Elawin]

The start button on mine doubles as a quick start button. You choose the function you want to use, then press the start button for however many intervals of 30 seconds you want to use, or select the function and the function options, then turn the knob to set the time, then press the start button once. Cooking or heating up on full power is the default setting, in which case you only need to press the start button the appropriate number of times. This is the setting I use most. However, the thaw function has two settings - by weight or by time. The weight option is superb. I find it particularly useful for thawing food like thin pieces or meat or pieces of chicken (such as wings or drumsticks, which I feed raw to the dog). So far I haven't had a piece of meat thaw out and start cooking round the edges when this has been set correctly. On the down side, it is a combi-microwave, and even with my head stuck in the instruction book I have never found it to be very good. It was a Tesco own branded microwave; it was very cheap anyway, but I got it on a half-price offer, so I am not complaining. Maybe I just need a bit more practice.

 

[toddhicks209]

It's quicker to put in 9-9.