It's a good keyword to search for a microwave that isn't the same $15 hardware as all of the other ones.

I don't care about the variable power, but found an "inverter" microwave without the rotating plate, which cooks evenly without it of course. It has more internal space and is easier to clean.

Correct

I don't understand why that is dramatically better than cycling? Isn't the overall energy input into the food roughly similar over time?

It's not like microwaving gives great texture or browning to begin with?

The cycle time is too long for sensitive items like butter. Even at low power it will bubble over before it fully melts.

A lot of electric ranges do the same thing, which is incredibly annoying. I mean, the 60 Hz is right there; why are they blasting in 10 second intervals?

I suspect for electric ranges they've historically used relays instead of solid state triacs or the like?

[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/279752/why-a...]

If so, relays have significant switching times and limited cycle counts due to arcing - especially under load. Enough that sub-second switching times will wear them out pretty quickly, and also be annoyingly loud.

At the power levels we're talking about for a resistive stove, solid state is expensive. At the voltages we're talking about, it's also not trivial to do in a reliable way using solid state techniques (240V RMS =~ 340V peak).

SCRs are used for industrial stuff with much larger loads than a consumer stove. Regular relays definitely are the wrong thing to use for high speed switching though.

Thanks for the pointer - a quick google showed SCRs in the 30+ AMP 240 volt range (minimum useful for even a small range) at well over $1k. That sound about right?

I don't think so http://quantumscr.com/s2pa30.htm

Thanks! The current control one is $210. Still a large percentage of a range's cost (typical equivalent relays would be $30-50).

Ah, gotcha

In addition to everything else people mentioned, high power microwaves tend to cause pockets of steam inside food which explode and make a big mess all over the interior. By dialing down the power level on an inverter microwave, you eliminate the chance of that happening. This did not always work on the old cycling microwaves due to the long duty cycle.

Anecdotally it seems to heat much more evenly, without the lava and ice pockets my old microwave left.

Excellent for things like melting butter or chocolate

Seems to work better for defrosting evenly without risking cooking the item, which is one of my main use-cases for a microwave.