Microwave power use tested vs Induction vs electric kettle

[Dave in AZ]

Just to round things out, here is the microwave water boil power test. For smallest microwave, for overland cooking.
(Video plays fine, just have to watch on Youtube, click the link below that says "watch on youtube".

Energy to boil 500ml water, about 2c, in Watt-hrs. Compared to Induction with small pot, and electric kettle. This is useful for people using battery power when cooking, either camping or during power outage, or overlanding.
Folks need to be able to estimate normal energy usage for cooking and other tasks, so they can calculate how many Watt-hrs they need of battery in a day, or to last several days without solar or recharge.
This is the physically smallest GE microwave in their 0.7 cu ft linup, and was also rated as the best small countertop microwave by numerous professional appliance testers.

I bought this for my truck camper, for overlandlanding and camping, to allow quick meal reheat. Reduces mess, cleanup, and water usage, compared to a gas stove or induction setup.

new 2024 version with childlock door, can be easily permanently deactivated with 3 button presses.
GE GCST07N1WSS Microwave Oven,...
Old version without childlock, buy whichever is cheaper
GE JES1072SHSS
Countertop Microwave Oven, Compact 0.7 Cubic Ft., 700-watt Capacity, 6 Auto Cooking Settings, Kitchen Essentials for the Countertop, Dorm Room or Apartment, Stainless Steel https://a.co/d/eEguBLg

Item Weight 21 Pounds
Capacity 0.7 Cubic Feet
Item Dimensions D x W x H 12.75"D x 17.31"W x 10.19"H

 

[Flipper]

A good rule of thumb for a microwave the power to run it is 2X the advertised rating. so your 700 w microwave is going to draw 1400 watts. The Amp rating will be on the UL label of the unit. That’s the number you want to use in your calculations
resistance: ohms
pressure: volts
Current: amps

 

[Dave in AZ]

A good rule of thumb for a microwave the power to run it is 2X the advertised rating. so your 700 w microwave is going to draw 1400 watts. The Amp rating will be on the UL label of the unit. That’s the number you want to use in your calculations
resistance: ohms
pressure: volts
Current: amps

For battery or powerstation usage, I'd rather test and measure, than guess and calculate. That's the point of this video, the actual max wattage is shown, 1069W, and the actual Watt-hrs is shown, not an estimated calc off amps. For folks with 2000Wh and less, having real actual numbers to base build decisions off, or decide how they will cook, is better than guesstimations ;)

But there aren't a ton of actual examples likee this, so folks are left to estimate using rules of thumb like you gave, more often than not.

 

[grubworm]

A good rule of thumb for a microwave the power to run it is 2X the advertised rating. so your 700 w microwave is going to draw 1400 watts. The Amp rating will be on the UL label of the unit. That’s the number you want to use in your calculations
resistance: ohms
pressure: volts
Current: amps

im interested in this because i use a lot of solar and battery to operate 120v appliances...so you are saying that any microwave that has an advertised watt rating is actually going to use twice the power it is advertised as? i didnt know that. we have a lot of power outages here and ive been running my microwave off of an induction generator and id like to swap that over to a solar generator. where is the info that has the specs on that? id like to use that info to figure out what i need to run a microwave during power outages
thnx

 

[Dave in AZ]

im interested in this because i use a lot of solar and battery to operate 120v appliances...so you are saying that any microwave that has an advertised watt rating is actually going to use twice the power it is advertised as? i didnt know that. we have a lot of power outages here and ive been running my microwave off of an induction generator and id like to swap that over to a solar generator. where is the info that has the specs on that? id like to use that info to figure out what i need to run a microwave during power outages
thnx

The power plate with amps and volts will give actual power use. However, YES, microwaves are advertised using their MAGNETRON OUTPUT WATTS, NOT POWER USE! Most microwaves are about 65% efficient at converting input electricity to output magnetron waves... only part of that gets intercepted by food to heat, making them overall less than 50% efficient.

Flippers rule of thumb of using x2 is safe. For instance, my 700W microwave uses 1170W power, but because it is a constant on/off magnetic field induction load, it actually takes about 1400W inverter or so to drive that.
Inverter microwaves can use less power overall, if you have a wee small inverter like 1000W.