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How to Identify Microwave Oven Wattage

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A great microwave hack useful for adjusting cooking time to the recipe you're using.

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How to Identify Microwave Oven Wattage 1 Picture

Ingredients

  • 1 cup measuring cup
  • water

Details

Adapted from epicurious.com

Preparation

Step 1

To find an approximation of your machine’s wattage, fill a microwave-safe liquid measuring cup with 1 cup cold water. Microwave on High and keep an eye on it, noting how long it takes for the water to come to a boil:

1 1/2 minutes: 1,200 watts

2 minutes: 1,000 watts

2 1/2 minutes: 800 watts

3 minutes: 700 watts

4 minutes: 600 watts

Armed with that info, you can adjust your microwave's power level—or cooking time to suit the wattage that's specified in your recipe of choice.

To match a lower wattage

To match the power of a microwave with a lower wattage, simply divide the desired wattage by your microwave’s wattage. Shift the decimal two places to the right to get the percentage power you should set your machine to. So if you have a 1,000-watt microwave and are following a recipe that calls for a 600-watt one, you should set the power to 60%. If your machine is 1,200-watts and needs to mimic a 800-watt one, you should set the power to 70% because you’ll round the 66.67% up to 70%.
To mimic a higher wattage

You can’t approximate the power produced by a machine with a higher wattage; you can only increase the cooking time. You’ll need about 10 additional seconds for every 100 watts for every minute of cook time. So if something takes 2 minutes in a 1,200-watt microwave on 100% power, it’ll take 2 minutes plus 20 seconds in an 1,000-watt one.

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