5 ms·
Pimp My Microwave
- w45yw45yw45y 5y agoAs someone who hates the "touch screen" buttons on new premium microwaves, and as someone who hates mechanical keyboards, this is amazing.
- spamalot159 5y agoThe same is happening with automobile UX design. Everything is going to touch screen interfaces when physical buttons are so much more practical. I want a car manufacturer to buck the trend and go full Cherry-MX on all of their buttons. It might not get me to buy the car straight away but it sure would be a big bonus.
- ptmcc 5y agoIt's not as extreme as that, but Mazda is very good about this. They ditched the touch screen entirely for a rotary knob only infotainment interface, and physical buttons and switches for effectively all controls. Still has a big high quality screen, but no touch input. It was a big selling point for me, among many other thoughtful design touches. I hate touch screens in cars.
- iamevn 5y agoDid they change that recently? My Mazda is a few years old and while it does have a touch screen, it only works when you're stopped (and it doesn't seem to work at all in android auto/carplay). Absolutely love the tactile feedback from the knob that clicks at each position as you turn it. Also putting physical shortcut buttons to take you directly to the "now playing" screen of whatever is playing media or to whatever navigation tool is active is wonderful.
- ptmcc 5y agoYep! They ditched the touchscreen for 2021 (in my CX-5 at least), along with the whole infotainment overhaul. It's a big upgrade over the previous system. The screen is large and very good quality.
- jsilence 5y agoUnfortunately todays Microwaves regressed in functionality from the model in the 90s. Those models were actually smart, even though they had no Wifi.
- Black101 5y agofor most thing that I do with my brand new microwave, I only need to push one button to get it going ... I don't think that my microwave from the 90s could do that
- davio 5y agoOur original microwave had 2 twist knobs. One was a mechanical kitchen timer for run time. No start button - just turn the knob and it's running. It even rang an actual bell when done. The other was for power level.
- zabzonk 5y agoI've still got one like that. Microwaves don't really wear out, so why replace them?
- smegger001 5y agomy parents used one of those for 20 years until the knob broke when moving. they have gone through probably a dozen microwaves since.
- petejodo 5y agoThis reminded me of this video covering this exact topic https://youtu.be/UiS27feX8o0 https://youtu.be/UiS27feX8o0
- arnon 5y agoMy Panasonic has an inverter which is really a gamechanger. This wasn't around in the 90s.
- 5y ago
- nickt 5y agoSome good comments from the last time around: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25093704 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25093704
- low_key 5y agoThis is cool, but my preference for a microwave is one that only has 2 buttons: +30sec and clear/off. That's it. Just press 30 seconds and it turns on for 30 seconds. Want two minutes? Press it 4 times. Want it to stop? Press clear.
- TchoBeer 5y agoSo you want to have to press a button 20 times to put your microwave on for 10 minutes? What do you have against keypads?
- crazygringo 5y agoFrom my observation, people tend to use microwaves 2 different ways. Either they're for quickly reheating small amounts of leftovers or maybe boiling a cup of water for tea, and you have no idea for how long, in which +30 is all you need. You never do more than 2 minutes at a time. You'd never put something in for 10 minutes. The other way is the microwave as a kitchen tool, where you do things like put in a large frozen family-size something (soup, veggies, etc.) and reheat it on 20% power for 20 minutes. The 2-button microwave is awesome for the former group. It's useless for the latter group.
- joedevon 5y agoI often have used the microwave as a timer/alarm before switching that function to my phone.
- emodendroket 5y agoSince the 30 second button is there anyways I can't really see why both groups wouldn't be satisfied with the current arrangement.
- stickfigure 5y agoI hate to imagine the desiccated black carbon that would emerge from my microwave after anything at all is given 10 minutes of continuous exposure.
- crazygringo 5y agoAs someone who does a ton of home cooking, my dream is for a microwave with built-in IR camera. I don't ever want to type in a duration/power -- I want to type in a desired final temperature, which is all that actually ever matters. E.g. 60°F to defrost, 110°F for reheating my salmon, 135°F for reheating my burger, 165°F for my soup, 210°F for water to boil for my tea. It would cook until a single hot spot reaches the desired temperature, then pause for heat to equalize/spread until there is no spot within x degrees of the desired temperature (fuzzy logic!), start cooking until new hot spot, and repeat until the entire object is within x degrees. For particularly thick/large objects, specify to "hold" at the desired final temperature for n minutes at the end, or even better use some intelligent calculations around the rate of decrease of temperature on the outside to determine whether the inside is at target temperature or far from it. I just don't understand why this isn't a standard feature on microwaves these days. Or at least on premium models.
- brunoqc 5y agoI know it's not the same at all but do you know that microwaves often have a steam sensor these days? It works pretty well.
- mikkelam 5y agothis is honestly a great idea. It sounds hard but doable. Microwaving properly is in art though.. I find myself juggling between lower power to high power to avoid absolutely destroying the food. But seriously, someone make what OP is saying
- Seb-C 5y agoThat would definitely be great, and I'm also wondering why we don't actually have this. That said, given the current trends of our industry, I'm afraid that we will get connected microwaves that leaks private data and publishes to TikTok (or whatever) sooner than this actually useful feature.