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Easy:
Some microwaves just set a timer, like 2:30 and call it a day. Others do power changes like 100% for the first minute then 75% for the next 2. Others have sensors and logic and compute the actual best time to stop popping based on physical conditions of the inside of the microwave
Orville has no idea what version you have, so they give you an algorithm instead
I use the popcorn button every time I make a bag. The sensor has never worked and I just have to pull the bag when the popping slows down, but the button sets a three minute timer and starts the microwave, it's easier than setting the timer and hitting start like I had to on my old microwave....the struggle is real /s
Steam.
The answer is steam. Some microwaves have a humidity sensor that measures the amount of moisture released by food during cooking. Using that information, the microwave can estimate when the food is done and, in some models, adjust the cooking time automatically. For example, certain microwaves use this technology for sensor-cooking programs designed for potatoes, vegetables, or other foods.
Unfortunately, these features have largely turned into marketing gimmicks. They help sell microwaves more than they necessarily help cook food correctly. Many models no longer include genuine humidity-sensing technology, and the single-food buttons on cheaper models are often nothing more than preset cooking times and power levels.
People buy appliances based on how they look and how well they can show them off to others. Very few consider how a feature actually works, whether it serves a practical purpose, or whether it offers any real benefit over a less expensive appliance.
Here are a few other questionable marketing gimmicks in modern appliances:
Refrigerator air filters: These can reduce certain odors, but their effectiveness varies. The problem is that manufacturers turn them into another recurring expense for the owner, even when their practical benefit is limited.
RFID water filters: Some refrigerators use authentication chips to reject compatible aftermarket filters that lack the required RFID identification. This does not necessarily mean the manufacturer's filter provides better filtration; it can simply mean you are locked into buying that particular brand.
Self-cleaning ovens: The high-temperature pyrolytic cleaning cycle is a legitimate feature, but it can put considerable thermal stress on components, particularly door locks, thermal fuses, and control electronics. As an appliance repair technician, I can tell you that this feature helps keep people like me in business.
Air fry versus convection: Air frying is essentially a form of convection cooking. Both use a fan to circulate hot air around the food. Air fryers and air-fry modes can differ in fan speed, airflow design, and heating configuration, but the underlying principle is the same. Manufacturers have simply found another way to market a familiar technology.
Coffee machines built into refrigerator water dispensers: Another feature that adds complexity, cost, and additional components to an appliance that already has enough things to break.
Android tablets built into refrigerator doors: You do not need a tablet on your refrigerator. At all. You can enjoy the technology if you want, but integrating a general-purpose computer into an appliance creates another potential point of failure and another expensive component to replace when the refrigerator itself may still have years of useful life left.
Wi-Fi connectivity in washing machines and dishwashers: What exactly do you need it for? You have been washing clothes and dishes your entire life without an internet connection. You do not need a notification telling you that a cycle has finished. You can check the appliance yourself.
The appliance industry has become increasingly focused on adding features that look impressive on a showroom floor rather than improving the fundamental functions of the product. I would much rather have a well-built appliance with reliable components, straightforward controls, and inexpensive replacement parts than a refrigerator with a tablet, a washing machine connected to the internet, or an oven that requires a technician after running its self-cleaning cycle.
Build better appliances. Make them reliable, repairable, and affordable to maintain. Stop confusing more features with better engineering.
Source: I'm an appliance repair tech for 22 years.
Want to come over and look at my microwave?
You started a pyrolithic self clean on your microwave over the WiFi again, didn't you?
Lol 😂😂.
No.
Thanks for writing this :)
Can I bitch about something since you're an appliance repair tech (not at you, just with you)?
GE french-door fridge, freezer. Less than 3-years-old. Freezer drawer.
Evap fan goes out. It's pretty corroded. I do wonder if someone spilled something in the back of fridge but I can't see a sign of residue beside the corrosion (Still, no protective shroud above the fan from fluids dripping down the back). Bench-tested it; dead. Condensate drain seems fine. Order $100 replacement. Still doesn't turn on. I know control boards can fail from a result of this, too. I check output power from board, and it all seems good. Tested new fan; it's good too.
Before this, I realize the evaporator connector harness is flush with the floor of the fridge and downstream of the condensate drain pan. Water literally pooled in the 6-prong connector harness that is sealed into the floor of the freezer. Dried it out, cleaned it off as best as I could with CRC QD cleaner, etc. but I'm not getting the same voltage I'm getting on the 12V red from the board -- closer to 6 -- which I can only deduce means a short or corroded connector underneath the freezer... So now gotta cut it out.
I'm not the only one who's had issues with this, and it reallllllly feels not just like a poor design but planned obsolescence.
The sad thing is that as far as I can tell, GE is probably still the best fridge company for bang for buck? Maybe LG or BOSCH if willing to pay premium?
Yes, GE has been doing this recently, and they are also the company behind the RFID water filters, which are massively unpopular.
Planned obsolescence is absolutely something that occurs in modern appliances, and they seem to be becoming increasingly prevalent over the last year, at least from what I have observed.
I also encountered this issue with a four-year-old, bottom-freezer, French-door GE refrigerator. I was unable to supply power to the evaporator fan motor in the freezer section, and we ultimately had to condemn the refrigerator.
There are several things to unpack here. For starters, the motor operates at 12 volts, so I cannot simply drill through the back wall, run a few wires, and get the fan running normally like I could in the good old days. You are just out of luck.
What bothers me most, though, is that I do not understand the logic behind planned obsolescence. There is absolutely no guarantee that this customer will go out and buy another GE refrigerator. In fact, they are much more likely to buy anything other than GE after experiencing this kind of failure in a four-year-old appliance.
So, I have to assume this is incompetence rather than planned obsolescence.
In general, I currently recommend GE and LG appliances, particularly here in the United States. I do not recommend Bosch refrigerators, despite the company's excellent reputation. Bosch makes the best dishwashers on the market, hands down, and I recommend Bosch dishwashers without hesitation.
The problem with Bosch refrigerators is not necessarily reliability. It is parts availability. Although the refrigerators themselves can be reliable, obtaining replacement parts in the United States can be extremely difficult. Parts are discontinued far too quickly, and the domestic supply chain can be practically nonexistent.
I can end up with a two- or three-year-old Bosch refrigerator that needs a water inlet valve, only to discover that the part has already been discontinued in the United States and is no longer available through the domestic supply chain.
An appliance is only as serviceable as the parts available to repair it. Reliability means very little if you cannot obtain the components needed to keep the appliance running.
I've never even seen a popcorn button. Is this a 'Murrica thing?
they love the corn
Yeah our microwaves seem to have a defrost button that then goes to type/weight.... A popcorn button, which has been around for 15ish years, a 30 second button, which many people just hit for everything.. and then the power setting which you end up hitting 9 buttons every time because you can never get the order right on if it's power 70% time start or 70 power time start or time 70 power start or who the fuck knows what so you just try to remember to put the frozen food in the fridge the night before so it's thawed enough to do what you need with it
Fuck yea
Liability.
Microwave design in America infuriates me ever since moving over here.
Used to be you just press the number for how long you want, and then enter the power and 30% power meant max power for 3 seconds, then off for 7.
Then they stopped turning on the microwave when you press a number and you had to find "cook time" among the 15 different buttons for specific types of food that never turns out right or require you to look up a chart, it was faster to just press "add 30 seconds" 8 times.
Then they removed the "add 30 seconds" button.
Every evolution was more expensive and fancier, but replaced the most basic functions with things that I have literally never used or heard of somebody using.
Then I came to asia and half the microwaves have two dials: Time and power, and power actually lowered the heat instead of just boiling and then letting it wait for 10 seconds.
This is exactly what my experience has been, although I still have the "add time" buttons. Don't forget that half the buttons are inaccessible unless you have the door open. I have no idea why anyone would design a microwave this way.
30% power meant max power for 3 seconds, then off for 7.
This is true for most microwaves unfortunately. Panasonic's use an invertor however so you get genuine reduced power vs % of time at max power.
The microwaves over here list the wattage they run at when you lower the power.
I dunno, I'm in the US and nothing you said applies to my microwave.
Could it be that you're just looking at the wrong brand(s)?
Anyway, all of this talk made me think of that 30Rock episode where Jack is tasked with designing a new microwave for GE lol
It was one of the very first early tests to see how much the powers that be could dick with the general population. Quite a lot, as it turned out. /s
Okay; lot's of memey answers here.
But I saw a video from "Technology Connections" and as I understand it most popcorn buttons are just timers.
However some microwaves have weight sensors and hydrometers. Most microwave buttons suck but some are actually good.
Another thing to watch out for a new microwave is whether or not low power mode means 20% power or 100% power 20% of the time.
Look for the word inverter. An inverter microwave can actually adjust its output power. Expect to pay a bit more but the cooking is better and if you have a circuit in heavy use it can let you run the microwave at half power and the toaster at the same time.
This post lacks [US] tag.
The Technology Connections video has already been posted, but for a quick written answer:
Cheap microwaves wire that button to mean "run for 2 minutes" which will probably ruin your popcorn. Mid-ranged brands will sense moisture. Higher end brands might have a microphone to listen for delay between pops which is what the popcorn bags instruct people to do.
Popcorn makers tell you to listen for pops manually because it's easier than writing "if your popcorn button sets a time or asks for bag size, don't use it because it's not using any sensors to determine when to stop and will burn your popcorn."
As a single datapoint ….
I decided to spend a little more on my microwave and looked for:
I see 15 “specialty” buttons )yes, including a popcorn button); I find auto-defrost useful but never use the rest.
Worth the cost: it’s over ten years old, maybe 15, and still as good as new
My button works just fine.
Acthually, the Popcrn button was intended for making popcorn Not in the Microwave bags. So when people use those bags and press the popcorn button it doesn't work out.
you'd think at this point the two industries would have hashed things out so the button says "kettle corn" or something, so it's not confusing..
The popcorn button is for making metric popcorn.
If that's so then why do some of them ask you to tell it which of the 2 standard sized popcorn bags it is, with those being the only 2 choices? Probably because they aren't all the same
Nope, that's not the case. It's for bag popcorn. The technology connections video talks about it
The popcorn button on my microwave works perfectly every time. With popcorn bags.
I do know that this is not the case with all microwaves, but it absolutely can work.
Better yet: Why are microwave interfaces so complicated? I don't want twenty buttons for different foods, or press up/down buttons fifty times because you didn't include a number pad
Just because the microwave has a button it doesn't mean the button does the right sequence of steps.
Technology Connections has a good video on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Limpr1L8Pss
shrinkflation. original popcorn bags =~ 3.5oz.
today : as low as 1.1oz up to 3.3oz.
the machine was programmed for a certain volume of food. it changed. most machine's have an adjustment for amount of food. there's only one variable on the machine we change - time.
