Whirlpool RM973BXV, RM978BXV, SM988PEV, SM958PEV manual How your microwave oven works

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How your microwave oven works

Microwave ovens are safe. Microwave energy is not hot. It causes food to make its own heat, and it’s this heat that cooks the food.

Mode Mixer Magnetron Ceramic Bottc,rn

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					Oven Cavity
Microwaves			are like	TV	A magnetron				in the
waves	or	light	waves.		microwave			oven			pro-
You can’t		see	them,	but	duces		microwaves.
you can		see	what		The	microwaves
they	do.				move		into the			oven
					where they are scat-
					tered or stirred by a
					mode		mixer		(like		a
					fan). Microwaves
					bounce		off metal
					oven	walls		and		are
					absorbed			by	food.

Metal Floor

The ceramic bottom of your microwave oven lets microwaves through. Then they bounce off a metal floor, back through the ceramic bottom and are absorbed by the food.

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Microwaves pass through glass, paper and plastic without heating them so food absorbs the energy. Microwaves bounce off metal pans so food does not absorb the energy.

Microwaves may not reach the center of a roast. The heat around the outside is what cooks the roast all the way through. This is one of the reasons for letting some foods (roasts, baked potatoes] stand for a while after cooking, or for stirring some foods during the cooking time.

The microwaves dis- turb water molecules in the food. As the molecules bounce around bumping into each other, heat is made, like rubbing your hands together. This is the heat that cooks.