The Microwave Habit To Avoid At All Costs (It Causes More Damage Than You Think)

When you stand inside your kitchen and look around, you can spot several modern inventions that make your cooking adventures faster or easier. But very few beat the efficiency and convenience of a microwave. Just a few minutes in this oven-like appliance and your food is cooked through or perfectly reheated in time for dinner. So, to ensure it functions at optimum, you do your best to avoid common mistakes everyone makes with their microwaves. You probably already know most of the items you should avoid putting in thee microwave, from metal containers and aluminum foil to Styrofoam dishes. But one seemingly harmless habit you must also avoid is running your appliance with nothing in it.

While you might not intentionally operate your microwave when it's empty, it's important to be aware of the potential damage it can cause your unit. This way, you can make every effort to avoid such occurrences. Basically, when you switch on this appliance with nothing inside, the microwaves that are emitted into the oven cavity have nothing to absorb them. Subsequently, they bounce around, resulting in your unit overheating, which can lead to damage.

Let's first understand how the microwave oven works. Whether you own the most reliable microwave brand or not, the most important part of this kitchen appliance is the magnetron. This is the core element of a microwave that makes it do what it does, i.e., heating food. When you switch on your appliance, this is the component that transforms electric energy into electromagnetic radiation, which is what we know as microwaves. Now, microwaves usually penetrate food and they cause the tiny water molecules inside food to vibrate and generate the heat that cooks or reheats it.

So if there's no food in the oven cavity to absorb the microwaves, the beams bounce from the metal walls of the oven cavity and are directed back to the magnetron. As the waves concentrate on the magnetron, they cause your unit to overheat. Now, it's possible that after running while empty, especially if for just a short time, your microwave could still work okay. However, it could also get damaged and refuse to run again. If so, you'll need to get a professional to repair it. The worst case scenario is that a fire can erupt and completely destroy your microwave oven. So, there being no guarantee whether your appliance will work or not after running empty, it's better to avoid this habit altogether.