METAL in MICROWAVE Oven Is NOT That Dangerous

Thanks to Ali Humaydan for bringing the idea to my attention! One more item off my list, and I didn't kill the microwave oven in the process either! Nguyen - Nguyen! (look up the pronunciation)

Ah yes ElectroBOOM: doing the things we weren’t supposed to do as kids, but he can do because he’s a ‘professional’

I've never seen a man be so mad about his microwave not exploding.

That’s weird because I remember microwaves 20-30 years ago going crazy with arcs when you forgot a spoon in the bowl or didn’t take all the foil off whatever you put in there maybe they somehow improved them.

ElectroBOOM casually gets angrier that his microwave isn't exploding in his face

"I've never been so disappointed in the lack of arcs." -Mehdi 2021

I like how when trying to replicate it you had a lot of problems, everyone that had this kind of accident got it first try

FWIW, if you read the manual for any modern microwave, they actually say that small amounts of metal are not a problem - they shield the magnetron against dangerous levels of feedback. Some even suggest using metal for cooking purposes to shield certain parts of food. I remember reading this in the manual for my first microwave oven, which I got in 1994. They do, however, warn you to not use dishes with silver trim. Not because it's dangerous but because if any arcing occurs, it can ruin the finish of the metal. I do wonder, however, if this was a more serious problem in older microwaves. Maybe a unit from the 80's might have less shielding and may behave differently.

I have never seen a more patient person to wait 30 seconds for the microwave

Next upload: "ElectroBOOM on why it isn't dangerous to put a fork in a toaster"

You need an older microwave for the real magic. Those new ovens have power limiters to prevent a high SWR situation from damaging the magnetron. When it detects a high SWR it turns the TXP down from 1200 watts to like 500 watts. Also metal that is at length of any of the wavelengths sweet spots (1/4, 1/2 wave etc.) and can hold the RF power in watts then you wont get much and this is because the metal is considered a tuned antenna and the SWR will not drive up much. What you should have done was put a CD in there

As an EE myself, I have still wondered why a steel rack was ok. I could not reconcile it in my mind. Loved your presentation. Very funny and entertaining. Thanks.

The most dangerous metal in a microwave experiment I have seen involved microwaving steel wool.

Every year my wife brings out the Christmas dinner plates with gold designs on them and every year I arc them out forgetting. It’s a Christmas tradition!

I've never seen a microwave this clean, I'm so impressed

A lot of the new digital microwaves have a grill option and they are metal resistant, try on the old microwaves to put some metal and you will see the real danger

Wonderful editing, fun video. Thanks, Electroboom.

I like how he's so confident that he's literally right beside the microwave, knowing that it wont explode

Try it with an older oven. Some modern ovens have protection for the magnetron against running the thing empty. Super fancy (expensive) ovens are starting to move towards solid state RF amplifiers, and those too have gain controls to protect the PA's when there's hardly any load (empty) or too much load (arcs), and that power control stuff has been in some ovens for a while. Guess the simple way to find out is look at how much power it's drawing from the mains.

Watching this dude run these tests is making my anxiety sky rocket! lol