Microwaves Aboard

[leslieowen]

I am curious about any solutions anyone visiting this site has utilized for placement and support for a small microwave aboard your CR 34 or 38. Are you using a special marine unit or a small shore side unit. How and where have you placed it? We have a .7 cubic foot shore side unit and mounted it on the starboard hull below the outboard port in the aft cabin. The CR 34 does not have lots of galley space but I do not know how others have addressed this issue.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Leslie
S/V Tango
CR 34

[RichSchultz]

Leslie,

We have a CR38 with a dedicated spot just aft of the sink and outboard near the hull. It is rather like an open extension of the small storage cupboards behind the sink.

We just use a cheap $40 microwave from Sam's Club but to tell you the truth we don't use it much. Both myself and my wife love to cook and just can't think of much that we would like to nuke (at least food-wise ).

At one point the original microwave gave up the ghost and we didn't bother to replace it for months. We actually liked having the extra bit of storage space!

Hope this helps,

Rich

[leslieowen]

Dear Rich:

Thanks for the response. We have found that since we do not have a 12 volt microwave, we only can use it at the dock and we are not at the dock often. I only use it to heat up soup or reheat leftovers, popcorn or to defrost something that I can't wait to have sit on the deck to thaw. I did not know if there were 12 volt units available or maybe most folks have a generator to power a home unit.

Our 34 has an aft cabin....came with a cushion that filled a space forward of the bunk, traveling up the hull under that starboard, aft, outboard porthole. I removed the cushion. Since it is sort of wedge shaped (original from Cabo Rico) to comform to the hull, I really did not see us using it anywhere else. That gave me a space to mount the microwave along with an outlet close by. It has met our needs but I am always questioning if someone has a better solution. Thanks for coming back to this query.

Fair Winds,

Leslie
S/V Tango
CR 34. #2

[camaraderie]

Leslie...I'll jump in if I may. Microwaves on board can be powered by batteries but you need an inverter to convert the 12V to 120V AC. The small microwaves are generally around 700 watts which means you need an inverter capable of supplying about 1500 watts due to start up power required.
700 watts will draw roughly 60 amps from your battery bank so you will use about 1 amp hour of your battery capacity for each MINUTE you run the oven. Figure 2 amps to compensate for conversion losses and wiring and you will run a standard group 27 or 31 battery down to 1/2 capacity in about 25 minutes of running time. SO...if you want a microwave...make sure you have enough battery capacity in addition to the inverter.
The other choice away from the dock is to buy a portable Honda type generator and plug the microwave into that.
Hope that is helpful.

[leslieowen]

Thanks for the great detail on the powering of a microwave.
We have only one starter plus two house batteries so the inverter usage would be shortlived and not the best. We also do have a Honda generator aboard so that will be our selection for a popcorn treat during time away from the dock.

Good to have some life on this site.

cheers,

Leslie
S/V Tango

[Bene505]

I wouldn't be too afraid of the battery drain. Unless you are cooking a turkey, you're probably like most people and use it for a few minutes at most.

I connect the microwave to an inverter (1500 watts inverter) and it works well. The inverter should come with very heavy wire. Use it. The current draw over those few minutes can be massive. I think you can get inverters at Walmart.

[OasisII]

For popcorn, we use Jiffy Pop. Sometimes cook it on the BBQ grill or probably easier on the propane stove. Enjoy!

Mike
s/v Oasis
P-323 #2