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What is the best Microwave oven for boat?

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microwave
52K views 46 replies 29 participants last post by  arnavhussain 
#1 ·
Our microwave has died and was buried so we are in the market for a replacement. I would live one that works well and yet is small enough to fit the space....max 11 by 20" .

Anyone have good experience with one? Have you run it off the batteries with an inverter? thanks!
 
#2 ·
Have not tried to run mine off inverter yet, hummmm. The best kind I can recommend is a free one! Mine came from the pool snack shop at the golf club I work at. It is an open building with a cover over it. It sat on a shelf out there for 5-6 years and still works fine. I saw it under there a few months ago and the poolm operator gave it to me as they were getting a new one (bigger). It is a Majic Chef with the old turn dial for the time (no buttons)The thing is .5 cu. ft. with turntable. Can't go wrong with free! I think they would be about $50 at Wal Mart.
 
#3 ·
You can run a microwave off an inverter but it's best to have the engine running when doing so. Even a 750 watt microwave can suck the life out of the batteries quickly & the surge without the engine running will probably alarm out the inverter.

That's been my experience anyway.
 
#6 ·
When we were looking for a microwave, it wasn't so much who made the best but more, what can we find that will fit the tiny space we have to squeeze it into.
We had to look around quite a bit, but finally found one that suited our space requirements and so far has done a good job.

I've never heard of a 12v unit but I'm guessing if they were available, they would not do a very good job. Much like the 12v coffeemakers that everyone who has one says they are extremely slow.
 
#8 ·
It would seem to me that small size, and lower wattage is the ideal for sailboats. With a common terrestrial household unit that draws 1200 watts, you're pulling 10 amps. If the microwave and fridge are on the same 15 amp outlet, you're approaching or exceeding the 80% safe load of the wiring and the outlet.

You're much safer with a 750, 800 or 900 watt microwave oven. (Unless you're giving it a dedicated circuit)

I'm talking about small and mid-size cruisers, who are equipped with the typical single, 30 amp service.

As for brand? Any of the well-known appliance makers should provide a long lived unit: Amana, GE, LG, etc. I'd be skeptical of any unit made by a company whose name I couldn't pronounce, and had never heard of. :rolleyes:
 
#13 ·
I'm sorry, but the microwave is the *LEAST* used feature of our boat...totally useless. First, we rarely stay at marinas or on shorepower long enough to need the zapper. Second, it is an amp hog. Third, it takes up valuable storage space! More often than not, I find myself stacking things inside the microwave to make use of the empty space.

Once ours goes bad or is outdated, I plan on converting the space it occupies into another locker for storage.
 
#37 ·
I'm sorry, but the microwave is the *LEAST* used feature of our boat...totally useless. First, we rarely stay at marinas or on shorepower long enough to need the zapper. Second, it is an amp hog. Third, it takes up valuable storage space! More often than not, I find myself stacking things inside the microwave to make use of the empty space.

Once ours goes bad or is outdated, I plan on converting the space it occupies into another locker for storage.
I find them invaluable.

Saves Gas. 30 secs to cook greens. Scramble eggs 3 mins no mess to clean.

Chicken 20 mins.

Crew on day shift or night shift [ calm conditions only one on watch ] No need to boil the jug or kettle on the gas stove.

Single cup water in micr zapp for 20 secs - hey presto coffee and return to the helm.

Cheaper than refilling the gas bottle or risk a explosion re them forgetting to use the gas sniffer before hand.

Micro wave Chef.
 
#15 ·
We use our microwave for two purposes. Reheating and....... as a breadbox. Seriously, store bread in the micro and it will last substantially longer than on the counter. Dark and no air circulation. Easy to pull out when you need to use the oven.

As far as wattage, it seems you would need to have one with lower wattage output to even be able to handle an exception on many invertors. I suppose it depends on your invertor output and house bank capacity. However, lower wattage take much longer to cook/heat, so I'm not sure you really gain any ground. Unfortunately, micros and house batteries are as compatible as nuts and gum.

Personally, I would get the highest wattage unit and understand it lives off shore power and the genset. Basic timer is about all you really need, all the silly preprogrammed buttons are ridiculous. I don't need a button that says, potato or popcorn.
 
#16 ·
Mostly we used the microwave only at our marina. And mostly just to reheat leftovers if we are working on the boat...so I am also debating if I might not just want to not replace it and use the space to store a pressure cooker and bread box.

We have six batteries and a wind generator as well as two solar panels. Also considering adding a diesel generator.

Thanks for the info on the twelve volt coffee makers....was considering one of those. Am ditching that idea because I am really happy with our percolator. We have a three burner LP stove with an oven.

I was thinking that the microwave would put out less heat than the oven or stove, when in the summer and at anchor if it could be used with the inverter. But we have a grill too and use that when it is really hot.
 
#17 ·
We have MWs installed in both of our boats and find them invaluable when in hot and especially humid weather. They're quick and heat the boat less than than when cooking with the conventional range. We also use it when cruising for hot drinks, soup and the like. Most products can be cooked in the MW and use less overall energy. We too use it for a bread box, finding it lasts longer. We installed a toaster oven on one boat as well, but requires shore power or the genset to work properly and the story is still out on that addition. But there's something to be said for fresh toasted bagel or English muffin with a MW poached egg that's ready to eat in less than 3 minutes leaving little to no clean-up.
 
#18 ·
Little microwave ovens are disposable items. WelfareMart $50. If you're going to build it in, be sure to make (or plan to make in the future) a bezel for it because no matter which brand you buy or how much you spend, in 1 month they'll be selling a different model which won't fit the cutout you made.
I simply bungee mine to a lower shelf and pull it out when I want it.
 
#21 ·
We have a Sharp Warm and Toasty. It is 650 watts and runs fine on our 800 watt Inverter as well as shore power. In addition it also Grills and Bakes. We liked it so well we put one upstairs in the house also. It has been with us for about four years so far and still works just fine.
 
#22 ·
We use the MV to reheat beverages in the mugs, and to steam veggies and to heat leftovers and soup, and sometimes to defrost meats.

It's a Sharp Half Pint and is 600 watts. It's 12" deep x 12" high x 13" wide and I don't mind that small amount space for how much we use it. They are avaliable used and rebuilt. Built like little brick houses. And it does make a good bread storage ; -)
 
#24 ·
After being without one for the past 2 1/2 months I have decided to spend the funds on a new pressure cooker instead. The only things i would use the microwave for is reheating food or defrosting food, maybe occaisionally reheating a beverage. There are other ways to do those things.

I don't think i would want to run one off of a generator. Under 600 or 700 watts it takes a long time to heat anything in a MW anyway.

Loving the pressure cooker! :)
 
#25 ·
No doubt there are "invaluable' purposes for anything on a boat provided you think hard enough on it. A bread box???
Years ago I bought up some old titanium and SS mugs and use them rather than fine china. I can heat a cup of coffee using Folger's coffee tea bags in less than 2 minutes and reheat in a few seconds. I do it by way of a torch (not a flashlight Limey). In fact a torch is a truly handy tool all around a boat. I even carry one on my dink as well.
Now, what were we talking about…. "Oh, yeah, a microwave oven. Not an oven now, not really. It has its uses I suppose, I tend to think of it in the workaholic's archive. That is to say we have one but I keep it at home in our kitchen or rather shall I say "her kitchen."
You see at home the kitchen is all hers but my galley is where I shine. She does the work at home and I do it on the boat. I tend to think of cooking as very sexy by the way. An endeavor that makes an ordinary boat a yacht and best executed slowly to provoke intimacy at a rate a woman buys.
No woman I know brags on a hubby who gave her a quicky in the microwave. Cooking is not a task or something to get out of the way. It is pure pleasure on a boat. The cooking is the foreplay and the serving is divine….
For every action (or inch) there's an equal and opposite reaction. If I am going to do the microwave lets do a fridge and so on. "Hot food" in a "hot cabin???" Yikes, did I hear that right? Sounds as though a demon has possessed their boat and they are stranded in the tropics. That's when we do a lot of raw food and things you don't cook.
There are two types of boats on the water. One a work boat the other a pleasure craft. If on a work boat cooking needs to get done ASAP. If a pleasure boat one needs to savor the act… That isn't to say I wouldn't have a microwave or fridge on a boat, on the contrary, when I'm on the hard and my quinine has rippened to the same color as my bottom paint I am obliged to get cooking out of the way.
Long ago I knew an ex-cop who by divorce found himself inhabiting his sailboat and cooking for himself.
He'd bought a fridge so big he couldn't get it below so he resigned it to the back of the cockpit . He was a fair hand at shopping and with little effort stuffed the metal box with all sorts of dead carcasses. He had so much on that boat there was but a path to and from his berth. On the way you saw the microwave. Traversing back and forth from fridge to microwave he'd dripped copious amounts of grease up and down the companionway.
Dogs cats raccoons, rats and other guests, liked to make regular stops at his boat to help him clean up and he was most generous as a host to them. Yes I was a flowerchild of the 60s… No! Not one who called policeman "pigs."
The neighbors found the sight of that rusty old fridge lodged against the wheel a god send. Not that it added an asstetic to the already overburdened vessel but because it meant he no longer attempted to actually navigate his leviathan in and out of the slip with such uncertain results...

This situation is likely still going on. There are so many men that might have done better to marry a microwave over an unforeseeable problem with matrimony. I am no longer visiting that dock but should I have to there is one nightmare that persists. I awakened in those dark alley ways beneath and between the hulls of neighboring boats where galvanic action takes place as regularly as unprotected sex.
 
#26 ·
A microwave oven is also the perfect tool for resetting the Do-Not-Disturb feature on cell phones and pagers. Just place the phone or pager in the microwave, apply full power for 30 seconds per device, and you'll find they won't disturb you while you are off-watch, or engaged at the helm.

Really.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I know this is an older thread, but I have some new information..

I recently replaced my 330 AH Gel cell bank with a single 165 AH Lead-Acid. Using a microwave before was simple and the 330 AH bank supported it with ease, even with the 120 amps coming out of the bank (as measured on the Victron battery monitor). Now, with the 165 AH bank, the inverter starts beeping about a low supply voltage. Starting the engine releive this condition, by the way, and picked up exactly half of the load; only 60 amps came out of the bank. I'll be picking up more batteries before the summer. Bottom line is that 300 AH bank is needed to support a microwave.

Note that the MW does not use any propane, so with enough solar power, it helps you cruise for longer. And using something like 1% of the bank per minute, doing a quick 5 minute heating results in losing only 5% of the house bank.

Regards,
Brad

P.S. Microwave popcorn doesn't pop so well in lower-powered microwaves.
P.P.S. Microwaves are great for melting cheese on things, like nachos.
 
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#28 ·
Brad-
I'd suggest that a microwave presents a load that is similar to an engine starter motor. After all, a typical "1000W" microwave is a constant kilowatt load--and a small starter motor would be typically a "one kilowatt" or one and half kilowatt motor.
it would pull nearly 100A from a battery, which might be excessive for a small deep-cycle battery bank. And of course, the duration of the pull would be excessive for an SLI battery. So, no surprise you need a robust deep cycle bank to power an equally robust load.
 
#29 ·
I agree. It was 120 amps measured.

Funny thing was that the same microwave sucked down only 65 amps (or thereabouts) when powered by a square wave inverter. You really need a pure sine wave inverter to drive one.

So the most expensive part of the microwave-on-a-boat equation is the inverter ($1,500) which you would likely not need otherwise.

Regards,
Brad
 
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