> wrote:
> Our microwave died after 12 years. It was a costly over when it was new
> and it had lots of bells and whistles and could be set to the desired
> power level. Until we can afford a new microwave, I found a small one
> for cheap at a local second hand store. It's a very basic model and is
> 19 years old, but it still had all the labels and looks like it was
> never used. It works and that's mostly what mattered.
>
> It has a rotary setting to set the minutes, rather than push buttons.
> That's eacy enough to figure out. But there is another setting to
> choose COOK or DEFROST. Is this a power level setting? In other words,
> if this is set to DEFROST, is the power lower than COOK? If so, can
> that be used to slow cook things that tend to boil over?
>
> Thanks
>
> Marge

Pushing the defrost will turn the power on and off. It's like another clock
timer. Microwave ovens ALWAYS put out full power when activated. It's not
power level. It's average power level with time.

Greg