On Sun 20 Feb 2005 06:42:09a, Bill wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:17:56 -0500, George >
> wrote:
>
>>Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
>>> "Isaac Wingfield" > wrote in message
>>>
>>>>I have an old nuker that needs replacement, but I'm confused by your
>>>>statement. In exactly which way (or ways) would a new microwave
>>>>perform "far better" than my old one? According to my measurements, my
>>>>nearly 30 year old model still delivers just as much power as it did
>>>>when new, and the timer still works just fine; what else is there?
>>>>
>>>>Isaac
>>>
>>>
>>> Just how much power when new? Most were 500 or 750 watt compared to
>>> the 1200 or 1500 of today making them much faster.
>>
>>
>>We just bought a new one and it is 1,300 watt/$80 as compared to the 700
>>watt/$600 unit it replaced
>
>
> this is very interesting George...would you care to mention the name
> of the manufacturer for us?
>
> Regards,
> Bill

I'll interject here... A year and a half ago we bought a Panasonic that
has 1350 watt power. IIRC, we paid $89 for it. It has many of the new
automated features, but the best feature is "Turbo Inverter Power" which
controls the output level of the magnetron tube at variable power
settings. Conventional units cycle the magnetron tube off and on to
achieve the power setting selected, thus averaging the output for a given
setting. You'll notice this in a conventional oven when a dish boils for
a few seconds, then stops boiling for a few seconds. The panasonic is
truly operating at, say, 70% constant power when it's set at 70%. This
produces more even consistent cooking.

Wayne