Some good comments from the last time around:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25093704

As someone who does a ton of home cooking, my dream is for a microwave with built-in IR camera.

I don't ever want to type in a duration/power -- I want to type in a desired final temperature, which is all that actually ever matters. E.g. 60°F to defrost, 110°F for reheating my salmon, 135°F for reheating my burger, 165°F for my soup, 210°F for water to boil for my tea.

It would cook until a single hot spot reaches the desired temperature, then pause for heat to equalize/spread until there is no spot within x degrees of the desired temperature (fuzzy logic!), start cooking until new hot spot, and repeat until the entire object is within x degrees.

For particularly thick/large objects, specify to "hold" at the desired final temperature for n minutes at the end, or even better use some intelligent calculations around the rate of decrease of temperature on the outside to determine whether the inside is at target temperature or far from it.

I just don't understand why this isn't a standard feature on microwaves these days. Or at least on premium models.

That would definitely be great, and I'm also wondering why we don't actually have this.

That said, given the current trends of our industry, I'm afraid that we will get connected microwaves that leaks private data and publishes to TikTok (or whatever) sooner than this actually useful feature.

this is honestly a great idea. It sounds hard but doable. Microwaving properly is in art though.. I find myself juggling between lower power to high power to avoid absolutely destroying the food.

But seriously, someone make what OP is saying

I know it's not the same at all but do you know that microwaves often have a steam sensor these days? It works pretty well.

As someone who hates the "touch screen" buttons on new premium microwaves, and as someone who hates mechanical keyboards, this is amazing.

The same is happening with automobile UX design. Everything is going to touch screen interfaces when physical buttons are so much more practical. I want a car manufacturer to buck the trend and go full Cherry-MX on all of their buttons. It might not get me to buy the car straight away but it sure would be a big bonus.

It's not as extreme as that, but Mazda is very good about this. They ditched the touch screen entirely for a rotary knob only infotainment interface, and physical buttons and switches for effectively all controls. Still has a big high quality screen, but no touch input.

It was a big selling point for me, among many other thoughtful design touches. I hate touch screens in cars.

Did they change that recently? My Mazda is a few years old and while it does have a touch screen, it only works when you're stopped (and it doesn't seem to work at all in android auto/carplay).

Absolutely love the tactile feedback from the knob that clicks at each position as you turn it. Also putting physical shortcut buttons to take you directly to the "now playing" screen of whatever is playing media or to whatever navigation tool is active is wonderful.

Yep! They ditched the touchscreen for 2021 (in my CX-5 at least), along with the whole infotainment overhaul. It's a big upgrade over the previous system. The screen is large and very good quality.

This is cool, but my preference for a microwave is one that only has 2 buttons: +30sec and clear/off.

That's it. Just press 30 seconds and it turns on for 30 seconds. Want two minutes? Press it 4 times. Want it to stop? Press clear.

So you want to have to press a button 20 times to put your microwave on for 10 minutes? What do you have against keypads?

From my observation, people tend to use microwaves 2 different ways.

Either they're for quickly reheating small amounts of leftovers or maybe boiling a cup of water for tea, and you have no idea for how long, in which +30 is all you need. You never do more than 2 minutes at a time. You'd never put something in for 10 minutes.

The other way is the microwave as a kitchen tool, where you do things like put in a large frozen family-size something (soup, veggies, etc.) and reheat it on 20% power for 20 minutes.

The 2-button microwave is awesome for the former group. It's useless for the latter group.

I often have used the microwave as a timer/alarm before switching that function to my phone.

Since the 30 second button is there anyways I can't really see why both groups wouldn't be satisfied with the current arrangement.

I'm like the OC, I have no need for a microwave for 20min, just 3min max at the time. I don't need programs and what not.

An office I worked in had a microwave that had only a single dial. The dial had time increments on a pseudo-logarithmic scale from 10 seconds up to tens of minutes. Turn clockwise to turn on, turn counterclockwise to turn off/clear. It was nice because you could also decrease the time mid-cook if you decided that you didn't want to as long and were fine eating a slightly colder lunch.

Then why not buy the cheap one I have and glue a piece of plastic over the other buttons?

I'll even make a nice looking piece of plastic for you.

Unfortunately todays Microwaves regressed in functionality from the model in the 90s.

Those models were actually smart, even though they had no Wifi.

Our original microwave had 2 twist knobs. One was a mechanical kitchen timer for run time. No start button - just turn the knob and it's running. It even rang an actual bell when done. The other was for power level.

I've still got one like that. Microwaves don't really wear out, so why replace them?

my parents used one of those for 20 years until the knob broke when moving. they have gone through probably a dozen microwaves since.

My Panasonic has an inverter which is really a gamechanger. This wasn't around in the 90s.

The inverter keeps the power level steady, is that correct? For someone that that uses their microwave in a 100% or nothing fashion, would I gain from buying an inverter model when mine bites the dust?

Good variable power is amazing. I'm usually not in a huge rush and heating a meal over 5min rather than <1min will give you a much more evenly heated meal for no additional effort on my hand.

Color me convinced :)

I also have a Panasonic inverter model. I find the pre-programmed defrost modes are too aggressive, so I prefer defrosting things more gradually by turning the power level down to 3/10 and setting the timer. Turning down the power and cooking longer are also useful for reheating thicker foods such as lasagna or casseroles so the center has more time to heat up and the edges are not overdone.

It allows for variable power levels.

That's great for defrosting, melting chocolate, etc.

This reminded me of this video covering this exact topic https://youtu.be/UiS27feX8o0