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My microwave declared thermonuclear war on my house
Lewisham
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello all,
Today I was trying to thaw a bread roll in my microwave. I've done it before (5 minutes, 10% power) and no problem. I popped it in, set 5 minutes, then went to do some other stuff.
I come back to find smoke billowing out of the microwave, the room thick with smoke. I turned it off and opened the door, and found this after the smoke cleared:
The plate snapped after I opened the door, presumably from the cooler outside air rushing in. There was smoking emanating from the middle of the roll.
I have never managed to burn something in the microwave, let alone have it almost ignite, so I'm a little worried.
Questions:
a) Did I forget to set the power to 10%?
b) Even if I did, is this normal operation for a microwave? I'm worried it might be dangerously broken if it can heat so much.
Today I was trying to thaw a bread roll in my microwave. I've done it before (5 minutes, 10% power) and no problem. I popped it in, set 5 minutes, then went to do some other stuff.
I come back to find smoke billowing out of the microwave, the room thick with smoke. I turned it off and opened the door, and found this after the smoke cleared:
The plate snapped after I opened the door, presumably from the cooler outside air rushing in. There was smoking emanating from the middle of the roll.
I have never managed to burn something in the microwave, let alone have it almost ignite, so I'm a little worried.
Questions:
a) Did I forget to set the power to 10%?
b) Even if I did, is this normal operation for a microwave? I'm worried it might be dangerously broken if it can heat so much.
+1
Posts
There was lots of smoke and ash involved. I'm going to default to you forgot the 10% power.
Nice touch though, adds a lot of drama to the shot
It's really easy to have, say, the tip of a broccoli floret thaw, immediately begin absorbing far more energy (because it's now full of liquid water), and become burnt before the rest of the dish is even thawed.
You probably forgot to change the power setting.
My first semester at college due to a quirk of fate I had no roommate, I was just a freshman with a whole room to myself, which had its pros and cons. Anyway, on like the fifth night after I moves in, I came back to my room late at night, put a pop tart in my microwave for a bedtime snack, then walked over and sat down at my desk.
In my sleepy state, I immediately forgot about the pop tart altogether.
Now, back home I had always put pop tarts in the toaster, but I didn't have one at school since it would pretty much have gotten used exclusively for pop tarts. So I had to use my cheap little microwave instead.
The box of pop tarts said to microwave them for just 3 seconds. I want to mention that I don't believe there is a consumer microwave made that will get pop tarts warm in 3 seconds. In my experience since this incident it typically takes more like 10-15 seconds.
It's beside the point though, because in my bleary autopilot state I set the microwave for 3 minutes. And then forgot about it.
I remembered it when the fire alarm in my room went off, along with the one in the hall, as my room started filling up with smoke, and all the other guys in my hall were emerging from their rooms in confusion. Anyway, long story short, my room smelled like pop tart cinders for the next month or so, which did not make me a popular person to come hang out with. I did (narrowly) avoid receiving "Smoky" as my devilishly creative and clever dorm nickname for the rest of my time at the school, though.
All this to say, don't put things in the microwave and forget them/leave them unattended, at least not unless its something you've cooked a bunch of times before and you know exactly how long to put it in and on what power setting to make it come out right. Or you may end up ruining a plate, or having a legend grow around you as the guy who almost burned down your dorm on your fifth day at the school.
The instructions say to microwave the tortillas for 1.5 minutes on high.
My parents had owned that Toshiba microwave for somewhere around three decades, it had survived multiple moves, being dropped down stairs, being misused and abused for longer than I had been alive. Nothing could kill it. Shit, I once tried to heat up some tomato soup with the stainless steel soup spoon still in the bowl. The fireworks and lightshow meant the soup and the spoon were both discarded, but the microwave? Not a mark, still worked like brand new. Nothing could kill it!
Except for Melanie.
She misread the tortilla instructions as 15 minutes on high...
After about 8 or 9 minutes, I could smell something. I walk into the kitchen, smoke is PUMPING out of the microwave... The tortillas were quickly dispatched into the backyard (via the kitchen window), and the venerable old microwave was switched off. Unfortunately, that was the way it stayed. There was no method sufficient to get rid of that pungent smell of burning plastic mixed with glowing nuclear tortilla remains.
Vale the old woodgrain veneer Toshiba. It served us well.
Watching the microwave from now on... I will do that.
About a minute and a half later the smoke alarm went off.
I had to use a fire extinguisher, and rightly got chewed-out for almost setting the kitchen on fire.
Lesson learned.
At my school if anyone set off the smoke alarm the entire dorm building had to be evacuated. Even if the smoke alarm went off almost immediately no one could go back inside until the whole building was searched by the RAs to make sure no one tried to stay inside.
So everyone had to wait outside. On a hill. In the winter. In Minnesota.
Same way at oregon state. We had one get pulled as a prank one night in the middle of winter. Bunch of people outside in their underwear, in the freezing cold, while we wait for the fire department to walk around and confirm no fires existed. On the plus side it was a coed dorm.
Hmm...reminds me of another story.
I don't know exactly how the system worked at my school, or at least I don't remember anymore...or maybe they changed the system in between the previous incident and the one I am about to relate.
But a year or two later on the morning that almost the entire school was leaving for a Thanksgiving or Christmas break...don't remember which, but think late November or December, in Virginia...the fire alarm did go off in my dorm for some reason, except it wasn't one of the little round dealies in the halls like you probably have in your house, this time it was one hard-wired into the building so it was this deafeningly loud klaxon and all of the safety lights in the common areas were strobing.
So there were like 50 of us who hadn't left yet who had to troop outside and stand in the cold while the fire department came to check things out, because it was mandatory policy if those alarms went off. They rolled up in their trucks and went inside with axes and everything (why I have no idea) and apparently checked out every room while we stood around and shivered.
To my knowledge, there was no fire. I asked the head RA what the deal was when they finally let us back inside and he just smirked and shook his head. I guess maybe it was a drill. If it was, I'm not sure I understand the logic of having it right then.
Actually, this reminds me that back during that first semester,I was totally paranoid for a while about a full-scale fire drill where we'd all have to go outside because I had heard they virtually always did one early in the year for the "benefit" of all the newly-arrived freshmen. I was waiting for it every night for like my first month and then I forgot about it entirely. There never was any drill that semester. In fact, setting aside this incident the morning break started, I don't remember there being an actual drill the entire time I was at the school.
Anyway, the stupid thing was that I was literally gathering up my last load of stuff to carry to my car to drive home for break when the damn thing went off. I should have just grabbed the last of my crap, said, "Not my problem" (I knew there was no fire in my room) gotten in my car and hit the road.
But no, I dutifully set everything down and trudged down the stars to wait outside for 30 minutes.
At least I was dressed since I was about to leave, some guys were still wearing pajamas.
One summer in the dorm we lived in when we worked for the college maintenance department, during a break one of my roommates was heating up some poptarts or something in a toaster oven. He had one of those jelly jar glasses sitting on top of the oven. When he stuff was done, he set the glass on the table and poured some milk in. When he picked up the glass to drink, the bottom of the glass stayed on the table, and the milk column made a spectacular splash.
Opening the door jostled it enough to set it off.