I am currently in Iraq, and had my wife send me a microwave oven from the US. We have 120V 50 Hertz available, but the microwave specifications require 120V, 60 Hertz. Is this the reason the microwave does not cook? And if so, is there anything that I can buy to bump the hertz up to 60?
Thanks,
Mitch
Yes.
The magnetron tube is set to work on 60 Hz. Using it on 50 Hz not only won’t cook your food, but will likely damage the microwave.
When I was stationed in Sicily in the Navy, we ran into these problems.
Try ordering a microwave from an exchange in Germany or Italy. European power is set to 50 Hz, and you can adjust the voltage easily using a transformer.
Hope this helps. Thank you for your service to our country.
I have to add, there’s nothing you can do cheaply to adjust the frequency of the line.
Much cheaper to buy the German microwave and a transformer.
EscapeArtist knows all about living somewhere else and they say:
I don’t know about desktop computers, but my laptops (and I have had several) all seem to be happy with either 50 or 60 cycles and any voltage between 100 and 240.
I will take other people’s word for microwaves, but better than Germany might be Japan which has both 50 and 60 Hz at 100 V. The difference between 100 and 110 V is not likely to be significant.
The tube itself works on DC–actually pulsed DC in practice, to be precise. It doesn’t really care what the line frequency is. All the control electronics also run on DC, which is rectified from the output of a small transformer, usually on the main circuit board.
The components most affected by the change in line frequency are the transformers, in fact. Nevertheless, most transformers designed to work on 60 Hz will also work just fine for 50, and vice versa. There is a caveat, however: a transformer’s power handling capacity is based on frequency and core size (in large part). Thus, in general, a transformer with a given core size will handle less power as the frequency drops. This is the reason aircraft normally use 400 Hz power–the transformers, motors and other inductive components can be much smaller and lighter than their 60 Hz counterparts. In aviation weight is everything. The point is, that if the transformer is being driven at its maximum power-handling capacity on 60 Hz, then running on 50 Hz may overwork it, and cause failure.
Your oven most probably will work fine, but it may fail sooner than expected, or it may even fail immediately, if the engineers played it close to the vest.
An excellent discussion of such matters. Note that microwaves are specifically mentioned as being impractical for taking overseas. You’ve got a boat anchor there.
I lived overseas for about 12 years. Regardless of the technical explanation about why it shouldn’t be a problem, in my experience the largest complaint from Americans was the microwave oven either not working or burning out. After frying two of them myself, I bought a Euro model.
A common problem overseas, particularly in 3rd world countries, is voltage fluctuations that can spike upwards of 20%. This can be lethal for unprotected electronic equipment. Given your location, even if you purchase a Euro microwave, I would recommend a surge protector for all your electronic gadgets such as stereos and TVs. You can also purchase line conditioners, but the cost goes up dramatically with the rated tolerance.