Science!
Too complicated for this pup. My rule of paw is that if it’s a prepared frozen food that simply calls for heating on high, that’s what I do. If it calls for stirring halfway, I just cook on 50% power for twice the time. If it’s non-frozen leftovers I just use my judgment based on experience.
Curiously, freshly prepared non-frozen foods seem to have ridiculously too-low reheating times, whether in the microwave or in the oven, so I’ve learned to compensate for that. It’s certainly not a fault of my microwave or regular oven which work just fine otherwise.
For example, the fresh rice or noodle bowls that I like, like Szechuan Beef on rice, call for microwaving on high for 2 to 2½ minutes. Gimme a break – those things are big, and come within a hair of weighing a full pound. After taking it out of a cold fridge, I find that it takes nearly 4 minutes to really get it good and hot throughout.
Likewise prepared dinners like chicken souvlaki with rice and roast potatoes that I reheat in the regular oven say to cover with foil and put it in at 400F for (I swear) 7 to 10 minutes. Again, I request to be given a freaking break! 7-10 minutes will barely even start to get it lukewarm. What are these people thinking?
I just used the “Sensor Reheat” button to heat a very large plate of roast, potatoes, and carrots. It did a serviceable job. Most of the food was hot with a few cooler spots mainly in the potatoes. I have no idea how it does it. I assume it measures steam or something. I wish there was a way to know if and how it was changing the power output.
For donuts that are a few days old, I put them in for 30 seconds at 40% and they soften up to nicely. I also use the auto defrost on occasion for frozen tamales to get them unfrozen (they are then cooked on default high power).
I use reduced power when melting butter for popcorn and for thawing frozen meat. Other than that, full power.
Also in the microwave you boil just enough, and when making tea or something you don’t have to pour the water from the pan into your cup. Our microwave is above the oven, and gets disabled when the oven is on the clean cycle, and it was a pain to heat coffee in a saucepan.
That seems like an annoying “feature”.
I suspect it is to prevent the electronics for the microwave from overheating from the oven. It is definitely annoying.
Took us back to the days before we owned a microwave.
Typically I run it at setting 9, effectively “high” but not quite since the one I have now is a little more high wattage than my last one. Some frozen foods recommend half power for some of their cooking, and I’ll use it at that level then. For re-heating foods I normally use full power 30 seconds at a time, stirring or flipping the food between reheats.