Are microwaves without a turntable any good?

Thankfully, microwaves without this spinning contraption do exist. Surprisingly, these flatbed microwaves are just as good as the ones with a turntable and sometimes they’re even better! They’re generally easier to clean and more versatile when it comes to the size and shape of what’s being microwaved.

An OTG is best used for baking, toasting, and grilling. For example, you can bake cakes, grill meat, and toast bread with ease. A convection microwave can perform all of these functions and reheat, cook, and de-freeze, which the OTG cannot.

‘You can still use your microwave without the glass plate; however, it is worth noting that it won’t work quite as effectively as before,’ says Mark Greig, head of supplier management at Marks Electrical (opens in new tab).

‘ However, having a broken plate does not need to be a big problem. As Mark suggests, you can still use your microwave before rushing to replace it. It is just wise to replace it after some time to avoid overcooked food.

While conventional models use a turntable to slowly turn your food while it’s heated from the side, flatbed microwaves use a rotating antenna placed below the food to heat the food, doing away with the turntable altogether.

Plastic containers and larger plates are still safe for your flatbed appliance. That said, you should ensure that your paper, plastic, or glass plate is microwave-safe. Unlike flatbed combination microwaves, turntable microwave ovens use a rotating plate to distribute the electromagnetic field around your food.

Between 1964 and 1966, Sharp introduced the first microwave oven with a turntable, an alternative means to promote more even heating of food.

Can You Use a Microwave Without the Glass Plate? Yes, you can use a microwave without a glass plate. However, it is not as effective as having the glass plate in place. The microwaves will heat the food more evenly if there is something rotating it while it is being heated.

Panasonic says that inverter technology “delivers a seamless stream of cooking power even at lower settings for precision cooking that preserves the flavour and texture of your favourite foods”.

No Turntables: Most of us are familiar with the spinning plate inside every household microwave. Because commercial microwaves are built to hold higher quantities of food, the dishes are too large to rotate. Heat is also distributed much more evenly in commercial units, removing the need for turntables.

Convection ovens use convection heat to provide uniform reheating with the movement of air, while a grill microwave does as the name suggests. You’ll be able to grill food, as well as perform simple reheating tasks. Unlike convection microwave ovens, the microwave grill uses direct heat with a power grill feature.

This is because of the frequency of both devices clash with each other. Bothyour Wi-Fi modem and your microwave ovenare operating at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. However, only Wi-Fi devices transmit data, whereas microwaves emit signals in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band.

Part of the functional design is the spinning turntable in the middle. That spin is not just to show off your food as it cooks. It’s to distribute the microwave’s heat evenly throughout the dish. So when your microwave plate stops spinning, it can be a real problem.