I’ve been making porridge in the same bowl and microwave for years but recently the bowl has become so hot during the process that I’m burning myself regularly. Has the microwave gone power mad?

Maybe it’s just fed up with being a microwave and can’t be bothered to do things properly any more.

My microwave is 800w, but if I follow any of the guides for that rating it nukes things into orbit. So I am voting for them getting stronger over time. Not really a problem, as in about 20 years I’ll be a nuclear power.

is the bowl ceramic?
It can get hot through the heating of moisture in the ceramic itself. It was glazed and the glazing has cracked over time, moisture during washing could have penetrated the ceramic and now been heated up.

The strength of microwave radiation is inversley proportional to the incidence of sunspots. We are in a low sunspot cycle at the moment so the microwaves are really powerful.

I believe you can buy a special power cable that cancels this out.

… they grow up to be milliwaves!

there grow up to be milliwaves!

Is there an election coming?

Yes, stoner, you may be right. Perhaps my bowl needs reglazing.

I’m off to search my box of electrical bits for some of that wire – pretty sure my grandfather pulled some out of a skip once.
Maybe I’ll just use a flask.