this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
150 points (94.1% liked)
Asklemmy
43850 readers
900 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Be very careful doing this. The water can become superheated and explode when the surface tension is broken. Honestly, it's probably better to find an alternative way to clean your microwave.
Couldn't you put a little salt or something in it to make sure it has a nucleation point to start boiling
I'm not sure. That sounds like it might work, but I don't have any source to know if it will.
Ok now I want to do it more
There's nothing special about a microwave that will superheat water. You can superheat water on a stovetop, but nobody ever says not to boil water on a stove.
my knob goes to 11
Exactly the same as water being superheated in a microwave, no nucleation sites.
I've boiled water in the microwave thousands of times, it's never been superheated. It's does not easily happen in a microwave.
Every time I've seen someone test out this microwave myth, they use distilled water and a new container.
So then the recommendation should be 'never boil filtered water in the microwave, and never boil filtered water in a new pot on a stove', not 'never boil water in a microwave'.
Edit: or maybe 'Never boil filtered water in a glass or ceramic container' that makes it clear that the method of heating is irrelevant, it's the condition of the water and container that is important.
Metal forks are the problem. Sparking occurs between the sharp tips. Supposedly spoons are safe, but I don't have any first-hand experience with this.