Why Do Microwaves Spin? [Updated 2023]

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Have you ever wondered why your microwaves spin? You’re not alone. Many people are confused about the purpose of the spinning feature in a microwave. As it is a fact that almost everyone has a microwave in the kitchen. It’s an essential kitchen appliance in our kitchen.

We use the microwave to reheat our food. We just have to set a timer to stop cooking. Basically, the timer functions to reheat or cook food for a specific time and also finish the tension of forgetting to turn off the microwave. 

But have you ever wondered to know that why microwaves spin? The simple answer is that the microwave oven spins around and around when it heats up your and the microwave does so to make sure that they are bouncing around inside the chamber of a microwave and are applied to all static areas similar to the food evenly to standing columns of energy waves.

 These waves move too fast that they collide head-on to create heat in the same area but not others. This specific area of contact is the standing column. The rotating plate inside the microwave was designed to help rotate areas of the food to cook properly under these wave areas.

Basically, the Spinning of food you place inside the microwave plate helps to divide the heat throughout the food. This process provides quick hot food. All microwaves are engineered with a “wave stirrer” that distributes the waves around the oven, but it’s impossible to make this process perfect.

All microwaves spin which allows this high-energy focus on the standing column to be spread around the food. This distributes the heat evenly throughout the food. So, we are going to cover the topic “Why do microwaves spin”? In detail, you just need to read this helpful article to consider the basic things.

Why do microwaves spin?

Basically, the microwave oven heats up the meal by using microwaves which are the type of radiation, the short length radio waves. This radiation is created by the magnetron and bounces around inside the microwave, reflecting off the metal inner walls of the microwave, until it is absorbed by that meal which is placed inside.

These waves just focus on certain areas where they are higher in energy while having the area where the heat is much lower. Just because the Radio waves are some inches in wavelength that will make the difference between the higher energy waves noticeable in the size of your microwave.

Do Microwaves need To Rotate?

Microwaves Spin

If your microwave has a turntable platter, then it needs to rotate in order to heat up your food properly. In this way, the microwave energy bounces around inside the appliance. So if there will occur any technical issue when you use a microwave that’s stopped rotating, then it will not heat up the meal so, you’ll have to stop, stir the contents again, and restart the process. So in this way, microwaves always need to rotate.

Why Do Some Microwaves Not Spin?

Yes, that is true, there is some microwave that does not spin. Basically, some microwaves have a flatbed design. The heat is created at the base of the microwave, and after that, this heat is distributed evenly around the cooking area. These microwave does not spin because they are just designed like that to heat up the meal without spinning.

How do you fix a microwave spinner?

You can fix a microwave oven spinner easily by following the steps, below!

  • First of all, you have to unplug your microwave.
  • No, you should remove the roller tray.
  • Next, you have to remove the roller guide.
  • Now, remove the drive coupler.
  • Here you have to flip the microwave over on its back to check it from the bottom.
  • Here, you have to remove all the bottom panel screws.
  • Now remove the wires carefully from the drive motor.
  • Here you have to replace the drive motor.
  • Now you have to Reassemble the bottom panel of the microwave oven and screw it back on properly.
  • Now you have to turn the microwave to standing up.
  • Now, Place the drive couplers properly,
  • Next, place the roller guide back,
  • Finally, you have to place the roller tray back on.
  • Now plug your microwave into the outlet
  • And check that the microwave is spinning and heating.

What happens if my microwave spins the other way?

Microwaves Spin

Some microwaves stop and reverse the direction of rotation, so don’t worry it is just because of the peculiarity of the design of such microwaves. Basically, it’s designed to do with small motors to use as little energy to start moving in a certain direction, nothing else. After a certain position, it’s less energy to start reversing the direction than it is turning.

Is it dangerous if your microwave doesn’t spin?

Generally speaking, there is no danger if your microwave does not spin. It shouldn’t cause any harm directly to humans. As usual, the rotation of the meal doesn’t benefit the microwave itself in any way. However, it’s specifically used to cook food properly so if your microwave does not spin that means you must need to check carefully for uncooked areas of your meal.

When you see the spinning of a plate in your microwave, it ensures that the food is cooked evenly throughout. A spinning tray not working is just a common issue. So don’t worry about the spinning. Sometimes you put your food into the microwave at different angles and the microwave does not spin. Failure of the drive motor can cause it to stop spinning but it does not affect the microwave itself.

Conclusion

We are sure that, our useful guide has answered your questions!  Microwaves are designed to rotate the heat of the meal evenly and prevent cold spots of meal development. During this process after setting the timer, your microwave starts to spin. We hope so, this article on “Why do microwaves spin”? Will help you a lot!

Sania Imtiaz

Hi, My name is Sania Imtiaz and I’m from Pakistan. I’m a housewife. And I Love cooking. And I’m a believer in making life peacefully with FOOD. I’m doing cocking from the last 10 years and I’m sharing all my knowledge related to cooking on TheKitchenWaves.com. I’m sharing all my experience on this site related to cooking products.

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