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Swiss Microwave Ovens are Weird... and Useful

A small thing that I haven't talked about before:

When we moved from the US to Switzerland, because there was a voltage difference, we did not take any electrical kitchen appliances with us. We've also tried to resist buying things until we were certain that we'd use them. So, we only decided to buy a microwave oven a month or two ago.

One of the first things that we noticed was that microwave ovens in Switzerland almost never have a revolving tray. A revolving tray is common in all of the higher end US microwave ovens, while only the cheapest Swiss microwave ovens had this feature. It turns out that there's a good reason for this: most Swiss microwave ovens also have conventional heating elements. They're basically a cross between a microwave and a toaster oven. 

A lot of frozen food offers 3 reheating times: oven only, microwave only, and a combination time to use with one of these combination ovens. It works pretty well, particularly with things like pizza or lasagna: the microwaves defrost the insides while the heating element browns the top. 

This design also provides another cooking space, which could be nice for large meals where you need to cook a few foods at different times and temperatures. Also, like a toaster oven, since the microwave is small, cooking with it uses less heat than the regular oven, which is nice when it's warm outside.

The downside is a bit more button and programming complexity. You need to ensure that you don't engage the conventional oven when reheating leftovers in a plastic bowl. Similarly, you don't want to accidentally turn on the microwave when heating up something in aluminium foil. The automatic settings become even harder to use: I have no idea which sensor setting enables which heating element, so as a result, I never use the sensor reheat.

I've also had to overcome years of assumptions about how hot things are when they're done. I've burned myself on conventionally heated items, and I stop to think every time before I take out a warmed up cup of coffee. 

Overall, it's a clever feature.

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