The microwave oven is now an essential part of most kitchens. An important part of microwave oven safety is proper use and care, as recommended by the user manual. If you have a microwave oven, you have to know how to use of your microwave oven safely. Here is more information to help ensure safe use of your microwave oven.

• Follow the manufacturer’s instruction manual for recommended operating procedures and safety precautions. Read the instructions thoroughly and keep them handy.
• Make sure that the microwave oven is at least three inches back from the edge of the place, where you will place it.
• Use only the cord that came with your microwave to plug into an outlet. Do not use an extension cord. A Microwave oven needs a heavy duty cord going straight into the wall outlet for best performance. If the plug or cord is damaged, do not use the oven.
• Generally, microwave ovens should not be operated when empty. Refer to the instruction manual for your microwave oven.
• Use microwave-safe containers. Put only microwave-safe containers in your microwave. This ensures that your container would not melt or put harmful chemicals to the food that you are heating. Do not use foam trays and plastic wraps because they are not heat stable at high temperatures. Generally, metal pans or aluminum foil should not be used because microwaves reflect off them, causing food to cook unevenly and possibly damaging the oven.
• If the food is covered during heating, make sure to leave a small portion vented, or uncovered, so steam does not build up and burn you when the covering is removed.
• Microwave cooking can expand foods, such as hot dogs, sausages, potatoes, chicken liver, tomatoes, apples and they can burst. To avoid this, make some holes in them with a fork when you cook them.
• Do not heat water or other liquids beyond the time recommended by the manufacturer or any recipe. Superheating can occur when plain water is heated in a clean cup for an excessive amount of time. The water will look innocuous, but when moved it can erupt out of the cup.
• Follow food’s microwave heating instructions. Make sure to follow the microwave heating instructions written on food containers to retain the food taste quality and to ensure your safety. Foods like hot dogs, for example, explode when heated in the microwave without holes.
• After the microwave cooking you did is ready, wait at least a minute before handling that cookware. After waiting, pick up the cookware using an oven mitt or oven pads and be careful. The cookware may still be very hot enough to burn your hand.
• It is a good practice to stand 3-4 feet away from the microwave when it is operating.
• NEVER try to repair your microwave oven. It is a complex appliance that includes a high voltage transformer, a magnetron, control systems, and complicated circuits.

Microwave ovens are a marvel of modern kitchen technology. Today, microwave ovens are very popular because they cook food in an amazingly short time. Conventional ovens heat food slowly from the outside in, but microwave ovens cook food from the inside out. This is why microwave ovens can cook faster than conventional ovens.

Microwave ovens are also very efficient in their use of electricity because a microwave oven directly heats the food — and not the container. Therefore microwave ovens cook immediately without waiting for the food container to heat up to a high temperature first.

Cooking with Electromagnetic Waves
A microwave oven uses microwaves to heat food. The microwaves used to heat food in microwave ovens have a wavelength of 12.2 cm and a frequency of 2.45 GHz (gigahertz). Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic wave and occupy a part of the electromagnetic spectrum between FM radio waves and infrared rays.
Microwaves in this frequency range have an interesting property: they are absorbed by water, sugar, and fats. When the microwaves are absorbed they are directly converted into molecular motion. This molecular motion generates heat. Microwaves in this frequency range have another interesting property: they are not absorbed by most plastics, glass or ceramics. Metal reflects microwaves, which is why metal pans do not work well as a food container in a microwave oven.

How Do Microwaves Heat Food?
A water molecule (H2O) consists of three atoms: two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom. The water molecule is “polar molecules”, meaning that they arranged their electrons in such a manner that the positive charges are on one side of the molecule and the negative charges are on the other side.
The microwaves constantly change the electric fields in the water molecules, making the water molecules rotate in order to minimize the force both their polar sides. This molecular motion generates heat in the water molecules.
Since organic matter is made up primarily of water, food is easily heated by this method. Dry foods such as rice and pasta will not cook in a microwave unless they are in some water.

How A Microwave Oven Works?
A microwave oven has several main parts. Inside the strong metal box, there is a microwave generator tube called a magnetron. When you start cooking, the magnetron takes in electrical energy through a transformer and converts it into microwaves. The waves go through a channel called wave guide, where they are directed into the cooking chamber. A fan-like device called a stirrer disperses the microwaves evenly as they leave the wave guide. The food sits on a turntable, spinning slowly round so the microwaves cook it evenly. The metal interior of the cooking chamber reflects the microwaves (they can not penetrate metal), helping the dispersion of those microwaves.

The microwave generation system is supported by several control and safety systems such as the door safety system, which stops the wave production, if the door of the oven is suddenly opened. The temperature control system controls the maximum temperature inside the cooking chamber.