Microwave oven is causing fluctuations in our digital scale
February 24, 2016 7:16 AM Subscribe
When our microwave oven is running, the digital scale fluctuates slightly. Is this something to be concerned about?
I found this WikiHow article on how to check a microwave for leaks. I'm honestly just wondering whether a microwave leak would be a cause for the digital scale to fluctuate, or if it's "natural" and we should just ignore it.
Thanks!
I found this WikiHow article on how to check a microwave for leaks. I'm honestly just wondering whether a microwave leak would be a cause for the digital scale to fluctuate, or if it's "natural" and we should just ignore it.
Thanks!
Is the scale plugged into the wall? What happens when you run a blender?
Like, are you sure it's the MICROWAVE doing it, or is it actually a power-drawing appliance being in use that's causing it? The TV in my parents' kitchen always goes haywire any time the microwave, blender, or mixer is run.
posted by phunniemee at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Like, are you sure it's the MICROWAVE doing it, or is it actually a power-drawing appliance being in use that's causing it? The TV in my parents' kitchen always goes haywire any time the microwave, blender, or mixer is run.
posted by phunniemee at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Under normal operation, a microwave oven produces lots of electromagnetic waves of various types, and generates a magnetic field. It would not surprise me if this caused your scale to fluctuate if it were close to the oven. On the other hand, I don't see why microwaves by themselves would affect your scale.
You can test this by putting your scale equally close to some other microwave oven. If it still fluctuates, it's probably normal.
posted by ubiquity at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
You can test this by putting your scale equally close to some other microwave oven. If it still fluctuates, it's probably normal.
posted by ubiquity at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Moar info: The scale is battery-powered. (Escali digital scale, specifically.)
posted by XtinaS at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2016
posted by XtinaS at 7:35 AM on February 24, 2016
did you follow any of the tests in that link?
if i were you, i'd try those, and also take my scales round to a suitably nerdy friend's house to test against their microwave.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2016
if i were you, i'd try those, and also take my scales round to a suitably nerdy friend's house to test against their microwave.
posted by andrewcooke at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2016
It is probably less 'Microwaves' and some other electromagnetic wave coming from the microwave it self. Back at an old job we had a few digital scales that when we pointed the antenna of our handheld radios at and pressed the send button, we could make the numbers go up and down (we had a lot of down time).
posted by Captain_Science at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Captain_Science at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
It could just be the vibrations. How close is the scale to the microwave? can you put it on another surface near the microwave but not connected to it?
posted by missmagenta at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2016
posted by missmagenta at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2016
Microwaves are radio waves, specifically small radio waves. (Radio waves can get really huge, like kilometers long, and still be considered radio.)
Phase I: You can block these microwaves with metal foil-- wrap up your microwave or your scale, whichever's easiest, to block the microwaves for a test. You don't want to make a habit of running a microwave covered in foil, because it has vents to release hot air, and an overheating microwave is an unhappy one, but a 30-second test (have a cup of water or something in the microwave) will be no problem. If the interference has gone away, the microwave is the source, but don't worry yet; continue with the next phase.
Phase II: test the microwave (without foil on the scale or microwave) on a cup of water, and set the power to 50%. Microwaves don't drop their power level when you set a reduced power level; they just cycle the magnetron, or whatever it's called, on and off. On every microwave I've owned, I can hear a difference in the tone as the power goes on and off. You can watch and see whether the digital scale's apparent effect correlates to the microwave power. If no, then the microwave is not leaking its flood of cooking microwaves, but may yet be leaking some minor electronic noise, which the foil test would also block.
I agree with the vibrations hypothesis from missmagenta above. Some digital displays appear solid, thanks to some work our brains are doing to preserve persistence of vision, but the scale display may in fact be refreshing/flickering at a high rate of speed, and small vibrations make make this noticeable. It's more typical with LED displays than LCD, but stick a fat towel under the scale and see if that makes a difference.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:29 AM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Phase I: You can block these microwaves with metal foil-- wrap up your microwave or your scale, whichever's easiest, to block the microwaves for a test. You don't want to make a habit of running a microwave covered in foil, because it has vents to release hot air, and an overheating microwave is an unhappy one, but a 30-second test (have a cup of water or something in the microwave) will be no problem. If the interference has gone away, the microwave is the source, but don't worry yet; continue with the next phase.
Phase II: test the microwave (without foil on the scale or microwave) on a cup of water, and set the power to 50%. Microwaves don't drop their power level when you set a reduced power level; they just cycle the magnetron, or whatever it's called, on and off. On every microwave I've owned, I can hear a difference in the tone as the power goes on and off. You can watch and see whether the digital scale's apparent effect correlates to the microwave power. If no, then the microwave is not leaking its flood of cooking microwaves, but may yet be leaking some minor electronic noise, which the foil test would also block.
I agree with the vibrations hypothesis from missmagenta above. Some digital displays appear solid, thanks to some work our brains are doing to preserve persistence of vision, but the scale display may in fact be refreshing/flickering at a high rate of speed, and small vibrations make make this noticeable. It's more typical with LED displays than LCD, but stick a fat towel under the scale and see if that makes a difference.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:29 AM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
If your microwave oven is clean and undamaged - especially the door hinges and seals - then I think it's most likely that this is just poor design of the digital scales. A microwave oven's acceptable power leakage is 1 milliwatt/square centimetre, which could total five or six watts - a level that in my experience is plenty high enough to disturb the operation of lots of consumer electronics if in close proximity. Scales will have quite a large surface area themselves, which can be difficult to shield effectively, and a few inches of internal wiring makes a very effective antenna at the frequencies we're talking about. A lot of current gadgets are not well shielded, especially (but by no means exclusively) cheap stuff from China.
So I'd echo the idea of trying the scales with another microwave oven, putting them in roughly the same position. If the problem persists, then simply moving the scales further away will most likely calm things down. But it could just be that they're sensitive to that sort of radio signal.
posted by Devonian at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
So I'd echo the idea of trying the scales with another microwave oven, putting them in roughly the same position. If the problem persists, then simply moving the scales further away will most likely calm things down. But it could just be that they're sensitive to that sort of radio signal.
posted by Devonian at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
The thing that generates microwaves is called a Magnetron. As it's name suggests it makes a BIG magnet field. Poorly designed electronics don't respond well to being in magnet fields, your scale is susceptible to this.
Don't worry, everything is fine.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:43 AM on February 24, 2016
Don't worry, everything is fine.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:43 AM on February 24, 2016
Some solid-state scales have a semiconductor (? iirc) beam that makes a dandy half or quarter wave antenna for microwave oven frequencies. They tend to go a bit nuts when the oven's going, but they're not necessarily indicating a problem.
posted by scruss at 1:01 PM on February 24, 2016
posted by scruss at 1:01 PM on February 24, 2016
Is your microwave emitting any kind of fan exhaust? My sensitive digital scales sometimes fluctuate slightly when they pick up the passing breeze from my ducted air-conditioner.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 8:31 PM on February 24, 2016
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 8:31 PM on February 24, 2016
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