Three Reasons to Buy a Microwave

Time-Efficient

• Foods cooked in a microwave take less time to cook than a traditional oven. You can boil water in one minute, boil pasta in a microwavable pasta maker in 10 minutes and cook a hot dog in 25 seconds. You can place food in a microwave, set the timer and walk away. When the microwave timer runs out, it shuts off.

Functions

• The defrost function of a microwave defrosts foods quickly; even if you forget to take your dinner foods out of the freezer until it's nearly dinner time, you can still make the food for dinner by using the defrost feature. You can warm leftovers in the microwave quicker than you can warm the same food over the stove or in the oven. A hamburger patty takes 45 seconds to warm, roughly, and a plate of lasagna takes about two minutes 40 seconds. Some microwaves have a "Popcorn" function for making microwave popcorn. All you do is place the bag of popcorn in the microwave and press the "Popcorn" button. The microwave determines when the majority of kernels are popped and turns off by itself.

Cost

• The cost of microwaves has come down dramatically since the units first appeared on store shelves in the 1970s. You can buy a 1.6-cubic-foot microwave for $177 or a 1.2-cubic-foot unit for $105 in early 2011. A microwave's cost depends on its size, its features and its manufacturer. Operating costs of a microwave are lower than toaster ovens, electric ovens and gas ovens, according to the Consumer Energy Center. As a comparison, assuming you are cooking a casserole and the cost of electricity is 8 cents a Kilowatt hour (kWh) and gas is 60 cents per therm, a gas oven would cost 7 cents for one hour of cooking, an electric oven would cost 16 cents for one hour and a microwave would cost 3 cents for 15 minutes.

Microwave Foods

• Cost, functions and time are three good reasons for buying a microwave, but there is another reason. Manufacturers continue to make microwavable foods that cook quickly in the microwave. Soups in cups, pizza breads, pizzas, popcorn, TV dinners and full-size dinners are just some of the foods that you can make in a microwave.