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Can plates "become" non-microwave safe?

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  • 14-09-2020 3:05pm
    #1
    corblimey
    Registered Users Posts: 4,475 ✭✭✭


    Not sure if it belongs here, but I'll give it a go.

    I've got plain white plates I bought from Dunnes many years ago that are marked as dishwasher- and microwave-safe. I've used them hundreds of times for heating up food until last weekend, I was heating up something, I can't remember what, and when the plate came out, it was burning hot, enough that my fingers were sore from touching it and I had to run them under cold water for a while. No lasting pain or damage. The plate had been in for maybe a minute 30.

    Then this weekend, I was just heating up one of the plates (1 min in the mw) so that it could act as a hot plate for a steak to rest). I left the room and when I came back, the plate had split in half in the microwave. It was also burning hot when I took it out (this time with gloves).

    I don't know if it was the same plate or a different one, but these 2 incidents suggest these plates may be losing their microwave safeness. Is that a thing?


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    #2
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,345 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Also interested in this. I have a cheap mug that I'm sure has been in the microwave dozens of times, I'd be heating up a small drop of milk before filling the mug with coffee. It would only be in the microwave on 450W for 40 seconds but recently I've started to notice that the mug handle is hot when I'm taking it out of the microwave, even though the top of the liquid is well below the level of the handle so the heat could not have conducted through the mug to the handle that fast :confused:


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    #3
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,422 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    I wonder if it's due to the glaze cracking imperceptibly and moisture getting in. Putting a piece of ceramic compromised in this way into a microwave would result in that trapped moisture boiling rapidly and expanding, blowing it apart.


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    #4
    Spocker
    Moderators Posts: 6,853 ✭✭✭Spocker


    corblimey wrote: »
    I don't know if it was the same plate or a different one, but these 2 incidents suggest these plates may be losing their microwave safeness. Is that a thing?

    The microwave is a common denominator here too, could it be on the way out?


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    #5
    colm_mcm
    Registered Users Posts: 73,384 ✭✭✭✭colm_mcm


    corblimey wrote: »
    Not sure if it belongs here, but I'll give it a go.

    I've got plain white plates I bought from Dunnes many years ago that are marked as dishwasher- and microwave-safe. I've used them hundreds of times for heating up food until last weekend, I was heating up something, I can't remember what, and when the plate came out, it was burning hot, enough that my fingers were sore from touching it and I had to run them under cold water for a while. No lasting pain or damage. The plate had been in for maybe a minute 30.

    Then this weekend, I was just heating up one of the plates (1 min in the mw) so that it could act as a hot plate for a steak to rest). I left the room and when I came back, the plate had split in half in the microwave. It was also burning hot when I took it out (this time with gloves).

    I don't know if it was the same plate or a different one, but these 2 incidents suggest these plates may be losing their microwave safeness. Is that a thing?

    I would say running the cold tap on the hot plate would have damaged it.


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    #6
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Alun wrote: »
    I wonder if it's due to the glaze cracking imperceptibly and moisture getting in. Putting a piece of ceramic compromised in this way into a microwave would result in that trapped moisture boiling rapidly and expanding, blowing it apart.

    We were told never to put an empty dish or cup etc in the microwave. Always with food or liquid as else the plate etc would break. Seems that was right.


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    #7
    KildareP
    Registered Users Posts: 1,445 ✭✭✭KildareP


    The microwave energy has to go somewhere.

    If it's not being absorbed into food or liquid then it's going to go into the plate itself and heat it up.



    You also run the risk of damaging the microwave itself running it empty, or near empty.


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