Whilst microwave plasmas are nothing new around here, we were curious to see what happens at 20x the power, and since YouTuber [Styropyro] had put out a new video, we couldn’t resist seeing where this was going. Clearly, as your bog standard microwave oven can only handle at most one kilowatt; the ‘oven’ needed a bit of an upgrade.
Getting hold of bigger magnetrons is tricky, but as luck — or perhaps fate — would have it, a 16 kW, water-cooled beast became available on eBay thanks to a tip from a Discord user. It was odd but perhaps not surprising that this Hitatch H0915 magnetron was being sold as a ‘heat exchanger.’
[Styropyro] doesn’t go into much detail on how to supply the anode with its specified 16 kW at 9.5 kVDC, but the usual sketchy (well down-right terrifying) transformers in the background indicate that he had just what was needed kicking around the ‘shop. Obviously, since this is a [Styropyro] video, these sorts of practical things have been discussed before, so there is no need to waste precious time and get right on to blowing stuff up!
Some classic microwave tricks are shown, like boiling water in five seconds, cooking pickles (they really do scream at 20 kW) and the grape-induced plasma-in-a-jar. It was quite clear that at this power level, containing that angry-looking plasma was quite a challenge. If it was permitted to leak out for only a few seconds, it destroyed the mica waveguide cover and risked coupling into the magnetron and frying it. Many experiments followed, a lot of which seemed to involve the production of toxic brown-colored nitrogen dioxide fumes. It was definitely good to see him wearing a respirator for this reason alone!
The main star of the demonstration was the plasma-induced emissions of various metal elements, with the rare indigo and violet colors making an appearance once the right blend of materials was introduced into the glassware. Talking of glassware, we reckon he got through a whole kitchen’s worth. We lost count of the number of exploded beakers and smashed plates. Anyway, plasma science is fun science, but obviously, please don’t try any of this at home!
For those who didn’t take an ‘electron devices’ course at college, here’s a quick guide to how magnetrons work. Plasma physics is weird; here’s how the plasma grape experiment works. Finally, this old hack is a truly terrible idea. Really don’t do this.
Always loved this guy, hope his medical concerns get sorted out and don’t cause him further issues
Totally agree. After going into the whole T level things you can’t help but feel bad for him and hope it all works out. Dude competely loves everything he does and is committed 100%. Everytime I watch something he puts out I learn something.
I do have to wonder if his off-the-charts “you must have a thyroid tumor” testosterone level has anything to do with his zeal for high-energy physics experiments.. I kid though, wishing him the best
In his video addressing the health issues initially, he said he had this problem since he was a small kid (before his mad scientist experiments), but you have to wonder if they possibly didn’t contribute
I remember an old Simpsons’ episode with Homer staring at his food in the microwave and lamenting “Oh, isn’t there anything quicker than a microwave?” and I guess now we know the answer.
“I put instant coffee in a microwave oven, and almost went back in time!”
-comedian Steven Wright
Nit picking here:
The link misspelled “Hitachi”.
And the magnetron on the link is listed at 10KW, without watching the video, did he overdrive it to get 16-20KW?
Its rated input is 16KW, he overdrives it to 20.
Yes, he did. (I watched the video)
I just finished watching it.
Crazy stuff!
Yes, hence the violently flashing lights and burning smell :) Exceeding design limits by 2x doesn’t last long, but it is fun
Now that should be able to do some serious metal melting!
Do not behold purple/indigo beauty too closely with remaining eye.
Ok, so while the rest of us are trying to figure how to reduce the power bill you go and invent a 20kw microwave?
Forgot to attach the gigachad image award
It’s still a far more efficient method of cooking food than a traditional oven.
This scares me….
Because what has this man built and hasn’t shown us?
I can absolutely gurentee you bro has tried to build a death ray… aka a freestanding aimable microwave gun.
Thankfully he built a Time Machine before the death-ray. He subsequently went back in time and prevented himself fry trying the death-ray.
Perhaps there are private tapes of the “voltages high enough to warrant a visit from the feds” experiments
He already has the FBI show up at his door in the past
It’s in the “testing crazy chemistry recipes part 4” video
Reminds me that of photonicinduction with his crazy experiments. I miss his channel.
He’s back, but unfortunately an obvious victim of political propaganda – obnoxiously harping on and on about “snowflakes” instead of focusing on interesting experiments.
@goodwood he isnt back at all, hasnt posted in three year.
Imagine being an agent out in the field and you go pay a visit to somebody who has been doing dubious experiments in a deep rural area and friggin Dionysos himself answers the door
He isn’t hiding the death ray, he posted those videos about five years ago or so.
He made two death rays actually. The most recent one was just a few months ago.
Great video! I especially loved the part with Christmas lights going pop pop pop pop as it lights up.
Also this hack is rather deep into “don’t try this at home” due to high voltage, dangerous fumes, and possible risk of cooking yourself due to microwave leakage.
Aw, that’s a bummer. I was planning on building a 20 kW microwave this weekend.
Not having a giant magnetron was the reason this wasn’t done earlier, but why couldn’t an array of normal magnetrons work instead?
Crystal controlled magnetron array? They must be in phase. A single unit is not frequency perfect thus many would be random phase unless some sort of mutual coupling would work.
it’s done – name is semiconductor based microwave. you could find them at a product in china. or with prototype at a University, 4 x 250W beams which are seperate controllable in frequency and phase. With this you can realise a beamforming. Also the absorbed power could be measured, with new possibilitys and methods for controlling. Ultra high efficently powered plasma bulbs or plasma ignitions or microwave which could control the food heating by measurement of absorption. Most important and interesting for me was how many fuel could be saved by plasma ignitions in cars. But in europe this topic is dead as the future is forced to be electric.
The doesn’t solve the problem of using fossil fuels and isn’t efficient enough to replace normal ignition. Beam forming microwaves has many uses, just not that.
Hi Frank, I tried aliexpress but no luck. Do you have pointers/links to any products?
My guess would be that as you have different sources, you get a bunch of constructive/destructive interference, and I can’t imagine that works well if it gets reflected back into one of the microwaves.
PhotonicInduction where are you?
A pole pig indoors, gaak! I curbed up a non working example of that early Amana model back in the late 70’s, everything is big on that oldie. People didn’t cook big things and countertops needed space.
I used to repair those tanks!
Back then, no other manufacturer’s ųwave ovens had less RF leakage!
I recall delivering a new ųwave oven to an old lady. We spent a half hour more showing her which utensils and plates were safe to use in it.
Dude, your having waaaaaayyyyyy too much fun. I guess I won’t have to tell you to keep it up. I know you can.