The Heinz "Beanzawave" - USB desktop microwave

**Matt D** · 02-07-2009, 21:58

http://gizmodo.com/5283559/beanzawav...as-created-for

http://gizmodo.com/5306398/heinz-bea...wave-in-action

rogermevans · 02-07-2009, 22:02

ROFL

i can here the phone calls now of "i plugged in the microwave now the computer dont work" and the very puzzled tec on the other end sitting there baffled

saying that though I WANT ONE

AntiSilence · 02-07-2009, 22:08

Yeah.... Everyone in the office eating beans... Nice lol

Hom3r · 02-07-2009, 22:13

I just checked to see if the date was the 1st April.

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If I didn't know better I'ld say the base looks like a USB mug warmer?

Horace · 02-07-2009, 23:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hom3r

I just checked to see if the date was the 1st April.

---------- Post added at 22:13 ---------- Previous post was at 22:12 ----------

If I didn't know better I'ld say the base looks like a USB mug warmer?

Umm..It's a mini-microwave oven, and if it can be powered by USB without blowing motherboards I can see it being a huge seller since you could use it for drinks and snacks in the office as well as heating your snap-pots.

Edit: motherboards should be safe since usb is used to charge the batteries

.

popper · 02-07-2009, 23:29

indeed, the story here isnt the beans, its the fact its a practical microwave powered by such low level USB voltages....

even a small car PV plus battery should be enough to use this low energy for hours....

potentially a super low power portable way to get (near) boiling hot water from a set of microwaveable
pipeing placed inside there, add together several connected units, if and when mass production comes, and it might even become far cheaper and far hotter than anything available on the markets today,and save on your mains power bills to after the initial one off outlay as its run off PVs , got to think far bigger markets here....

Chicken · 02-07-2009, 23:56

Hmmm... USB is current limited to 500mA, which at 5V is 2.5 Watts. Seeing as even the small caravan microwave ovens are around 500 Watts, you'd be waiting a long time for even single bean to heat up, let alone a whole can full.

Of course, it might be that Heinz have discovered a way to defy the laws of physics, but somehow I doubt it.

Halcyon · 03-07-2009, 00:22

I want one just to give it a go. It looks fun.

popper · 03-07-2009, 00:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicken

Hmmm... USB is current limited to 500mA, which at 5V is 2.5 Watts. Seeing as even the small caravan microwave ovens are around 500 Watts, you'd be waiting a long time for even single bean to heat up, let alone a whole can full.

Of course, it might be that Heinz have discovered a way to defy the laws of physics, but somehow I doubt it.

if this were "pot noodle" then id guess its a joke, but we are talking the "Heinz" company here, so im not so sure its a joke.

but then reviewing the microwave cooking here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
shows a currently effective efficiency of some 64% power usage, so if this USB microwave story is true, its got to be some weard new magnetron and waveguide concentration design inside the clearly generic faraday cage of the pictures...

cybernetic_tiger · 03-07-2009, 08:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicken

Of course, it might be that Heinz have discovered a way to defy the laws of physics, but somehow I doubt it.

Or perhaps the bean pot isn't microwave safe and just gets really hot to the point of melting! :P

**Kymmy** · 03-07-2009, 10:22

Perhaps they've incorporated a micro-cold fusion generator in the back of the unit and the USB is purely for the inbuilt light??

Chicken got it spot on with 2.5w ain't gonna do a great deal.. That's like running your modern home nuker at 1/400th of the power...it take a 30secs to heat up a pot of beans in 1000W's so in this it should take a minimum of an hour (taking into account the smaller size so less wave loss)

Cobbydaler · 03-07-2009, 13:55

Apparently it's a prototype & uses mobile phone frequencies?

http://www.coated.com/beanzawave-wor...e-oven-100002/

haydnwalker · 03-07-2009, 15:00

Brilliant...so when you turn it off all the mobiles in the office ring? hehe

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Not to mention the buzzing pc speakers....

**Kymmy** · 03-07-2009, 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobbydaler

Apparently it's a prototype & uses mobile phone frequencies?

http://www.coated.com/beanzawave-wor...e-oven-100002/

Which means in this country they wouldn't be able to get a licence for it...even at low power..

Still though the frequency isn't really an issue it's the power output..

If I grab one of my antenna's at 2w using 2.3Ghz it's not gonna cook me!!!!

popper · 03-07-2009, 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobbydaler

Apparently it's a prototype & uses mobile phone frequencies?

http://www.coated.com/beanzawave-wor...e-oven-100002/

"Currently, the Beanzawave is a prototype model but “experts at the Microwave Association insist the sophisticated miniaturized technology does exist to turn the eye-catching gadget into a reality.”

Aside from it’s small size, this microwave is fast cooking due to it’s use of a series of mobile phone frequencies that are said to be efficient enough to cook some foods in under a minute."

so it can apparently cook that quantity of (positively charged molacules of wet) food in 60 seconds, and uses several seperate freqs of microwave energy at the same time to do so....