The problem of size and price
The first microwave ovens were built for businesses. In the late 1940s, Raytheon sold a machine called the Radarange that stood more than five feet tall, weighed hundreds of pounds and used water cooling for its magnetron. It had to be installed, not simply carried in and plugged in. Its price, high even by commercial standards, put it out of the reach of anyone but large kitchens.
Those early customers were places where speed mattered, such as restaurants, railway dining cars and ships. A household had little reason to want, or room to fit, something that size, and the cost would have been many times what a family spent on a stove.
A first try at the home market
In the mid-1950s, a range manufacturer introduced a microwave oven designed for the home, built into a cabinet resembling a conventional stove. It cost more than a thousand dollars, which was a large sum for a household appliance at the time. Few were sold. The appliance was still too expensive, and consumers did not yet know what to make of a kitchen device that cooked without a heating element. Most dealers and salespeople had no experience demonstrating one.
The 1950s model is still significant because it showed that the technology could work in a domestic setting, but it did not yet solve the problem of price and installation.
What made smaller ovens possible
Several engineering changes helped shrink the oven during the 1950s and 1960s.
- Cooling: Early magnetrons needed water cooling. Later designs could be cooled with a fan, which removed the need for plumbing.
- Magnetron manufacturing: As makers learned to mass-produce the tubes, they became cheaper and more reliable. The component developed for wartime radar had been hand-built in the earliest days, and the cost fell as production grew.
- Power supply: Running at an ordinary household voltage became practical, so the oven could use a standard wall outlet. Earlier models sometimes required special wiring.
- Door and cavity design: Better seals and a metal cavity sized for household dishes let the oven shrink without wasting space.
The 1967 countertop model
The best-known step came in 1967, when Amana, a company owned by Raytheon since 1965, introduced a countertop oven under the Radarange name. It plugged into a normal household outlet, was small enough to sit on a counter and was priced under $500. That was still a substantial purchase, but it was within reach for many middle-income families in a way earlier ovens had not been. It is often cited as the beginning of the mass market, although earlier and parallel work by other firms, including Japanese manufacturers, also pushed in the same direction.
Sales grew slowly at first. Households needed to learn what a microwave was good for, and retailers had to teach customers. Cookbooks, cooking demonstrations and instruction booklets shipped with the ovens all played a role. Within a few years, more companies were selling countertop models, and competition pushed prices down.
Features that made them practical
During the 1970s and 1980s, makers added features that made microwaves less intimidating:
- Turntables, which helped heat food more evenly by rotating it through the pattern of waves inside the cavity.
- Electronic controls, built from integrated circuits, replacing mechanical dials and allowing precise timers and preset power levels.
- Simplified door latches and clearer instructions, which helped answer worries that had surfaced earlier. The safety debates around microwaves shaped how doors were designed.
The turntable relied on a small electric motor, one of many in a typical kitchen, while control boards followed the same path as other consumer electronics, getting cheaper and more capable.
Where the oven sat in the kitchen
The countertop form changed how microwaves fit into homes. A built-in oven needed carpentry, and a replacement range had to be bought as a unit. A countertop oven could be added to any kitchen and moved if the household moved, which made it easier to buy. Many kitchens made space beside the household refrigerators and the kitchen range, and some designs later added an over-the-range version with a built-in exhaust fan for homes that were short of counter space. Rental housing in particular benefited, since tenants could take the appliance with them.
Falling prices and wide adoption
By the 1980s, prices had dropped considerably compared with the first countertop models, and ownership rose sharply. A majority of American households had one by the end of the decade, and many other countries followed at their own pace. As in other consumer electronics, the same product came to be sold in a wide range of sizes and wattages, from small dormitory units to large family models.
What the compact oven changed
The countertop microwave did not just shrink an existing machine. It changed who the customer was. The early ovens were tools for professional kitchens, while the later ones were appliances for ordinary households, bought for convenience and speed rather than for cooking techniques. That change, from industrial equipment to a consumer item you could buy for the price of a small television, is the main story behind the microwave’s rise in the home.