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r/AskEngineers • … • u/mule_roany_mare

My new (induction) microwave knocks out my bluetooth headphones from 5' away. Is there any way to quantify the noise/leakage?

It's no secret that bluetooth & microwave ovens overlap at 2.4ghz, but I have never experienced any kind of noticeable interference from a microwave before & I am curious. It's also my first ~~induction~~ inverter (sorry, brainfart) microwave & I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I'm skeptical that any significant energy is escaping the cooking area of the microwave, so how likely is it to be noise from the electronics feeding the magnetron? Also, I suspect it wouldn't take very much energy from the magnetron before you could feel it on your skin (in the winter no less).

Is there a clever way to test the cooking area of the microwave for leakage (I suppose I could put a phone inside & try to connect with wifi or bluetooth...)

Bluetooth devices top out at 2.5 mW transmission so I doubt it takes much to overpower headphones. Is there any accessible way to measure or understand just how much energy is leaking? Anything interesting to learn?

Thinking about it more, a laptop with a wifi scanner app could give you some info for at least a narrow band. I guess it's just weird & I don't know what to think about it.

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