As idyllic and nostalgic as campfires and portable burners may seem for our outdoor adventures, let’s be honest — cooking in the great outdoors can be something of a chore. But hikers, rejoice! You don’t have to settle for protein bars and reheated beans anymore. At least, not if this portable microwave oven is everything it promises to be. Meet the Adventurer from UK company Wayv, which claims to be “the world’s first portable solid-state RF food heater ‘microwave.'”
The technology for our handy food heaters has been around for decades, but the design of microwaves hasn’t changed all that much since the days of WWII. But now, they’re getting a massive overhaul and, perhaps more importantly, getting much smaller. The Adventurer, which looks more like a thermos than anything else, contains 200 watts of power that can heat up to 500 milliliters of liquids or solids in around four minutes.
Created in partnership with NXP Semiconductors, the Adventurer has a rechargeable battery that will let you use the mini-microwave for about 30 minutes at a time, which is handy for a meal on the go. But if you’re living in a tiny apartment and just don’t have the space for a full-sized microwave, the Adventurer can serve as a solution as well — just plug it in and you’re good to go, ostensibly in perpetuity.
The microwave works using laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductors (LDMOS) in order to create heat, abandoning the traditional vacuum tubes or magnetrons. This allows for the Adventurer to be thinner, more lightweight, and generally more portable — in fact the whole thing weighs under three pounds. And because of the LDMOS technology in the portable oven, the Adventurer purports to heat food evenly and thoroughly.
“The new Wayv Adventurer takes on-the-go smart cooking experiences to a new level,” said Dan Viza, director of product marketing for RF cooking at NXP. “We’re excited to work with Wayv and unveil this new innovation into the market.”
