Cooking CDROMs

Cooking CDROMs can result in damage to your microwave oven, they can also burst into flames causing damage. High power microwave ovens can have their magnatrons damaged as a result of the mismatch a pile of CDROMS can cause. If you decide to try the experiments yourself then use an old microwave and take all relevant precautions. In short do not come to me when your house burns down.

Site Contents

Introduction and first attempt

After hearing stories about the results of microwaving CDROMs one of my children prevailed on me to try it out. So throwing care to the wind I put an old Byte CDROM onto a sheet of kitchen paper and shoved it into the domestic Microwave. My better half was away visiting friends so there were no complaints about what it could do to the kitchen.

We turned the lights out and cooked the CDROM for 15 seconds. During that time sparkles were visible through the oven window and a burning smell filled the room. When the cooking time had finished we opened the microwave door and removed the CDROM. The reason for the burning smell became evident when the kitchen paper was uncovered as the sparks had burned holes into the paper. I had used the paper to protect the glass plate and had nearly caused a fire.

The Microwave

The microwave is a 15 year old Samsung unit. It is only rated at 500 watts and last time I measured it the power worked out at just under 400 watts.

If you want to try it out then put 1 liter of water at a known temperature in a plastic container into the microwave. Heat it so that it warms a little then measure the new temperature. The energy you have put in is 4200 joules per degree centigrade the temperature has risen. The power in watts can then be computed by dividing the energy you have put in by the number of seconds the microwave was going. It could be argued that plain water is not the ideal material for measurements but it is cheap and readily available.

The Byte CDROM

The pictures below show the two sides of the CDROM. Some of the holes go through completely through the disk.

The kitchen paper

You can see the burn marks on the paper. This leads to the first rule of cooking CDROMs. Never cook CDROMs on kitchen paper

Cooking 3 CDROMs standing on edge

After the success with the first CDROM we decided to do some more. This time a bunch of AOL CDROMs were used. Why AOL keep sending me free trial disks escapes me as I own an Internet Service Provider so am highly unlikely to take them up on their offer. Three CDROMs were used this time arranged on edge forming a triangle. They were then cooked for 15 seconds before the hot masking tape fell off and they collapsed.

Whilst the power was on bright orange-yellow points of light could be observed all over the surface of the CDROMs and a satisfying crackling sound could be heard. Every so often bright flashes could be seen, I assume they occurred when there were resonant lengths of silvering on the CDROMs and significant power was absorbed. The smell which came out of the microwave was different from the first time as there was no paper to burn.

A complete turn of masking tape was them placed around the CDROMs to hold them together (Note: do not use cheap masking tape, it falls off when it gets warm). They were cooked again for about 15 seconds, checked and then cooked for another 30 seconds before they fell over for a second time as they started to melt. We tried to take a photograph of the sparkles but my digital camera is not sensitive enough when viewing through the microwave door. By this point the smell was getting truly awful so the window was opened and operations suspended for a few minutes while the smoke dispersed.

After this the CDROMs were cooked for another three minutes, the microwave being rested after each 30 second burst.

Three AOL CDROMs waiting to be incinerated	Three CDROMs closer up. Note the French one in the middle, I wonder if it will be any different.
Taped up and ready to go	Retaped and ready for more cooking.
After it fell over for the second time. Note the deformation as the top edges start to fuse together.	In the smoky oven after another 3 minutes.
Closeup, the French CDROM melted the same was as the others	Another closeup

Watery death

One grinning Woolworth CDROM was prepared for a watery death. It was placed into a shallow dish of water and subjected to three minutes continuous cooking. At the end of this it was still intact and floating in a bowl of hot water.

CDROM saying "Boil Me!"	CDROM floating upside down. This was pointed out as being just too cruel so it was turned the right way up.
Afterwards floating in hot water, still grinning.	Another view of the happy and hot CDROM.

Stack of CDROMs

A pile of six cdroms were placed in the Microwave and cooked for a period of three minutes. During that time only occasional sparkles were observed and when the Microwave was opened it was found that the CDROMs had fused into a solid lump with only a mild patterning visible on the top CDROM. They were however extremely hot and could be squashed if pressed from the top. When they were removed from the wooden mat there were scorch marks all over the surface testifying to the high temperature which was reached.

Not sure why they survived. I suspect it is something to do with the stacking possibly they resonated in some way as a capacitor and dissipated the power in the dielectric (polycarbonate).

CDROMs waiting to be stacked.	Stacked up in the microwave waiting for cooking.
Top view after cooking	Bottom view afterwards
Closeup view of the edge of the stack	View of the wooden mat, observe the scorch marks.

Conclusions

As a result of these carefully controlled "scientific" experiments the following conclusions can be drawn.

The cast

The victims

The experimentors

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