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It can work for almost two hours with the right battery.
Here’s something weird for you contractors and campers out there; a Makita portable microwave that runs on power tool batteries. Released in Japan for ¥71,500 (about $550 USD), the MW001GZ promises to heat food on the go with up to 500 watts of power (and a maximum cooking time of almost 2 hours, but only under specific conditions).
I see a lot of misinformation about this microwave, so let’s get the facts straight. In terms of shape and size, we’re looking at a fairly typical compact microwave: an 8-liter capacity (big enough for a bento box, in Makita’s words) and a weight of 8.8 kilograms (about 19.5 pounds). . Once you add the batteries, the weight comes out to around 25 pounds.
The Makita MW001GZ works with a variety of Makita 40V batteries, including the BL4025, BL4040, BL4050F, and BL4080F. It is also compatible with Makita’s PDC1200, a large backpack power supply. Obviously, microwaves consume a lot of power, so Makita’s backpack battery is the ideal choice.
But compared to your kitchen microwave, the MW001GZ is pretty weak. It offers two power modes: 350 watts and 500 watts. If a packaged food needs to cook for 1 minute in a typical microwave, it will need about 3 minutes in a 500-watt microwave. (For this reason, Makita’s press release only mentions refrigerated foods and liquids. Heating frozen foods in this microwave would be slow and wasteful without a high-capacity battery.)
This is where we have to set the record straight. With two BL4025 batteries, this microwave will provide 14 minutes of cooking at 300 watts (or 8 minutes at 500 watts), that’s useless, in my opinion. Well, the maximum cooking time jumps to 30 minutes with a set of BL4050F batteries. That’s better, but it still kind of sucks, especially if you’re at work and need to use your batteries with power tools.
Well, if you have the PDC1200 backpack battery, you get almost two hours of functionality out of this microwave (in 300-watt mode, obviously). Makita’s backpack battery is designed for high-powered applications, specifically electric lawn mowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers, so it makes sense.
I can see the benefit of this microwave in industries like lawn care, where wired power isn’t guaranteed and backpack batteries are somewhat common. This is the kind of thing you could leave on a truck to heat up lunch box food. That said, most job sites have electricity (or a generator, at least), and if you’re camping, you’re probably better off heating your food on a fire or propane stove.
Again, the Makita MW001GZ microwave is available in Japan for ¥71,500 (about $550 USD). Makita hasn’t announced a US release, but if the portable microwave does come to the United States, Review Geeks expect to try it.
Source: Makita Japan (1, 2)
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