They need ventilation and use a huge amount of power. A normal domestic one will trip the electrics on many sites. You will do better to find a caravan specific low power one.
Agree with MM about the ventilation but i asked the same question about a househld one and it does work, as long as you switch off any thing that draws a heavy current eg a household kettle or the water heater..
If you're planning to DIY it might be worth going round your local caravan dealer and check out the vans that have them built in as standard, it'll give you an idea of how much ventilation you'll have to allow.
The previous owner of our 'van fitted and successfully utilised an Argos Value range Model MM717CFA microwave into one of the top lockers. ( Power consumption rated at 1150W or approx 5A with a microwave output of 700W.)
Obviously there is adequate ventilaton space all round. He drilled two holes into which the front feet fitted in order to locate it. Nevertheless, it was removed and stowed on the floor in transit, just in case it shook out which would have been a real problem. The most awkard bit was neatly fitting the 240v socket in the top corner of the locker to power it.
However, we took it out an refitted the door as we felt that there is nothing we really can't do without that can't be done on the hob.
yes as stated above johnjory has it correct ventilation is required and as a general rule you have 1.5 times the input against output eg an 800 watt microwave oven needs 1200 watts of electicity input from the mains 1200 watts equates to about 5 amps so this in itself will not cause an ehu to trip but you must ensure the 3 pin socket is properly tied into the circuit and that the oven is firmly secured in the oien
Have always followed the ' one heating accessory on at time' guideline. Used a standard 750 watt in our awning for years and only tripped the EHU twice.Once on a site with 6amp hookups and once when I forgot it was cooking breakfast and I turned on the kettle.
Our new van has a full sized cooker so it is now redundant !!!!
the cheap supermarket ones seem to be fine on all but the poorest of EHU, most are 7-800W cooking power, and are adequate for most needs.
it is the starting surge that may cause a problem, but should be ok under most circumstances, I used one for a few years as an easy way to sterilise baby bottles, never tripped out the ehu, and thats just not using the kettle at the same time, the heater in that van was only 700W as well, so it was fine.
look up diversity, an EHU should be able to take a load much more than its 16A, as its not likly to be all pulling power at the same time, ie, once the waters up to temp the element only kicks in now and again.
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Topic: microwave
