HotLogic Macrowave / Mini Mac Review
Hot Logic has introduced two products we would love to see for cooking in many homes and as the new lunchbox for kids and grownups alike. This is because their new Smart Shelf Technology takes leftovers or even frozen foods still in the box and heats them up perfectly every time. (See our comments about this below.) Simply place your food inside on a flat-bottomed plate, container, or original box, and place on any shelf of the Macrowave (larger 4-shelf or 8-shelf unit) or into the Mini Mac (portable -- you'll need to plug it in) first thing in the morning. Within a couple hours, the food will be heated and held at approximately 160 degrees until you're ready to eat it. (45-90 minutes for leftovers; 2-3 hours for frozen food.) This way you don't need to know exactly when you want to eat. You'll just know that it's cooked all the way through (unlike microwave cooking) and will be piping hot when you're ready. In fact, it can keep your food hot for up to 12 hours while its waiting for you. No need to choose a power level or a time setting. The Smart Shelf Technology knows how to heat it and then hold it at the right temperature. This is the easiest cooking you've ever done. Plus, the shelves never rise above 200 degrees, so while you don't want to touch them, they're not going to burn you the way an oven would. And of course there's no concern about radiation as with a microwave. The Macrowave and Mini Mac use conduction heating. Our Experience:
Our first trial with this technology was when we headed to a college football game and needed some easy tailgating food -- we weren't taking a grill. So we put a whole package of hot dogs into a glass Pyrex container (the 3-cup Pyrex model works in the lunchbox) and put this into the Mini Mac. I was concerned because the dogs weren't all touching the bottom of the container, but we gave it a go. We used an outlet converter in the car so we could plug the Mini Mac in during our drive. By the time we arrived 90 minutes later and went to eat, the hot dogs were steaming hot -- even the ones that weren't touching the bottom of the container. They were in fact the perfect temperature. I was amazed. After that, while in a school setting that allowed for this, our sons took Mini Macs to school almost every day and got hot, healthy lunches all the time. Before, they only had microwave access two days a week at the school and had to wait in line, wasting their eating time. The other days, they ate cold lunches; or on rare days when I tried to run a hot meal to their school (5 minutes away), the lunches were lukewarm by the time they were wrapped and delivered. These days, I take the Mini Mac to work and eat hot lunches several days a week. My only caution with that is to leave your food warming in the kitchen unless the smell of food warming up won't bother your co-workers! I am told that the only foods that haven't worked ideally so far are french fries, because they get warmed but don't get as crisp on the outside since they're not raised to a super high temperature. The only other item to be aware of is that you cannot use very large plates even in the full-size Macrowave, and you can't pile them high with food because of the distance between shelves. I estimate about 3" of height for each shelf, and plates no more than about 9". Again, for the Mini Mac, I highly recommend getting a 3-cup Pyrex glass container with lid. This is almost a perfect fit, and won't leach plastic into your food during the cooking process. In short, though, this feels like the next big evolution in cooking and a fantastic, healthy opportunity for school and work lunches ... while making it as easy as possible to eat healthy food outside the home. Use our buttons to purchase. You can get the Mini Mac on Amazon or buy the Macrowave directly from us. That's right -- we love this one so much we've arranged to sell it directly so we can offer our special brand of customer service and make sure you're totally happy with it! Hotlogic 400 Macrowave
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