Lids On

Microwaveable. Stainless steel.

Hmm…

So those are two great tastes, that usually don’t taste great together. And by ‘don’t taste great’ we mean: cause sparks and danger and shit. These ones, with double-walled sides and an anti-skid rubber base, however, are microwave safe as long as you put on the airtight lid.

We bolded that last part because it’s important. You can put these in the microwave, but only if there’s a lid sealing in the stainless steel.

The good news? This is made explicit on the product’s Amazon page:

These are in fact microwave safe… but ONLY WITH THE LID ON and securely sealed over the metal rim of the bowl. Exposing even a small segment of the stainless steel rim while inside an operating microwave will result in arcing (high current electrical discharge) from the microwave’s magnetron tube to the exposed metal edge of the bowl. This happening for more than a few seconds is guaranteed to damage the microwave with the possibility of causing a fire.

The bad news? You’ll have to scroll three-quarters of the way down the page to find this in a 5-star review from Mark0329. Otherwise, the only warning you get is from a tiny stamp on the top corner of the third product image.

This feels like an important piece of information to put in the features, Evolution! Or maybe down the page where there’s a picture of a baby for some reason?

Like, if I bought a waterproof watch, and found out it’s only waterproof if sealed inside an included ziplock bag, I’d be a bit annoyed.

Anyway, now you know.

Mark did include this other helpful tidbit:

As a piece of practical advice, when using these bowls in the microwave I would always remove the plug in the center of the lid PRIOR to putting the lid on. This makes it easier to completely seal the lid around the metal rim by providing a path for trapped air to escape.

But here’s the thing: the microwaveable aspect? To us, it might not even be the main selling point of these things. Nice stainless steel bowls with airtight lids? That sounds great for marinating or brining without wasting plastic wrap. Or bringing a salad or side to the potluck. Or easy clean-up. Seriously, how annoying is it when you have to transfer the pasta salad or whatever from the bowl you mixed it into a separate vessel just to stash it in the fridge? Thanks to the lid, you can just cover it up and put it away.

Point is: you could get a lot of use out of these without ever putting them in the microwave. So buy them, please.