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Last Updated on 1 year by Parul Jaiswal
Microwave oven v/s OTG –
All of you will be familiar with these two terms that are used for the two most important kitchen appliances.
You will get to see either a microwave oven or an OTG in almost every Indian household. We can very well assume that you already have one in your kitchen and either want to upgrade the old model or purchase one. But the main confusion that everyone faces is which one to buy among these two.
To clear that, you need to go through the difference between a microwave oven and OTG. Therefore, to offer you a compiled version, we have prepared this article on the ‘Microwave oven v/s OTG.’
Let’s get through the basics of these two appliances first without directly going into the differences!
Microwave oven v/s OTG -Basics
What is Microwave Oven?
With the aid of electromagnetic radiation with microwave frequency, the microwave oven helps to heat or cook food. This enables you to save a lot of cooking time. These devices generate thermal energy through the process of dielectric heating with which the food gets heated or cooked. There are options to buy a grill or convection microwave oven that you can select as per your requirements. Read More
What is OTG?
OTG stands for Oven Toaster Grill which is a compact version of a traditional oven. It utilizes heated coils for cooking, reheating, grilling, BBQ, or keep your food warm. You will also get the option to switch on either one or both the coils as per your cooking needs.
Now that you have gone through what is a microwave oven and what is OTG oven, it’s time to get into the difference between a microwave oven and OTG.
Microwave Oven v/s OTG –
Microwave Oven | OTG |
You will get your cooked food instantly within few minutes. | You can use it especially to make kebabs. |
You can use it to proof bread dough with various modes. | You can use it for baking and grilling and generally in larger quantities than the microwave oven. |
It features several defrosting modes. | Though it does not have defrosting modes, foods can be thawed at low temperatures. |
It heats food with the help of electromagnetic radiation. | It utilizes the heating coils mainly for cooking or heating foods. |
More even heat distribution. | Even heat distribution but lesser than microwave ovens. |
The power usage is high. | The power usage is low. |
Heavy in weight that can make it difficult to move sometimes. | It is compact and lighter that makes it portable. |
Good for baking and defrosting. | Suitable for baking, toasting, and grilling. |
The container materials that can be used in microwave oven include glass, silicone, and ceramic but try to avoid metal. | Along with the materials mentioned for microwave ovens, you can also use metal. |
The microwave ovens are generally expensive appliances. | They are not so expensive as microwave ovens. |
Which is healthy OTG or Microwave?
After knowing the differences, a question can arise in your mind regarding which is healthy OTG or microwave. For clearing your doubt, we have included this section.
Microwave ovens use electromagnetic radiation of higher frequencies that helps you to get your food ready within minutes. But, you may have heard that these electromagnetic waves are not very good for your health since they can make your food radioactive.
Not only that, but these waves can also destroy the essential nutrients or vitamins in the food. Thus, both OTG and microwave ovens are not meant for regular usage. You can use them twice or thrice a week but not daily or buy them as a replacement for your oven/stove.
Lastly, we can say that it is up to you to make the final decision and also your purpose. As per our recommendation, we prefer both OTGs and microwave ovens and use them as per our desired purpose at that time.
To get your decision up to the mark, we have provided the scenarios that can help you to precede one more step for finalizing the decision.
When to buy an OTG?
Some of the scenarios that can make OTG a better option are –
• If you love baking cakes, cookies, pizzas, etc., then OTGs can be an ideal choice over microwave ovens.
• Planning to start a cake business! Go for OTG!
• It is good if you do not need to reheat food quite frequently or maybe you do it on gas stoves.
When to Buy a Microwave Oven?
In this section, we will illustrate to you some of the scenarios in which you should consider buying a microwave oven and not an OTG.
• Don’t bake cakes, pizzas, etc. frequently.
• You do not have any plan to start with a cake business recently.
• Reheat foods daily or frequently.
• If you find advanced features like auto-cooking, less oil cooking is essential for you while cooking foods.
Some factors that you can consider selecting the best option for you –
In this section, we will highlight some of the factors that can help you to understand the difference between microwave ovens and OTG.
Your Cooking Purpose –
This is the major thing that you need to decide before making the selection. If you want to bake, toast or grill frequently, then OTG is one of the ideal options. On the other hand, a microwave oven can also help you with all these functionalities but also offer other facilities like reheating food or defrosting.
Capacity –
The maximum capacity of OTG is 60 liters while that for microwaves is 32L. Thus, for cooking large batches of food, OTGs can be the best option over microwave ovens. In addition to this, OTGs are lighter though being larger in size makes it easier to move around.
Temperature –
In this aspect, both OTG and microwave ovens are almost neck-to-neck but the preheat time differs. For OTGs, the preheating time required is 15 to 20 minutes whereas convection microwaves take only 5 minutes to preheat. So, it can decrease your overall cooking time.
Easy to use –
OTGs are generally equipped with knobs while microwaves come with digital displays and touch-screen buttons. This makes use of a microwave oven simpler than the OTGs.
These are some of the major factors that you need to consider for deciding which one to purchase. However, there are some additional factors like cost, the cooking process which we have already discussed earlier in this article.
Wrapping it up the Microwave oven v/s OTG –
We hope that you are now clear regarding the difference between a microwave oven and OTG as we have explained everything in detail. Starting from the very basics like what is a microwave oven and what is OTG oven, we have covered the differences between them and also had a short discussion on which is healthy OTG or microwaves.
Thanks for landing here and reading this entire article, hope you have found it helpful!