In a surprising move, the Makita XGT cordless microwave launched in the USA and is available now.
Makita’s cordless microwave, model MW001GZ, has an 2.1 gallon (0.28 cubic foot) capacity, 1.5 cubic foot exterior volume, and 2 power output levels – 350W and 500W.
It has a dual port battery bay, but only requires one battery to operate. The battery hand-off is sequential, meaning that the microwave will run on one battery and automatically switch to the other one when the first is depleted.
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Features include an LED light, rotary control knob for setting heating time, and battery fuel gauge. There’s also a USB port (Type A, 2.4A max output) for charging electronic devices.
According to the user manual, the 500W setting is a “temporary boost function,” with the microwave switching down to 350W after about 8 minutes.
Runtime for 2x 2.5Ah batteries (18V 5Ah equivalent) is estimated to be 8 minutes at 500W or 14 minutes at 350W, and for 2x 4.0Ah batteries (18V 8Ah equivalent), it’s 15 minutes at 500W or 21 minutes at 350W.
The microwave can fit up to 2 of Makita’s BL4080F (8Ah) batteries. It’s also compatible with their PDC1200 backpack power supply.
Price: $929 (tool-only)
Since the microwave is built with a dual battery port, maybe Makita can also build an 18V X2 model.
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Jared
It’s cool, innovative and wildly expensive. There’s lots of workarounds making it kind of unnecessary (e.g. you could get a powerstation and a regular microwave for a lot less, or just use a thermos), but as a luxury item, it’s pretty neat.
Tom
+1. I was interested until I saw the price tag. With so many options for battery powered generators that could run a microwave and/or other appliances out there now, I can’t justify this for storm prep/power outages.
MFC
In for two! At prices like this you better get it before they disappear!
Steve
I agree with Jared, cool item, but that price is out of sight. No thanks…
Rog
They can give us microwaves but not updated batteries… :-\
Munklepunk
It looks like they have pouch style in the works. But you are correct, priorities are skewed.
Rog
For the 18v? Where have you seen this?
Munklepunk
They had designs up over on Facebook. Someone had tracked down the blueprints for copywrite or whatever it’s called. The general consensus on the Makita forum is “we’ll believe it when we see it”
Munklepunk
I don’t remember whether it was for 18 or 40 volt
Robert
It may not be priorities, it may be ease of design. Microwave ovens are a mature technology. Witness how many no-name brands making them. What they had to solve was adapting to tool cordless batteries of the cylindrical cell type, which had been around a good while. Pouch battery tech for tools is a less mature tech.
bj
For real… couldn’t agree with you more.
Bill Sung
Will Dewalt come out with a cordless Microwave , cordless stove or cordless oven? not just for the jobsite but for camping , overlanding and such?
Stuart
I’m guessing yes, if there’s enough demand for it.
Chris
Don’t really need cordless stoves or ovens. There are camping models that run off propane cylinders. And if you’re going to have that, why have a microwave?
Eric
This tech seems more popular outside the US than here. I would bet that this will be reasonably popular in Asia and less so here.
Koko The Talking Ape
I don’t see the internal dimensions listed anywhere, but it says the “internal capacity” is 2.1 gallons. That converts to 485 cubic inches, or about 8 x 8 x 8 inches. So it would struggle to hold a bag of microwave popcorn.
If you just want hot water, an electric kettle can be 50% more efficient than a microwave, which wastes energy just converting electricity into microwaves. Efficiency is important for getting maximum use out of your batteries, obviously. I see Makita makes a cordless kettle for about 1/5th the price of this microwave. They also make a cordless coffee maker that’s even cheaper for some reason.
But as far as I know, nobody makes a cordless induction plate. That would be even more efficient than an electric kettle, and more versatile too. But you’d need a pan or pot that contains steel. Is one in Makita’s pipeline?
I got my efficiency numbers from insideenergy.org, a nonprofit based in Denver.
https://insideenergy.org/2016/02/23/boiling-water-ieq/
Stuart
8L or 2.1 gallon interior – around 0.28 cubic feet.
Here are the cavity dimensions, from the user manual:
10″ x 9-1/2″ x 4-3/4″.
Wayne R.
That’ll take one ham sammich and two sammich clamps.
Philip
$900???? Yeah I can run a cord
DC
Wow, $1,000 cordless microwave. We just came back from a week camping at the beach and brought our small microwave powered by our Honda generator.
Bobcat
I have a 750 watts microwave at work and it cooks slow as shit so I can imagine how slow this cooks
Harrison
Yeah. This is a true luxury item.
Im guessing the real market is Japan, where I believe it’s considered unprofessional to ask for anything while working for a client, and likely not good optics to leave the site for lunch. The price is probably better value there as well.
Will be interesting to see if people actually buy these in North America. I could see this selling well among the Packout collector entourage if it came in red. In that case the price would be a bragging point, not a detraction. Not sure if people buy Makita stuff for those reasons here though.
Perry
I’m their target market as a contractor that already has the makita cooler amd coffeemaker. I use both for work and on camping trips. When I first saw the information on this there was speculation that it would be around 5 to 600 USD, but at $900 with no batteries there’s no way I’ll be considering this thing.
Adam
A Complete waste of money, just ridiculous I’ll use my Stanley food flask thanks.
Ciccio
Cooler, coffee maker, microwave.
I think soon we will see a Makita washer machine or a dishwasher for outdoors.
Chaz
Anything under 900 watts is a nuisance.
Kingsley
Despite all the odd things about Makita’s marketing and product strategy (or lack of it) you have to hand it to them, this “tool” rocks!
Is it just me or does it remind you of the “Annihilator 2000” from Beverly Hills Cop 3
SaratogaJerry
My 1st reaction – Is it April 1st? 🙂
Derek
I’d like to see Milwaukee make one, 18v (or dual 36v)…and for cheaper, this price is crazy.
Bobcat
Have you seen Milwaukee prices they’re off charts expensive that strut cutter that nobody is going to buy over 3 grand is insane so what makes you think Milwaukee is going to make a microwave cheaper that would be 5 grand
Stuart
At the end of the event, at dinner, a contractor influencer was gushing to a manager about how the strut cutter is the best new tool they’ve seen, and how it will save their team from tons of small injuries due to delivering burr-free cuts compared to using saws.
Individual tool users might not buy it, but commercial managers will, if it helps speed up work and prevent injuries.
Just because it’s priced above your needs and budget, that doesn’t mean it’s “insane.” I checked the price of a Greenlee AC-powered model, and it’s close to $12,000.
Munklepunk
The sentence “it’s not for you” is probably murmured quite a lot by salesman. Makita sells a lot a very expensive industrial tools, not meant for the average builder. People all the time complain about the cost. This is exactly what Milwaukee is doing.
John
Sometimes you need to make something just to show off.
Brian
$900? ????
I don’t think they fully researched the demographic that actually uses microwaves on a job site.
Saulac
Say I have a frozen burrito, a battery powered heated jacket what do I get at my next break?
Eliot Truelove
This microwave definitely makes sense in Japan due to cultural differences about how they take lunch but also for disaster preparedness with all of the natural disasterr knocking out power.
When your area has as many earthquakes as Japan does, you’ll focus on being able to have a hot tea or coffee and a hot meal with a heated blanket, radio flashlight, and cooler/heater as well to keep the food in the refrigerator from going bad. Over in America its marketed as Outdoors and Camping equipment, but the tsunami 10 years ago proved the need for stuff like this over in Japan.
These things enable a certain self sufficiency for a bit while the power comes back on. Imagine if the people in Texas had any of that for those initial hours of the deep freeze event from a few winters ago, or the ones in Hawaii right now who are experiencing power issues due to the fires, even if they aren’t directly in the fires path.
If tool battery brands had these things that look like gimmicks now but in those situations would be incredible, then the situation would be definitely different. Someone has to start, and the world only seems to be getting more unpredictable, but tool batteries are capable of so much more uses than just construction given the advancements in battery tech and capacity. $900 is very pricey though, and it would seem more reasonable at say $650, but I’m guessing Makita are trying to make up for the R&D on it.
My guess is if they could make something as power hungry as a microwave, then they have the capacity for potential thickness planers, benchtop sanders, router tables, and maybe, just maybe, a cordless sawstop table saw now that the patents are up. Makita says they will never make a normal table saw due to liability issues, but if it had sawstop or Bosch Reaxx technology, then maybe they would. Everyone says cordless sawstop is impossible, but Makita are often surprising like that.
John
For disaster preparedness this doesn’t really fit though. $900 Would buy a generator that can run not only your microwave but also your fridge, lights, and other appliances. And this will only cook a few meals before your batteries run down. Not to mention that it isn’t even big enough to fit a plate inside.
Eric
No but its a great size for a bento box. That’s a Japanese food container and what I’m sure the market this is aimed for.
Keiko
This price seems off and I suspect it will be temporary. With the current exchange rate, on Amazon Japan it is ~$600. It has sold on eBay new deliver from Japan for $700+ and easily available for around $850 shipped. Amazon Japan can be higher than the street price and eBay always has a premium over street price or comparable USA model prices. So those more accommodating to a $600ish price range should soon get their wish. History will tell.