>every American has a microwave in their home

Of course we do! Europeans don't all have microwave ovens? How do you warm up leftovers?

And yes, I drink tea daily with microwaved water.

I'm American, and I often heat up leftovers with a toaster oven or on the stove. For some foods it gets better results.

There's also steamers. They are especially popular in Asia.

Isn’t it problematic to heat water in a microwave?

Its possible to superheat water in a microwave so that it will explosively boil when disturbed, but it is fairly easy to safeguard against, as well.

My microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it, this stops superheating.

How?

It provides a non-smooth surface to induce steam bubbles to form.

I know in chem labs we used to use little chunks of ceramic for test tubes, but those aren't desirable in your tea.

>My microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it, this stops superheating.

This appears to be a microwave setting. I don't see how that would provide a non smooth surface

“My microwave has a picture on it” is what was said; graphic instructions are common.

Ah ok I see now!

Sorry if I was unclear. It's basically this: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/234042/should-i-...

Only if you overheat it. Drives all the gas out and makes the water off/flat.

I don't heat up leftovers, I just eat them cold. But we do have a microwave (we bought it at the beginning of the pandemic so we could heat up frozen meals--we didn't have one before). I had cold leftover pasta for lunch today. My wife turns up her nose at cold leftovers but I'm not picky.

Anecdote of one: I am an American that does not own a microwave and does own an electric kettle. We are legion.

You can end up superheating the water that way and scalding yourself. I also prefer to control the temperature of my water which you cannot do in a microwave.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/boil-on-troubled-waters/

It's something to be aware of, but in practice it's very difficult to superheat water at home.

For superheating to occur, you need very pure water in a smooth container with no imperfections. Tap water in most places cannot be superheated because it contains too many minerals, and most ceramic cups aren't smooth enough to prevent boiling.

If you're making tea, an easy way to prevent superheating is to drop the bag in the water before you heat it. Another way is to put a wooden stirrer in the cup.

There's a mythbuster video here where they show water being superheated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr_i0, but note that they use distilled water (which nobody drinks) in a Pyrex container (which nobody uses). And they actually use a mug of tap water as a control.

that's not really true. i've superheated tap water at least a dozen times. never had a negative consequence from it, besides having to clean up some water, so it's also not something that really bothers me. from my experience the superheated state can be surprisingly stable, a couple times only explosively boiling over while being poured, instead of the moment I grab the container.

edit: as far as 'nobody' using Pyrex, my preferred container for heating water is a big Pyrex measuring cup.

My microwave has a picture of a cup with a spoon in it to warn you to only boil water with something in it. Despite being warned for years not to put anything metal in a microwave it's actually fine to leave a metal spoon in water to stop it from superheating.

> It's something to be aware of, but in practice it's very difficult to superheat water at home.

Eh, I've had it happen many times at home. A coffee mug of water comes out of the microwave with just a hint of bubbles. Add sugar/tea/instant coffee and the whole thing instantly bubbles up and spills.

It's really easy to control the temperature of the water; boil it, ten wait for it to cool to the correct temperature.

For a fixed amount of water, you can learn the time and not have to pull out your instant-read thermometer.

You can burn yourself with an oven or a hob. In fact a kitchen is full of ways to maim yourself. So why single out the microwave? A microwave is a tool, tools can be unsafe if used improperly.