Keep warm
After cooking, the oven holds the food warm at a very low power for up to about 30 minutes instead of letting it cool.
What it is for
Set it after a manual cooking time so the dish is ready when you are; open the door or press stop to end it early.
Makes differ, check your microwave’s manual: the same drawing can start a different programme on another brand, and only your model’s manual gives its exact watts, weights and times.
- What it looks like
- A key marked KEEP WARM, a dish with gentle steam lines, or a power setting shown as P0 or Warm.
- Names makers use
- P0 (KEEP WARM) (Panasonic); Keep Warm (Dacor)
Where makes differ
Panasonic’s NN-GN68 sets it as power level P0 with a time of up to 30 minutes, and only after manually timed cooking — not after its automatic programmes; Dacor keeps food warm for 30 minutes after cooking or runs it as a separate programme started within a minute.
What it does not mean
It is not for defrosting or for reheating cold food, and it does not keep food safe for hours.
Other symbols with the same shapes
Sources
No published standard we could check defines microwave control icons, so this meaning is taken from 2 makers’ own manuals and support pages, each fetched and read on the date shown:
- Panasonic: Panasonic — Owner’s manual, grill/microwave oven NN-GN68KS — “Keep Warm (Will keep food warm for up to 30 minutes after cooking)… Press Power Level 11 times to select the P0 (KEEP WARM)”; “It cannot be used with Automatic function (such as Turbo Defrost… Sensor Reheat…).” Checked 2026-09-28.
- Dacor: Dacor (Samsung) — Use and care manual, over-the-range convection microwave oven PCOR30S — “KEEP WARM can only be programmed with manual cooking or as a separate program… At the end of cook time, KEEP WARM is displayed warming food until end of 30 minutes.” Checked 2026-09-28.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.