Kitchen Small Electric Appliances - New 1300 W microwave draws 1900+ watts..?

I just got a new microwave, one that uses an 'inverter' if that matters. It's advertised as a 1300W model. I ran it through my kill-o-watt meter to see what kind of power it would draw at various cooking temperatures. To my surprise, with he oven on full power, the meter was hovering around 1950 watts / 16.5 amps. On the lowest cooking power setting, the oven drew around 800 watts.

Is there something going on with advertised power, and actual draw when it comes to microwaves that I don't know about? Should I be at all concerned about 1950 watts on full power? Or should I be happy that it might be cooking even hotter/faster than advertised:)..? Circuit-wise I'm on a 20A line, so not worried there..

That advertised wattage refers to the cooking power.
It would make sense that it would consume more power than it delivers to the oven cavity.

What does the tag say for the appliance amperage rating?

Yep...cooling fan, turntable, electronics......

On the back of the unit it's rated at 12.7 Amps. In the back of the manual it also says the power consumption is 12.7 Amps, 1480 W, and that the "cooking power" is 1300 W. 180 W for fans/bulbs/etc. seems reasonable.

That said, it's now starting to seem like 16.5 Amps, 1950 W is way to high a draw for this thing! I was just curious at first, but now I'm really wondering if this is right or not. Maybe my kill-o-watt is not reading right? However seems to be very accurate when I run 60, 100, 200 W bulbs through it...

Thanks for the replies.

A microwave is an inductive load as opposed to a resistive load for the bulbs.
Your wattage meter may not be accurate for this type of load.

12.7 amps should be connected to a 20 amp outlet but if you have a normal parallel blade plug try it on a 15 amp cct. to see if it holds.

12.7 amps should be connected to a 20 amp outlet but if you have a normal parallel blade plug try it on a 15 amp cct. to see if it holds.

Are you saying that if it runs on the 15A line without tripping the breaker then it really must not be drawing the 16.5+ Amps the meter is suggesting? If you are, then I think you're right! Because I just ran it off an outlet on a 15A circuit including one other light in the room, and the circuit didn't pop.. You think that proves the meter is just inaccurate with this device?

This sounds obvious, but I really am an electrical dimwit:), so thanks for the response!

In all likelihood the meter is not reading correctly.
If you carefully read the instructions it may say something about different types of loads.