Microwave failure

[altivo]

Microwaves have weird failure modes. Our old Sharp has been working for a long time (more than 13 years I'm sure) but in the last year the light inside has been erratic. Sometimes would come on, sometimes not. Sunday morning as I was making breakfast, though, something else failed in a more spectacular mode. I had put some butter in there to melt

Comments

[calydor]

As said, cut the cord all the way up at the base of the machine.

If you're feeling violent, smash the door with a hammer. No one's going to try to run it after that.

[altivo]

Gary cut the cord and put it out last night without my knowledge. It's gone now, though I remain unsure who took it. I think our regular weekly pickup would have left it behind.

[james_b]

As has been said. Cut the cord off and if possible, break the door off.

If you want to go further, use the back of an axe or a sledge hammer and give the case a good solid hit to take out the control buttons and/or display. The magnetron will be on this side and you may take it out as well.

I've had training on BIG RADAR systems, and have used knowledge from that to repair microwave ovens. Unless you have sentimental attachment or the microwave has a feature that you consider a "must have" and you can't get a replacement that has that feature, then a repair will cost more than a new oven.

[altivo]

Yeah, the original price of this one was only $99 and it lasted 15 years. Not worth the cost of repair and as I said, I wasn't about to tackle it myself. Amusingly, Sharp had kept bugging me year after year to take out a maintenance contract for it. Cost of contract? $89/year! Had I done that, I'd have had $1200 or so invested in the thing before it failed, even if they did fix it for free at that point.

[james_b]

I had an old Sanyo that I bought almost 30 years ago. Cost me between AUD$600 and AUD$700 when I bought it. I left it in my house in Australia when I sold the house in 2008. Over the time I owned it, I spent $50 on a replacement high voltage capacitor, $95 for a replacement magnetron, and $20 each for two high voltage fuses.

I liked it because it was BIG ... commercial oven size big. Never had any problems fitting any cooking container in that one. The microwave that was in the rented house I lived in when I first moved to Canada was so small, that there was an art to fitting larger coffee cups through the door opening. I could have fitted that particular oven inside the cavity of the big Sanyo.

[altivo]

Yeah, I remember how expensive they were when they were new. Neighbors got one in the early 70s when I was still in college, and I think they paid nearly $1000 for it. Litton was the brand I believe. It was huge. You could put a whole turkey in it, though I'm pretty sure we already knew that the results would be less than optimal if you did that.

This one is a Panasonic and has a stainless steel exterior that harks back to those early models though of course it is far less expensive.

[avon_deer]

I tend to replace my microwave every eight years or so.

[altivo]

This is only the second replacement we've ever done. I have a feeling we're on the way to our third bread machine though. Those get a lot more use than the microwave, actually, and have more mechanical parts. Cause of failure in the last one we had was actually ball bearing wear.

[avon_deer]

I wish i had the worktop space for all this stuff. :D

The last bread machine I was near scared me a bit with all it's pummeling. :D

[altivo]

They can get a bit noisy, yeah. But they do a superb job of kneading dough, and give a reliable and reproducible result.

[animist]

The new microwaves tend to be kind of nice if you shop around. And should be more efficient than the old one. I wouldn't wanna monkey around with any kind of High Frequency source that could be leaking radio waves anyway. Who knows where that waste energy is going and what it can do to you. If you are worried about someone fishing it out and using it (or more likely, reselling it cheap to innocent parties), I would take the door off of it and throw it away first. Send the rest out next week.

[altivo]

Yeah, those were my thoughts. I'm sure it could have been fixed, but for the $99 I originally paid for it 15 years ago, and considering the additional improvements in the current models, just not worth it.

The new one has a larger capacity, slightly higher power, and a number of nice features the old one lacked.

[schnee]

I think my microwave's approaching 25 years (it's the first one my parents got, back in the mid-80s or so), but it's still working. They don't build 'em like they used to...

170 USD for a new one seems like quite a bit, but then, I've increasingly found that you get what you pay for, quality-wise, so it's probably best to invest a few more bucks. :)

Here's hoping that one will last longer.

[altivo]

I expect this one will last at least as long. That price is about bottom of the scale for a full size unit. You can get smaller ones for as little as $69 or so.

[schnee]

Ah, how large is a full-size one?

[altivo]

At least 1.2 cubic feet, typically closer to 1.5 or more. Magnetron power rating of a kilowatt or more.