"mm" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 22:11:02 -0500, "Sheldon" wrote:

Hi,

I have an over the stove microwave oven which I think has 2 related
problems. The first is that its 20 Amp circuit breaker keeps tripping
intermittently. It is the only device on the circuit. This has been
occurring for a 2 months. Recently the microwave appears to be producing
too much power while cooking. For example, it melts plastic plates where
do
not before and cooks items hotter than before. My thought is that
microwave
has had it.

Any comments?

The microwave may be broken but I don't see how it could use more than
20 amps even if it is. Sometimes breakers get old and trip when they
shouldn't. (But if you replace it, don't throw it away until youre
sure the new one works better.)

Do you have power levels on your microwave. Try using a lower level
all the time. It's even possible that level 10 is bad, but levels 1
through 9 work fine, but if not that, 1 through 10 might still be
proportional, even if they are all high.

At the very least you'll learn something about the psychology of
microwaves, and you may get many more years out of your device.

BTW, iiuc, plenty of plastics will work well in a microwave, but the
ones that are really designed for them won't get hot at all, even if
the oven runs longer and hotter than it should. I certainly have some
melmac type stuff that get's warmer than it should (which also means
that the food isn't cooked as much as otherwise) and other melmac type
stuff, or china, that doesn't get hot at all. I try to remember to
use the latter.


The door has a switch that shorts out the power line if the oven tries to
come on with the door open. That is the first place to look. There are two
switches, one breaks the power so it won't turn on, the other shorts out the
circuit if something goes wrong with the first one.

Al