On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:59:26 -0500, "RichK" wrote:


"Sheldon" wrote in message

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.

You do not say how old the oven is. Designs have changed over the years.
My Panasonic is almost 30 years old. Still works fine, although I had to
replace the light bulb in it once. Chances are a replacement would last 3
years, if I'm lucky :-(

Microwave ovens can only produce the max amount of energy, that the tube is
rated for. If you set it to lower power, the tube is turned on-off, some
percentage of the time.

This might be in response to my suggestion to try other levels, since
I think I"m the only one who suggested this.

Yes, I know what you are saying and you're right. But that doesn't
mean that trying other levels wouldn't get around a problem in the
logic circuit. I wouldn't say it is very likely to work, but it might.
At the very least, the OP will start to get into the habit of testing
every possibility and looking for every symptom. OTOH if it does
work, it could work for years.

It may be possible that due to some component failure in the power supply,
the whole thing is acting strange. Or that door switch, as someone
suggested (I did not know they were designed that way).

Yeah, thrash it, as some suggested and your next one will fail even sooner.

Short of tube replacement, these things are fixable. Even the tube can be
replaced. Of course if you can't live w/o it for a few days, make a deposit
to the thrash heap, that's becoming the trademark of the American
Consumerism.

My sister-in-law couldn't wait. She bought a new one while I fixed
the old one (in this case just a fuse) and gave it to Goodwill
Industries. In fact she bought another one of a different brand at
the first store she went to and said she'd hire a (probably
lower-than-average-priced probably Mexican illegal) carpenter to make
new moldings around the new microwave. It's also going to need stops
to keep it from moving back or sideways.

As cheap as Mexicans sometimes are I think she's going to end up
costing my brother a lot more money then if she'd just looked a bit
longer to find one the same size that used the same mounting kit which
they already had. But I kept my mouth shut.

Find a local repair shop that is reasonable and support them with repairs.
I know there are very few left and not all are reasonable.

Rich



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