On Aug 18, 1:25 am, "James Sweet" wrote:
"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message

...

Per Meat Plow:
Might have started out very small
and once the plastic burned enough it made more contaminants that caused
more arcing and so forth.

A vicious cycle... I like it.

But it begs a question that popped up as soon as I saw the
paddle: are some metals ok tb within a microwave oven?

I'm guessing the metal paddles are alu.

Where you run into trouble is when two pieces of metal are too close
together, especially if they have sharp corners. A potential develops
between them and it arcs. Isolated pieces of metal are generally ok, so long
as they're not too big.

Pull the cover off the front panel and see if the blower motor is OK.
The stir fan is powered by the air from the blower.