"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
On 1/6/2013 4:19 PM, Meanie wrote:
wrote in message
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My 12 year old microwave quit heating today. I was warming some soup and
set it for the required time. When the cycle ended, the soup was warm,
but not hot. I ran the MW another minute and the soup did not get any
warmer. I tried yet another minute. It never got hot. The MW runs,
the timer works the platter rotates, but it just dont heat. I noticed
that it makes a loud hum, much louder than it did before.

I suspect that the heating element burned out, and probably costs more
for the parts to repair it, than to buy a new MW. But I thought I'd ask
if there could be something else that failed?

Is it normal to make a loud hum when they fail?


It's the Magnetron. 9 times out of 10 that's the problem when it stops
heating.



Magnetrons are quite tough, most failures are due to the the diode,
capacitor failing or simply a blown fuse. ^_^

The fuse has always been the problem with my microwaves, Radio Shack and
other hardware outlets always have them available, a cheap test is to
replace it.