"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
Greetings All,
My microwave oven just quit heating. Before I scrap it for parts maybe
I can instead fix it. When set to defrost the power cycles on and off.
And you can tell by the lower fan sound and the light slightly dimming
when it is supposed to be heating.. It still does this but nothing
gets hot. Whether defrost or full power. So, I think the transformer
must still be getting power. Any thoughts? Do magnetrons eventually
fail? I have another oven that's over twenty years old and it still
works fine.
Thank You,
Eric R Snow

My own experience as an amateur to repairing microwave ovens might be
worthwhile to describe -
Being fully aware of the extreme danger in working on one of these things, I
was very careful when my unit stopped heating. I checked out the various
interlock switches; I checked (VERY carefully) the operation of the
transformer; the diode SEEMED ok when doing a resistance check with a
multimeter, however I did not want to part with the money for a new one, so
I looked into it further. I referred to the trusty www.repairfaq.org and,
sure enough, found the manner in which I could test this properly. I found
the diode was ok. That left only the magnetron. At that point I decided it
was much cheaper (and safer) to buy a new microwave oven at a discount
store.

Henry,
Australia