Hello,

Have a Panasonic Inverter microwave model number NN-SD997S. This unit is
just over 36 months old and has been used heavily without issue. This
evening just after the start button was pressed, the internal light
flashed blue and did not light, along with no turntable operation or
cooling fan operation. It looks like the magnetron ran for about 2
minutes w/o me really knowing because the meal was hot afterwards. There
was a bit of a 'hot steel' smell afterwards.......so fanless magnetron
cannot be too good either. Assuming i didn't damage it further with the
fanless operation.....what could be the issue with this unit and is it
fixable. This is/was a topline unit but bought at half price, roughly
225.00$. If it's an internal fuse, there must be major issues for it to
trip? Wall outlet is ok, checked with Fluke.

Thx for any info.

Rgds.

"The_Fatman" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Have a Panasonic Inverter microwave model number NN-SD997S. This unit is
just over 36 months old and has been used heavily without issue. This
evening just after the start button was pressed, the internal light
flashed blue and did not light, along with no turntable operation or
cooling fan operation. It looks like the magnetron ran for about 2
minutes w/o me really knowing because the meal was hot afterwards. There
was a bit of a 'hot steel' smell afterwards.......so fanless magnetron
cannot be too good either. Assuming i didn't damage it further with the
fanless operation.....what could be the issue with this unit and is it
fixable. This is/was a topline unit but bought at half price, roughly
225.00$. If it's an internal fuse, there must be major issues for it to
trip? Wall outlet is ok, checked with Fluke.

Thx for any info.

Rgds.

Maybe the "blue flash" from the internal light, was the bulb failing, and it
took out an internal fuse that feeds the lamp, fan and turntable supplies.
Ordinary lightbulbs often fail with a spectacular lightning storm inside
these days, and take the household lighting circuit trip with them. A bit
naughty if the Pan doesn't have secondary protection fed from this supply,
to ensure that the mag can't run with no cooling, or the food rotated in the
waves though. I'm sure that someone on here will be familiar with the model,
and know the answer ...

Arfa

On Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:29:44 +0000, Arfa Daily wrote:

"The_Fatman" wrote in message
...
Hello,

Have a Panasonic Inverter microwave model number NN-SD997S. This unit
is just over 36 months old and has been used heavily without issue.
This evening just after the start button was pressed, the internal
light flashed blue and did not light, along with no turntable operation
or cooling fan operation. It looks like the magnetron ran for about 2
minutes w/o me really knowing because the meal was hot afterwards.
There was a bit of a 'hot steel' smell afterwards.......so fanless
magnetron cannot be too good either. Assuming i didn't damage it
further with the fanless operation.....what could be the issue with
this unit and is it fixable. This is/was a topline unit but bought at
half price, roughly 225.00$. If it's an internal fuse, there must be
major issues for it to trip? Wall outlet is ok, checked with Fluke.

Thx for any info.

Rgds.

Maybe the "blue flash" from the internal light, was the bulb failing,
and it took out an internal fuse that feeds the lamp, fan and turntable
supplies. Ordinary lightbulbs often fail with a spectacular lightning
storm inside these days, and take the household lighting circuit trip
with them. A bit naughty if the Pan doesn't have secondary protection
fed from this supply, to ensure that the mag can't run with no cooling,
or the food rotated in the waves though. I'm sure that someone on here
will be familiar with the model, and know the answer ...

Arfa

Thx for the reply, i opened up the chassis and there is a fuse on a small
circuit board at the upper rear right hand side of unit next to AC input.
This fuse didn't appear to be blown. (measured 0.5 ohm) I don't see any
obvious shorts or anything anywhere else around innards.....i've tried to
inspect the input leads to what appear to be 'door latch micro switches'
but they seem ok to me.

I was expecting the fuse to be open....this explains why magnetron and
front panel are still live?

The local Panasonic repair center wants about $70 to look at it +extras
if repair more than $70.

The unit this replaced ran for at least 15 years (Panasonic also, but a
'Genius'...perhaps 'Ingenius' would have been a better name, since it ran
for 5 times as long at half the price, w/o so much as a burnt out bulb
even and withstood being dropped, twice.)

In article ,
The_Fatman wrote:

The unit this replaced ran for at least 15 years (Panasonic also, but a
'Genius'...perhaps 'Ingenius' would have been a better name, since it ran
for 5 times as long at half the price, w/o so much as a burnt out bulb
even and withstood being dropped, twice.)

I also had poor reliability from a Panasonic inverter-type microwave
oven. It died (completely) after less than two years. Our previous
microwave (a Kenmore, I think) had run for about 20 years.

I googled around a bit and concluded that none of the consumer-branded
microwave ovens on the market today was likely to be significantly
better than the Panasonic... reliability has gone badly downhill in
recent years, due to the "race the bottom" price-wise, and the
infatuation with fancy features.

I ended up buying a "medium-level food service" grade microwave (an
Amana commercial model). So far, so good. You can even get these
with the old-style rotary-knob timers, rather than pushbuttons and
microprocessor logic.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

The_Fatman wrote:

On Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:29:44 +0000, Arfa Daily wrote:


Maybe the "blue flash" from the internal light, was the bulb failing,

Thx for the reply, i opened up the chassis and there is a fuse on a small
circuit board at the upper rear right hand side of unit next to AC input.
This fuse didn't appear to be blown. (measured 0.5 ohm) I don't see any
obvious shorts or anything anywhere else around innards.....i've tried to
inspect the input leads to what appear to be 'door latch micro switches'
but they seem ok to me.
Well, most likely the tungsten arc in the bulb popped the solid state relay
that runs the light, fan, etc. These are probably set up to stay on after
the cooking is done, or maybe just to keep running when the duty-cycle
control of the magnetron is switched on and off. You can trace the power
to the fan motor and see if there is an obvious electromechanical or solid
state relay for this. It will be a LOT less expensive to get this through
Digi-Key or Mouser than $70.

Jon

On Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:46:01 -0600, The_Fatman wrote:

The unit this replaced ran for at least 15 years (Panasonic also, but a
'Genius'...perhaps 'Ingenius' would have been a better name, since it ran
for 5 times as long at half the price, w/o so much as a burnt out bulb
even and withstood being dropped, twice.)

Not relevant to your actual problem, but we had a Panasonic Genius II
from 1977-ish until 2007 when it died (prior to that a turntable belt
had been replaced). Also replaced with a Panasonic inverter unit.
Watching responses with interest.

.....just to follow up for those that may benefit,like someone suggested,
it was the relay that controls fan/light/rotarytable which burned out.
The only rub was my waiting an extra day to pursue it and the woman
carting the machine off to the repair center in the interim....oh well,
it's only money....maybe it will last 10 years now???

On Jan 12, 11:39*am, The_Fatman wrote:
....just to follow up for those that may benefit,like someone suggested,
it was the relay that controls fan/light/rotarytable which burned out.
The only rub was my waiting an extra day to pursue it and the woman
carting the machine off to the repair center in the interim....oh well,
it's only money....maybe it will last 10 years now???

The female time scale to get a piece of vital equipment going again is
much shorter than the male's. In a similar situation, my thought to
use a double boiler to reheat foods, and the oven to cook frozen
meals, fell on deaf ears.

On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:18:37 -0800, spamtrap1888 wrote:

On Jan 12, 11:39Â*am, The_Fatman wrote:
....just to follow up for those that may benefit,like someone
suggested, it was the relay that controls fan/light/rotarytable which
burned out. The only rub was my waiting an extra day to pursue it and
the woman carting the machine off to the repair center in the
interim....oh well, it's only money....maybe it will last 10 years
now???

The female time scale to get a piece of vital equipment going again is
much shorter than the male's. In a similar situation, my thought to use
a double boiler to reheat foods, and the oven to cook frozen meals, fell
on deaf ears.

.....isn't that the truth.....it's like the survival of homo-sapiens is
now hopelessly intertwined with functioning magnetrons...i also dared to
suggest maybe we could...i dunno... use the oven and those lovely
stainless steel cookwares i sprung for a year ago. Instead i get a look
like i just rattled off some bizarre Russian dialect.

Good evening.

"The_Fatman" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:18:37 -0800, spamtrap1888 wrote:

On Jan 12, 11:39 am, The_Fatman wrote:
....just to follow up for those that may benefit,like someone
suggested, it was the relay that controls fan/light/rotarytable which
burned out. The only rub was my waiting an extra day to pursue it and
the woman carting the machine off to the repair center in the
interim....oh well, it's only money....maybe it will last 10 years
now???

The female time scale to get a piece of vital equipment going again is
much shorter than the male's. In a similar situation, my thought to use
a double boiler to reheat foods, and the oven to cook frozen meals, fell
on deaf ears.

....isn't that the truth.....it's like the survival of homo-sapiens is
now hopelessly intertwined with functioning magnetrons...i also dared to
suggest maybe we could...i dunno... use the oven and those lovely
stainless steel cookwares i sprung for a year ago. Instead i get a look
like i just rattled off some bizarre Russian dialect.

Good evening.

Our latest business involves the wife working during the evening, so it's
pretty much down to me to decide what to eat for an evening meal, and how to
prepare it. I've virtually abandoned the microwave, and gone back to simple
honest cooking in the oven and on the stovetop, using fresh ingredients.
It's cheaper than frozen meals, and tastes sooooo much better. For instance,
we had been using pretty much exclusively microwave rice packets. To be
honest, they might as well have contained bleached and de-flavoured mouse
turds. I have now gone back to boiling my own rice, bought for a fraction of
the cost of the packet stuff - I am actually using a local store's 'budget'
range. It takes but a few minutes to cook, and you can even smell it. I had
forgotten how good rice smells when it is cooked, and how much intrinsic
flavour it has, before you start adding any other ingredients to the mix. It
also fries better than the packet stuff, and doesn't stick to the pan.

Apart from heating up a can of soup, I think that I can now pretty much live
without using the thing at all, and am probably healthier for it.

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in
:


Our latest business involves the wife working during the evening, so
it's pretty much down to me to decide what to eat for an evening meal,
and how to prepare it. I've virtually abandoned the microwave, and
gone back to simple honest cooking in the oven and on the stovetop,
using fresh ingredients. It's cheaper than frozen meals, and tastes
sooooo much better. For instance, we had been using pretty much
exclusively microwave rice packets. To be honest, they might as well
have contained bleached and de-flavoured mouse turds. I have now gone
back to boiling my own rice, bought for a fraction of the cost of the
packet stuff - I am actually using a local store's 'budget' range. It
takes but a few minutes to cook, and you can even smell it. I had
forgotten how good rice smells when it is cooked, and how much
intrinsic flavour it has, before you start adding any other
ingredients to the mix. It also fries better than the packet stuff,
and doesn't stick to the pan.

Apart from heating up a can of soup, I think that I can now pretty
much live without using the thing at all, and am probably healthier
for it.

Arfa



I've been trying to find a decent MW rice cooker with no success.
I tried a Nordic Ware pot,but it requires soaking the rice for quite a
while and still not cooking the rice right.

what I really want is a MW pressure cooker,with a locking top and pop-off
safety valve.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com