I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen stove, its a
micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the watts, to
at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a difference when
cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install it my self.

Thanks Tom

"tflfb" wrote in message
...
I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen stove, its
a
micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the watts,
to
at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a difference when
cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install it my self.

Thanks Tom




Sharp and G.E. over the range micros are great
and easy to install
takes about 20 minutes.

I'm not sure this will answer your question but it may help.
We recently installed a new over the range with outside vent connection. The
vent pipe was 7 in. in size - and we had to buy an attachment that had a round
hole to fit the vent on one end and it changed to a rectangle shape on the
other end to fit the microwave.

We were putting in the oven to replace a regular vent hood over the stove so
yours may be different. We had a choice of venting it to the outside or having
it just filter the air and blow back into the room.

Someone on here can probably explain it better.


Dorothy

Hi,
That is not practical. Wattage is a matter of megnetron size and
it's power supply(the guts of unit)
I'd just replace the whole unit with new one if you use it
a lot.
Tony

tflfb wrote:

I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen stove, its a
micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the watts, to
at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a difference when
cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install it my self.

Thanks Tom

"tflfb" wrote in message ...
I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen stove, its a
micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the watts, to
at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a difference when
cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install it my self.

Thanks Tom

Hi,

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the watts, to
at least 1100

Not without changing a lot of other parts in the high voltage system
as well!!

If you want higher output, donate your old microwave to someone that
can use it and buy yourself a new one.

jeff.

Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/

"tflfb" wrote in message ...

I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen
stove, its a micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the
watts, to at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a
difference when cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install
it my self.

Do you know how to install microwave tubes correctly? If you don't do
it correctly you can cause high levels of microwave leakage, and I do
mean high enough to cause skin burns and cataracts. And remember, you
cannot reliably measure leakage with a cheap meter! Some of those
meters will indicate tremendous leakage even with no microwave devices
nearby (not even phones), while others will show zero leakage even
when sitting inside a running oven. The only good meters are tuned
specifically for the 2450 MHz frequency used by ovens and cost at
least $300.

How much power is your oven putting out currently? You can measure
this with a thermometer, glass or plastic bowl, and exactly 1 quart or
1 litre of tap water. Fill the bowl with the exact amount, and stir
the thermometer in the bowl and record the temperature. Heat the
water at full power for exactly 60 seconds, and then again stir the
thermometer in the water and record the temperature. Assuming that
you used 1 quart of water and a Fahrenheit themometer, the power in
watts is 70 times difference of the beginning and ending temperature,
but if you used 1 litre of water and a Celcius thermometer, the power
in watts is 37 times the temperature difference.

Microwave ovens naturally decrease in maximum power with time, maybe
because the permanent magnet on the magnatron tube weakens, and it's
possible that a 10-year-old tube is putting out only 50-70% its
original power. Also the industry specifies microwave oven power
differently now, by something called the "IEC method," that seems to
give higher wattage numbers than the old method. You may want to test
a fairly new oven to see how close the method described above compares
to the IEC method.

Another way to boost microwave power is by increasing the size of the
high voltage capacitor, and at least one Japanese company changed
nothing else in their ovens rated from less than 500W to about 900W.
But if you try this yourself, don't go more than 20% over the original
size. After I changed the tube in our Sharp convection/microwave, I
decided to try this trick by replacing the original 0.8uF capacitor
with a 0.95uF, and I measured a proportional power increase. The new
tube lasted about as long as the original, 8 years. By the way, some
sources are far cheaper than others for microwave parts, and I've used
Wondral/EPS (1-800-227-0104) and MCM Electronics.
Also parts for some brands of ovens are much more expensive than
others, with Sharps being among the cheapest.

tflfb wrote:

I have a 700 watt Microwave ( Whirlpool ) oven above
the kitchen stove, its a micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order
to up the watts, to at least 1100.

No.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it
is to heat anything.

Than maybe there's a problem with it and it's not even working to what it is
designed to do. If you're not going to have it looked into, you might as
well just replace it.

JMO

Dan O.
-
Appliance411.com
http://ng.Appliance411.com/?ref411=microwave+heat

=Ð~~~~~~

(do_not_spam_me) wrote in message . com...
"tflfb" wrote in message ...

I have a 700 watt Microwave( Whirlpool ) oven above the kitchen
stove, its a micro/ exhaust fan combo.

Is it possible to have a bigger tube installed in order to up the
watts, to at least 1100.

Also the oven is 10 yrs old, takes forever as it is to heat anything.
There's a crack in the plastic trim on the door.( cosmetic)

I was never aware when I bought the oven that watts made a
difference when cooking.

A new oven is going to cost me at least $275, I will install
it my self.

Do you know how to install microwave tubes correctly? If you don't do
it correctly you can cause high levels of microwave leakage, and I do
mean high enough to cause skin burns and cataracts. And remember, you
cannot reliably measure leakage with a cheap meter! Some of those
meters will indicate tremendous leakage even with no microwave devices
nearby (not even phones), while others will show zero leakage even
when sitting inside a running oven. The only good meters are tuned
specifically for the 2450 MHz frequency used by ovens and cost at
least $300.

How much power is your oven putting out currently? You can measure
this with a thermometer, glass or plastic bowl, and exactly 1 quart or
1 litre of tap water. Fill the bowl with the exact amount, and stir
the thermometer in the bowl and record the temperature. Heat the
water at full power for exactly 60 seconds, and then again stir the
thermometer in the water and record the temperature. Assuming that
you used 1 quart of water and a Fahrenheit themometer, the power in
watts is 70 times difference of the beginning and ending temperature,
but if you used 1 litre of water and a Celcius thermometer, the power
in watts is 37 times the temperature difference.

Microwave ovens naturally decrease in maximum power with time, maybe
because the permanent magnet on the magnatron tube weakens, and it's
possible that a 10-year-old tube is putting out only 50-70% its
original power. Also the industry specifies microwave oven power
differently now, by something called the "IEC method," that seems to
give higher wattage numbers than the old method. You may want to test
a fairly new oven to see how close the method described above compares
to the IEC method.

Another way to boost microwave power is by increasing the size of the
high voltage capacitor, and at least one Japanese company changed
nothing else in their ovens rated from less than 500W to about 900W.
But if you try this yourself, don't go more than 20% over the original
size. After I changed the tube in our Sharp convection/microwave, I
decided to try this trick by replacing the original 0.8uF capacitor
with a 0.95uF, and I measured a proportional power increase. The new
tube lasted about as long as the original, 8 years. By the way, some
sources are far cheaper than others for microwave parts, and I've used
Wondral/EPS (1-800-227-0104) and MCM Electronics.
Also parts for some brands of ovens are much more expensive than
others, with Sharps being among the cheapest.

Your best bet is to put a new one in. It will save money.
But to answer your question it is possible to upgrage a 700W to 1000W
in many cases. It takes a combination of the transformer,cap, and
magnatron. Sometimes the transformer is already capable and the
connection on one leg of the input side can simply be shanged. I have
one ten feet from me that I modified. This is too dangerous for people
to play around with. You need to do it safely and be able to check for
leaks and monitor it over time.
People can check their own microwave's output with a container of
water and a thermometer. The idea is to put two cups of water in a
container with a loose lid and microwave it for two minutes. Measure
the temperature increase that took place and multiply by 17 (maybe
it's 17.25 or so?). I mark the ovens I repair so I can check when I
come back.

(MaxAluminum) wrote in message . com...

Do you know how to install microwave tubes correctly? If you
don't do it correctly you can cause high levels of microwave
leakage, and I do mean high enough to cause skin burns and
cataracts. And remember, you cannot reliably measure leakage
with a cheap meter! Some will show zero leakage even when
sitting inside a running oven.

Another way to boost microwave power is by increasing the size of
the high voltage capacitor, and at least one Japanese company
changed nothing else in their ovens rated from less than 500W to
about 900W. But if you try this yourself, don't go more than 20%
over the original size.

Your best bet is to put a new one in. It will save money.

I don't see how buying a new overhead or convection/microwave oven
will save money compared to spending less than $50 in parts
(magnatron, capacitor, diode, thermal cutoff), but it certainly is the
only safe and sensible choice for anyone who doesn't know how to work
on microwave ovens.

But to answer your question it is possible to upgrage a 700W to 1000W
in many cases. It takes a combination of the transformer,cap, and
magnatron. Sometimes the transformer is already capable and the
connection on one leg of the input side can simply be shanged. I have
one ten feet from me that I modified. This is too dangerous for
people
to play around with. You need to do it safely and be able to check
for
leaks and monitor it over time.

The problem is that transformers, at least new ones, are usually at
least $70-100, and, as you've warned, if they're not wired right the
person can be killed by about 1,000 volts. On the other hand a
slightly larger capacitor for the voltage doubler is only $5-15, but
simply replacing an old magnatron will usually produce noticeably more
power because magnatrons weaken with use because some old ovens
produce just half their rated power.

People can check their own microwave's output with a container of
water and a thermometer. The idea is to put two cups of water in a
container with a loose lid and microwave it for two minutes. Measure
the temperature increase that took place and multiply by 17 (maybe
it's 17.25 or so?). I mark the ovens I repair so I can check when I
come back.

Is that any simpler than my suggestion of heating exactly 1 quart of
water for exactly 1 minute and then multiplying the Fahrenheit
temperature increase by 70?