Microwave Troubleshooting
The microwave oven is a very reliable device, compared to most other kitchen appliances it ranks amongst the most reliable if not the most reliable of them.
Chances are that your oven will operate for ten years or more without requiring any sort of repairs at levels of performance equal to those when you first used it, straight out of the box. However as it is with any man-made thing some of them will undoubtedly breakdown and stop working while in your service, some will give you warning signs as to their impending shut down while some will just die all of a sudden.
Simple Microwave Troubleshooting
Some of the simplest problems that cause microwaves to stop working are easily fixable, such as bad interlock switches or a misaligned door can cause the oven’s fuses to blow or just cause it to not start when you push the Start button. This problem can be easily resolved by locating and replacing the defective switches or by realigning the door, depending on the problem.
One old-school problem of sorts is a blown fuse due to a power surge or just plain old age if the oven’s been in your use for several years. The answer is simple in this case, just replace the fuse and your oven should spark into life good as new. On a related note, there have been some rare cases when the main fuse may actually be the causing some strange symptoms, in this case as well replacing the faulty fuse is the answer.
You might be experiencing some erratic touch pad operation due to a spill of whatever on it, all you have to do is to let the touch pad dry out for a good couple of days and then it should be ok.
In some cases you might have a buggy oven, and we’re not talking about electric bugs, we’re talking about real bugs making a nest in your microwave oven, it’s been known to happen because the circuit board is a nice warm and safe place for bugs.
These are probably the simplest problems that cause the majority of microwave troubleshooting; however there are some other more serious ones as well.
But what should you do when you’re faced with a faulty microwave, should you repair it or replace it? Considering the fact that they’re relatively cheap by most standards, replacing a microwave oven will usually prove to be the better way of going about rather than repairing it because the repair bill will usually be close if not over the price of a new unit.
However if the microwave oven repair is a relatively simple one and you have the skills and tools to pull it off, then repairing will be by far the cheaper alternative.
Fact of the matter is that most microwave troubleshooting can usually be avoided by doing some basic microwave maintenance mostly this means keeping it clean both inside and outside.
Clean the interior of the oven when necessary because a built up of food deposits that is not removed can eventually carbonize and give birth to sparks, arcs, overheating, and damage to the waveguide cove as well as potentially more serious damage to the magnetron.
The same goes for the exterior, however keep in mind to not use sprays or dripping wet cloth since these methods can find their way into the ventilation as well as any other possible nook and cranny. Also important is not use any sort of solvent cleaner on the touch pad.
Microwave Troubleshooting Related to Magnetron
The usual microwave oven problems that occur tend to be in close relation to the magnetron – the part of the oven that generates the microwaves. Bad interlock switches most likely account for the majority of basic microwave oven problems as well as blown fuses and controllers from lightning strikes or power surges.
Click here to know more about microwave magnetron
Here are a couple of microwave troubleshooting symptoms that are usually related to the controller or power management of the oven and not the magnetron itself:
- The oven is completely dead, it does not respond to being plugged in, pushing buttons anything
- The oven works when the door is still open, obviously this shouldn’t happen
- The oven does work but you cannot see anything on the touchpad display
- The oven behaves erratically, not defrosting when you want it, not working for the specified amount of time, and so on
- Some of the touch pad features to not work as they’re supposed to or do not work at all
- Your oven does not do anything once you push the Start button.
If you’re experiencing any of these microwave troubleshooting symptoms, or similar ones, the first and easiest thing that you can do is to unplug the microwave oven for a couple of minutes and let it rest.
Sometimes its electric circuits develop an error for some unknown reason – could be a power surge of sorts – and it only needs to reset to its default position. Once you plug your oven back it might never again act weird.
In the event that this simple option doesn’t have the desired effects then it means that the problem with your oven will require a bit of tinkering inside it and you might be surprised of what you find.
There have been cases of microwave ovens that stopped working because they had nests or colonies of cockroaches or some other creepy crawly inside them. The inside of the microwave is an ideal place for such creatures to dwell, and if you got your microwave from a flea market or a garage sale then this is a definite possibility.
What you have to do in this case is to clean the circuit board and the connectors thoroughly with water and then with isopropyl alcohol and then make sure that you dry them completely, leave them out for a couple of hours to be sure. You should also inspect the board for signs of corrosion or other damage. If no electronic components were affected then all should be fine but of course there’s always the possibility of something else happening.
If your microwave oven is still completely dead you need to check the power outlet with another appliance to make sure that it works. Then check the fuse or circuit breaker at your service panel because they might have been blown by a power overload.
The overload is a distinct possibility if you have too many appliances plugged into the same circuit; for instance the microwave is a high current consumer while it’s working and should be on a circuit of its own, if you tried to run a toaster and the microwave at the same time then that might have caused a fuse to blow.
If that is the problem then replacing the blown fuse or switching the circuit breaker back on should fix it, however if this continues happening it means that there is a problem at some other place down the circuit.
For more information on how to fix common microwave troubleshooting on each brands, you can go to Microwave Oven Repair Case History Database
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