Microwave troubles..

[thatguy]

My wife accidently ran the microwave for a coupe minutes this morning with nothing inside it.. Now it does not heat stuff

What could be wrong?

Would it be covered by a warranty? Its about 14 mths old..

BTW - the microwave panel lights up, the turntable turns, and the light comes on... BUT it wont heat..

Just wondering

Brian

 

[ultrarunner]

Might be a separate glass type automotive fuse inside?

 

[dqdave1]

Remove cover; beware of high voltage areas; hopefully the in line fuse blew; it will be white in color. Make sure you buy a matching fuse; the magnatron tube needs the white coating to reflect waves from fuse I think. If fuse is blown, replacing it may work; if not the Magnatron tube is probably bad.

 

[wrangler6831]

It sound to me like your Capacitor is gone. Here is a link. Electronix Online
If you get into it be very careful it is very high voltage. If you can get it discharge completely you can test it with a volt meter set on A.C. and just keep reversing the leads, the voltage should rise a little then level out and then you reverse the leads and it will do the same thing. If it does this your CAP is good, if the voltage only raises in one direction your CAP is bad. Do a google search on microwave repair and you get plenty to read. just be safe doing it. If i'm wrong on this some one feel free to pipe in, it's only been about 10 yaers since I worked on electronics.


Rich

 

[RobJ]

Buy a new one!!

 

[KENSFM]

Is it a GE? This is a common problem with their microwaves. Probably is the "flux" capacitor, and may not be worth fixing unless you can get it covered under the warranty.
Ken

 

[thatguy]

It is a sears built on micro/fan combo... They are sending someone out today to look at it.. The bad thing is I dont remember how much it costs and on sears.com they range from $199 to +$450, and they all look similar..

thanks

Brian

 

[Bird]

It is a sears built on micro/fan combo... They are sending someone out today to look at it.. The bad thing is I dont remember how much it costs and on sears.com they range from $199 to +$450, and they all look similar..

thanks

Brian

You be sure and let us know what you find out, because we bought this house a little over 2 years ago and it has a Kenmore model 665.68610991 built in microwave/exhaust fan with a manufactured date of March 1999. So far it works great, but like you, I have no idea what it would cost to repair or replace it.

 

[thatguy]

Buying a new one is what happened... The wifey cooked (pun intended) the magnatron and some other electrical part.. And for a small tidy sum of $255 they will repair it.. After a trip to Sears we found out it was only $159 new (thru contract sales) and on sale now for $199 on the floor..

After the $60 service charge for today we are still at the same cost of repair, but the new one had a 1 yr warranty.. now I just need to R & R the old one..

Anyone need a nice clock and timer with a 1.9 cu ft storage cabinet - includes working interior light LOL

Brian

 

[woodchuckie]

The microwave ray gun (Magatron tube ?) send out the waves and the food absorb the waves. If the waves aren't absorbed they continue to bounce around and go back to the tube. This is what causes it to go bad with nothing in the oven.

 

[thatguy]

You be sure and let us know what you find out, because we bought this house a little over 2 years ago and it has a Kenmore model 665.68610991 built in microwave/exhaust fan with a manufactured date of March 1999. So far it works great, but like you, I have no idea what it would cost to repair or replace it.

Just wanted to share what I learned at sears last night on their model numbers

your model 665.68610991

665 = manufacturer
68610 = model number (number referenced on Sears.com as well)
9 = color (black) 2 and 4 are either white/stainless it seems
91 = ?

They change model number quite frequently.. Our model was just a year old and it had already been replaced by another model that has minor cosmetic changes.. I didnt see your model on the website.

it appears that from a quick internet search that your model is a 'kenmore elite' and currently models on sears.com start at $530 and go up to $800.. So you have a much more expensive one that we have..

thanks for all the help guys

Brian

 

[Soundguy]

This is why i always leave a glass of water in the microwave.. that way if it accidentally gets turned on without something in it.. it will have at least a minimal cooking load to deal with... water sure absorbs lots of energy...

Soundguy

 

[billbill1]

7 years ago when we built our house, we bought all new appliances. The microwave was about $700 (from memory) It went out on us, I went to one of the orange box stores and bought a new one for $199 and it works every bit as good as the expensive one. The original had all of the bells and whistles, heat probe, browning ability, etc. All we do with a microwave is reheat food, no fancy cooking of any kind. The cheapie is 1000 watts just like the old one, two screws hold the microwave up under the cabinet and changing out the back plate is all there is to changing one out.

 

[Bird]

Just wanted to share what I learned at sears last night on their model numbers

your model 665.68610991

665 = manufacturer
68610 = model number (number referenced on Sears.com as well)
9 = color (black) 2 and 4 are either white/stainless it seems
91 = ?

They change model number quite frequently.. Our model was just a year old and it had already been replaced by another model that has minor cosmetic changes.. I didnt see your model on the website.

it appears that from a quick internet search that your model is a 'kenmore elite' and currently models on sears.com start at $530 and go up to $800.. So you have a much more expensive one that we have..

thanks for all the help guys

Brian

Thanks, Brian. I don't really know all the history on this place, but the house was built in 1991. When we bought it in 2005, the interior appeared to be freshly painted, but the next door neighbors said it had not been in the past two years anyway. The KitchenAid dishwasher and range and the Kenmore microwave appeared to be new and never used, but we had no manuals. So I found the model and serial numbers and found all three appliances, plus the HVAC system were 1999 models. KitchenAid sent manuals at no cost; Sears charged about $3 for the microwave manual. We also learned that the last owner, a single man, had owned it 3 years and before that an older single man owned it. Apparently neither did any cooking, and both were into woodworking. Everything in the place appeared nearly new and very clean, except for a filthy shower in the master bath.

Billbill, we've never used the meat probe in our microwave either. We probably use the microwave more than most because we both drink lots of coffee, always have a pitcher full of cold coffee on hand, and just heat up a cup in the microwave when we want to, which is many times a day. No fancy cooking, but we do heat or reheat lots of food in it.

 

[TheKid]

Anyone need a nice clock and timer with a 1.9 cu ft storage cabinet - includes working interior light LOL

If you or any of your friends do a lot of welding it would make a good storage container to keep welding rods, especialy 7018's. Just rig the light to stay on all the time and it will keep them dry. You may have to increase the wattage of the bulb.

 

[jinman]

If you or any of your friends do a lot of welding it would make a good storage container to keep welding rods, especialy 7018's. Just rig the light to stay on all the time and it will keep them dry. You may have to increase the wattage of the bulb.

Keith, that is a great idea, but I think I'd want to put a label on the front that said, "non-working microwave." Can't you imagine someone seeing that cabinet used and thinking they could use a working microwave to dry rods? That would be pretty exciting.