How long should a microwave last?

[Ian]

With the Sale of Goods Act and "fit for purpose" in the back of my mind, what is a reasonable time for a microwave to last these days?

I bought a Panasonic T545WFQ new from John Lewis about two and a half years ago, and it's started blowing fuses. After replacing the 13A fuse (in the mains plug) the electronic display works OK, but as soon as I press Start, the fuse blows. My guess is there is a fault either in the turntable motor or in the magnetron circuitry somewhere.

The microwave has only had light domestic use, mainly for defrosting rather than cooking.

Ideas anyone?

[Man at B&Q]

Depends on the quality, price you paid and what you could reasonably expect from it.

I would say you should expect a Panasonic to last longer than that.

MBQ

[Simon]

My cheapy, average use, has lasted 5 years to far. It seams pot luck though. But who cares when you can buy a new one for 20 quid in tescos ? Simon.

[Dave Osborne]

a little under half a nanosecond, usually.

[Dave Liquorice]

I think the Sharp one we use daily is around 10 years old. The LCD is a bit iffy, the flexable PCB that is stuck to the display glass has become a little unstuck so some segments don't work. I'll get a tuit one day...

2 1/2 years for a brand like Panasonic I'd say is short, good luck with getting a free repair or replacement.

[stan]

Yup: But is sign of, unfortunately in this day and age of the throw- away society and high labour and transportation costs. Have seen brand new stainless steel m.waves at Walmart here for around $50 bucks Canadian! Unless it were my own (and I am a qualified electronic and radio transmitter high voltage technician) would just replace it. Hardly worth the time, cost of petrol, value of one's travel time and agony of bothering about it. Don't open it unless you are cognizant of 5000+ volts and the danger of microwave radiation from the unit when open. Proper reassembly of RF microwave seals is also important.

[Guy Dawson]

We think our Panasonic is 12 years old. I've had to change the light so far...

Guy

-- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Guy Dawson@SMTP - [e-mail] // ICBM - 6.15.16W 57.12.23N 986M

4.4>5.4 4.4>5.4 4.4>5.4 The Reality Check's in the Post! 4.4>5.4 4.4>5.4

[PeterC]

frequently

[The Natural Philosopher]

My =A349.95 one is still going after 9 years...

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have a bottom of the range Hitachi which is 22 years old and still working. It became a second microwave about 8 years ago, with much reduced usage.

[Tim S]

Andrew Gabriel wibbled:

My Mum's old make lasted from the early 80's until about 2003-2004 when it made a loud "crack" noise. It still worked though it got replaced. It's in the shed waiting for me to nick the interesting bits out of it.

So another vote for 20+ years.

Back then it was an expensive commodity (same functionality now = 30 quid at Argos, though I doubt that will last 20 years) and people still (just about) expected things to last longer than 5 minutes.

[Clot]

Once upon a time, when my wife confirmed to me by phone ('85) that she was pregnant with our second child, I went and bought the Thorn/BDA Beez NeeZ. £400 (as I was never able to have a meal at home in the evening with the family and the sensible idea was to flash up my food in the microwave).

Lasted about 10 years but could not replace the magnetron.

Just checked, we still have a Curry's Matsui from circa '95 doing the business.

I didn't quite get the asparagus right this evening in it. SWMBO'd was not happy. I should just zapped it for another 15 seconds at full power.

I've no complaints with the microwave however!

[NT]

IME 20-25 years, but you're looking for a differetn figure entirely. I vaguely STR someone mentioning 6 years being used in court as either an expected lifetime for qaulity branded domestic appliances or a reasonable cutoff date for them.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

6 years is the cut-off date. A failure after that period, even for something which would be expected to last much longer, can't be pursued.

However, it all depends on the quality expectation, and not on the manufacturer. If you paid £25 for it, then expecting it to last beyond 2 years is not reasonable. If you paid £600 for it, then that brings with it an expectation of probably 10 years life, so capped at 6 years, you might reasonably expect 3.5/6 of the price refunded, considering the 2.5 years use you had, unless they elec to offer a repair.

[Geo]

Our (daily use) Toshiba is 22 this year. I have had to replace a bulb once.

[Lobster]

We bought a high-end Panasonic microwave also from JL, about 18 months back. Suffered total failure after 6 months; went back to JL who declined to replace it but repaired it, although we were oven-less for over a month IIRC. 5 months later (just within the 12-month warranty) it developed another fault. JL again were 100% adamant that repair was the only option despite my protestations that it was obviously a duff unit and likely to fail again after the warranty had expired; furthermore after having only recently lost the use of my oven for many weeks I didn't think it reasonable to go through that again.

I therefore put my concerns in writing to the MD (named) of the store (pointing out that, as well as the above, how we'd made our buying decision based on JL's reknowned customer service, rather than going to an internet supplier etc etc... result was a very polite letter back offering an immediate replacement with a further 12 months' warranty.

So that would be my suggestion to you...

David

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim S saying something like:

Indeedly so. I have an old Zanussi Nothing Fancy 1kW m'wave and it's around 20 years old. Still works, but it's been retired until I can fix the door interlock. In the last six years, we've been through three or four other makes that tend to peg out just after the warranty is up, with the sole exception being a Sharp that I killed some three years ago after flooding it with milk. I plugged the Sharp in a few weeks ago and it worked again, but the turntable motor seems to have packed it in.

[<me9]

Our inverter panasonic failed about a week out of the one year warranty (a fault on the control board) Panasonic repaired it without question (sent local repairer out who charged it to panasonic).

It failed a year or two later (shortly after I'd had a fire within it due to putting in porrige without liquid so I put it down to running without load). It was either a magnetron fault or the inverter.

I replaced it with another Panasonic.

[David J]

My Belling Triplette (used daily) must be over 30 years. Is this the oldest here?

DJ

[Ian]

From: Ian Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 Time: 14:39:51

Happy ending. It turned out that the magnetron was kaput. The magnetron happened to have a separate 3-year warranty, so the repair was free of charge. (But it still shouldn't have died in 2.5 years IMHO).