Microwave turntable

Most models reverse every time the MW is started. In some cases, the food should be stirred part way though the cycle. After you do that, the turntable reverses, allegedly to help cook more evenly.

What did the manufacturer say when you messaged the Sharp web site ?

What kind of motors do you think those are?

AFAIK, without shading rings a simple induction motor will not self start. But, there are all sorts of small motor designs around now I never encountered when I was a kid, just think about what's in a modern automobile.

Perhaps they're using DC motors, two phase AC motors, or some kind of stepper motor for those microwave turntables now, driven by a few components on the appliance's circuit board.

Based on what Edwin said, I doubt that the starting direction is really "random".

Jeff

I know my 4 year old GE microwave's turntable always rotates in the same direction as my grandma's Victrola's, but it might be interesting for the OP to run some tests or even, G-d forbid, RTFM and let us know if it's really random.

Jeff

You're right. I even saw a motor with a mechanical direction unit. If it went the "wrong" way, it bounced off a ratchet device and went the other way. But I thought a small motor with a rotor would self start. It's just the synchronous ones that wouldn't start by themselves unless something it added. I know old (very old) clocks had to be "spun" to get them going. They too, would go either way. But, as you stated, it's probablythe way the whole thing was designed.

That's the nature of the type of syncronous motor installed in most turntables. It depends on where in the AC cycle the motor is started as to what direction it will go. If the motor is turned on at the rise of the cycle, the motor will go one way; if on the downturn of the cycle, it will go the opposite. It doesn't really matter, as long as the turntable turns.

No it isn't food for thought; it is just an ignorant thought. The damn thing is made to operate that way! Read the manual!