Other than cleaning the cooking cavity and the exterior, are there any maintenance requirements for a domestic microwave?
I have noticed that the inside gets very wet recently, it didn't used to.
Any pointers gratefully received!
David Paste.
Depends on your definition of cleaning but on some models at least important to vac dust from ventilation where fans can built up some big bunnies
Have you accidentally blocked the vents with stuff stacked on top?
Tim
Leave the door open until it dries out. What else would you do?
Just use one of these and stop it getting wet in the first place?
Just watch that the door seal is still fine.
Mine doesnt and its now 50 years old and is used almost daily with no evidence of any significant drop in microwave power.
Mine never gets wet. And his didnt until recently.
Work out why it is getting wet now and fix that.
There is stuff on top, but there are no vents there.
I do!
Cheers.
Is there anything other than seals that you might expect to wear out in a microwave? I suppose the platter motor might crap out, but what about the magnetron? Do they wear out?
David Paste snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote
The rotation has failed on mine but I havent got around to actually having a look at what has failed because it is still fine for everything I microwave,. It did fail gradually so its unlikely to be the motor, more likely a belt or maybe what drives the belt cog wise etc.
They do end up producing less microwave power than they did when new but like I said, even after 50 years of daily use, no evidence of that happening with mine. I have always had a database of cooking times for some time critical stuff like rice and softening blocks of butter from the fridge and the original times still work fine.
There is no door seal on any modern microwave. Rod is jammed as far up his own rear as always. Let it dry after use, be sure to clean the mica plate where the waves enter, and if rust develops treat it to poevent it progressing to failure. All parts wear out.
Wrong, as always.
How odd that he didn't need to do that previously.
But some last MUCH longer than the crucial bits, f****it.
Right, actually. The overlap between the door and the front face of the oven is 1/4 wavelength long. This forms a transmission line transformer that converts an open circuit into a short circuit at the operating frequency, thereby blocking most of the leakage from the edges of the door. It only leaks if it gets very dirty.
John
Well that is down to what you are cooking inside it. Its normally the heat that comes from the water in a food that does the cooking after all.
I'd say that maintenance wise it depends on your electronic expertise. If we are talking faults, then there are some frighteningly high voltages inside to make the Magnetron actually work. These voltages can leave capacitors charged up inside, so normally
its very dangerous to open one. In the old mechanical timer days, these did go wrong, and could be changed, but in a modern one with electronic timers etc, Its not really viable to try to fix it. The high voltage end can trash rectifiers or capacitors but myself I'd not chance it as it could well be a Magnetron flash over that did the act, in which case it would be pretty uneconomic to fix it. Things like door switches and turntable motors can be usually fixed though. Brian
You can do this if you are careful. Mine has a fan blowing out the side, and as long as I leave a fair number on the top unblocked then it can still pull in air.
After all those which are fitted only seem to have about half an inch clearance anyway. Brian
Thanks!
Nope.
That's what I meant by the door seal. Yes, not a very good way to say it.
And if the door distorts or the hinges aren't solidly attached.
Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote
But doesn't explain why it gets wet inside now when it didnt used to do that.
That's overstated.
Fluff on the fan/vents.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.