Is it worth having a microwave oven repaired?

Folks

QUick one. Microwave oven packed up recently with crackling sound and smell of burnt-out circuitry. It now (rather predictably) doesn't cook anything: the lights are on but there is nobody home .

It's a large model, 10+ years old, and is just a microwave oven with no grill feature. It's in good nick though. Is it going to be worth getting this repaired, or should I ditch it and replace it with a new one (£80) ? NB bearing in mind the type of work involved, I wasn't planning on attempting the repair myself.

opinions? ta Dave P

Reply to
Dave Phillips
Loading thread data ...

Chuck it.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

A repair would never be economical on parts alone, forget the labour.

Our microwave packed up last year and our first thoughts were to rush out and grab another. But we've found we've coped pretty well without one. Plus I never liked standing near the bloody thing when it was on.

Reply to
StealthUK

We've never had one and I can't say that I've ever yearned for one. I don't know what they're for!

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Cooking frozen green vegetables and Christmas puddings (on both of which they do a far better job than panfuls of water on a hob) and part-cooking jacket potatoes to get the job done quicker. I also use ours for reheating leftover Chinese/Indian takeaways, but I suspect that's an acquired taste.

I had a new magnetron installed in ours for what seemed like an economic sum at the time, a good few years ago. It gives the impression of starting to die off again. I've looked at replacements, but it always strikes me that the user interfaces must be designed by autistic chimpanzees.

Reply to
Sam Nelson

They're for reheating chinese takeaways without having to find lots of pans to heat up the individual cartons.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Hi,

Advertise it on Ebay for 99p to collect, or offer it to a repair place; it might be useful to someone as spares.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

They are a useful addition to the other, more conventional, forms of cookery devices. You can make superb scrambled eggs in one and I often cook some bacon in mine as well.

Peter Crosland

Reply to
Peter Crosland

Long ago when microwave ovens were a new fangled thing my mother put the christmas pud in one. There wee no instuctions about how long to cook it for so she reckoned the limit of the timer (about an hour) might be about right -- there wasn't anything left to flambe in brandy after a few minutes.

I have that problem when I consider what will happpen when my Philips 'Space Cube 40' expires. (still going strong after 20 years) Two buttons to set the time up and down, two buttons to do the same for power level and a start button. Why do all the new ones need a button for every item in the larder and a weight calculator?

Reply to
quisquiliae

Spotted Dick, Apple Dumpling, any steamed sponge puddings, Christmas pudding. All much better than any other method of making them and much quicker.

Reply to
Peter Parry

Don't use them.

Even if I believed that - once a year??? Come on!

They're done with other things in the oven.

I cook Indian and Chinese occasionally. There are never any leftovers. Nor of any other kind of cooking.

So you use it for frozen vegetables, Christmas puddings, part-cooking potatoes and reheating leftovers.

Hmm.

Mary

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

I'll add scrambled eggs and bacon to the list then.

I don't think a microwave could do it better than I can though.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Have you done a comparitive test?

That depends on wht else you're cooking at the same time. I wouldn't be without my tiered electric steamer.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

IMHO it might be worth getting a quote. Older m/waves are far more robust than modern examples. Also easier to use/program/control. My one is about 20 years old. Sharp, I think, from memory. Combined m/wave & oven. We had a gas main fail locally at Christmas time many years ago. Cooked a

20lb turkey & all the bits using the m/wave. Don't remember any problems. I think we did trim the legs to allow it to rotate The only time it has given a problem was when I tried to warm 10 litres of 140w gear oil on a frosty morning. Don't know why it did that, I even used a plastic container! The very nice people came and fixed it under warranty. It did pong a bit though! I don't know much of modern m/waves but suspect the older ones have bigger cooking spaces (which may or may not be a bonus). If you do scrap it, you might thinking about removing the magnetron and retrieving the 2, or 4, magnets. Very strong circular jobbies and great fun for children (grandchildren) to muck about with. Only a few screws to remove and tearing (literally) the magnetron apart. Good luck

Nick.

Reply to
Nick

Now that IS a good reason for having one!

I have a collection of such things, from televisions (other people's) and more recently from hard drives. Wonderful things.

Our children and more latterly have had great fun- and learned about magnetism - by trying to fit one together.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Oh yes - many. The microwave version is, quite simply, better. Having been brought up on such delicacies steaming them was the usual way of cooking them and when I graduated to making them by this means, whilst not wishing to be forward in such things, the results were never criticised.

I was introduced to the microwave method some 20 years ago and extensive testing since then has proven conclusively that the microwave produces lighter (a comparative rather than absolute term with suet puddings obviously) and tastier offerings without any doubt. The cooking time is reduced to minutes rather than hours - but the real bonus is the higher quality. As far as Christmas puddings are concerned I still prefer to do the first steaming in the usual way but the second is always done in the microwave.

Which was the way I was brought up to cook them, and I still have the "Radiation" cookery book which came with every gas stove and the three tier steamer with valves to burn your fingers on. However, there really is little comparison. The microwave version is superior in all respects

Reply to
Peter Parry

The suet puddings I make couldn't be lighter! I fill the basins less than half full and they still rise well above the top.

Nor tastier. The quality of the ingredients guarantees that.

The second is just to re-heat and doesn't take long.

You didn't read what I said. I have and occasionally use a conventional steamer but I said that I wouldn't be without my tiered ELECTRIC steamer. It's very different. I don't know why it's more efficient but it is. It also has a much larger capacity than the round metal ones, a large number of items of many sizes can be cooked at the same time. There's no risk of boiling dry, it's timed and you can see what's happening, should you want to, while it's cooking.

It doesn't take up much room either and can be stored away from where it's used.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

The days of it being worthwile getting things repaired by the authorised dealer with the big shop are all but gone.

But there is still some market left in the repair biz, namely with the more competitive shops. Ie small premises, little stock, situated on estates where property is cheap, and no money wasted on things like paint jobs and advertising boards. Those kind of places are still worth asking.

NT

Reply to
bigcat

It depends on the quality. A 30 quid basic microwave you'd be insane to repair.

A 270 quid 40l convection oven/grill/microwave stainless one, possibly not. I've at the moment got a 27 quid PCB for the oven arriving, to repair it. ENSURE THAT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING BEFORE OPENING A MICROWAVE, THEY ARE THE MOST LETHAL DOMESTIC APPLIANCE TO REPAIR.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Because more buttons are obviously better... Sigh.

And the buttons are often rather less visible than they could be. I overlayed the buttons in my last microwave with a laminated bit of paper with actual reasonable sized text.

The ideal interface would probably be a menu driven one. I'd want to be able to either select a time and power simply, or do something more complex. For example to set up a memory for stew, nuke at 100% power for 30 mins, then keep oven on at 110C for 2 hours.

Arbitrary decisions like "we've only got 20 buttons to use, or the front panel becomes too busy", leading to "I know, let's leave off the numbers, and just have 10 min/1min/10s buttons" type decisions (meaning that for 7 minutes you've go to press the button 7 times, not just "700") are just annoying. However, this means a larger LCD, which actually costs money.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

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.