microwave oven broken

Hello,

I have a Panasonic NNA755W microwave/grill/oven and the microwave does not work. Last night we used it as a conventional oven and it worked but there was a burning smell. When we tried to use it at lunchtime today as a microwave, it switched itself off after a couple of seconds. When we tried again it whirred for a bit longer but it did not heat the food, and a third time it switched itself off after a few seconds again. It is now unplugged. I realise microwave repairs are not DIY and I don't intend to do so, but does anyone know how much I should expect to pay for someone to look at it? I'm in the Midlands. I'm wondering whether it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Probably it would for just a cheap microwave only but this is a combination oven so I wonder if it might be cheaper to repair?

Thanks, Stephen.

Reply to
Stephen
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Combination Microwave ovens are £70 -£110. For anything except a simple fault like fuse a repair is going to be very close to this. A Panasonic replacement magnetron is £70 alone without labour costs (although cheaper generic ones are about £30).

The cheapest failure would be the cooling fan motor (typical cost about £10 ex labour).

Panasonic microwaves are also prone to the Magnetron filament blade connectors loosening, overheating and burning. These are not difficult to fix (quite DIYable with suitable precautions) but take time.

As any repairer is likely to charge you £20 to even assess the thing and give an estimate so a microwave is usually considered to be a non-repairable item.

Reply to
Peter Parry

very diyable of you understand the risks, but they're relatively serious risks.

NT

Reply to
NT

I doubt it.

I was involved with the repair of these some time ago. All these Inverter System models are bad news when they fail IMHO In my experience the symptoms you describe will probably be the Magnetron, or the inverter PCB, or both. (Frankly there is not a lot else in there!)

The magnetron in these models are run very hard and generally fail by overheating and cracking one or both of the ring magnets. The "correct" 1000W magnetron costs a lot more than the generic ones from CPC etc.

If the Inverter is faulty, the situation is even worse, I would normally repair a PCB like that at component level, but at the time I was working on them the components that had failed, two IGBT transistors, could not be sourced for love or money, and my only option was to get a new one on an exchange basis from Panny for £90 trade IIRC. I think we wrote a few off rather than repair them.

I suggest your replacement microwave has a nice heavy conventional transformer:-)

Reply to
Graham

IIRC it wasn't the connector lug making poor contact to the Mag but the crimp to the wire that was lose causing intermittent no filament. I used to augment the crimp with solder as a preventative measure.

Reply to
Graham

Since I don't, I won't!

What are the risks: that if you put it back together badly radiation will spray out everywhere? I have spoken to a couple of repairmen over the phone who have repeated what the other post says; that a magnetron (whatever that is, I am meaning to google/wikipedia it) will cost about £70. One chap mentioned a dangerous capacitor, so is the other danger risk of electrocution off this? Like I s aid, I will not be attempting anything but it is still nice to know what happens "under the bonnet".

TIA

Reply to
Stephen

IIRC at the time we bought it Panasonic's marketing sold the inverter as being better than a transformer, though I can't remember why now. Is there any particular make you recommend?

Thanks.

Reply to
Stephen

They offer a variety of interesting ways to kill you.

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Reply to
Owain

Fairly minimal unless you have a masters degree in incompetence. The capacitor is the dangerous bit when working inside as it stores a high voltage charge with quite a bit of energy, a dangerous combination. You can discharge this using a simple tool but leaving it switched off for a day before playing inside also works well.

Reply to
Peter Parry

Based on the range and frequency of questions from the OP he certainly does not seem to know much of the basics on how stuff works. Not that that automatically makes him incompetent but the bits of knowledge picked up here might lead to too high self confidence?

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Oh? The guy at our local shop said capacitors can store fatal doses for up to *three months*. Whether he's right or wrong, he did me the favour of alerting me to use extreme caution when I had the back off (without success - see another post).

John

Reply to
John L

I've never paid more than =A35 for a magnetron. The =A370 story is typical repairman foolishness, and they wonder why theyre going out of business. You can get them at many local dumps, complete with free microwave oven.

NT

Reply to
NT

Suicidal advice

NT

Reply to
NT

I got a free cyclonic vacuum out of the wheelibin this week, flex had frayed at the plug, rewired it and it seems to work (as well as Tesco own-brand vacuums ever work, they are generally rubbish)

Owain

Reply to
Owain

At last, a use for Dr Drivel! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sounds just like Drivel..

Call it evolution in action.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

You do realise the capacitor has a drain resistor I presume?

Reply to
Peter Parry

He was wrong. The capacitor incorporates a drain resistor which discharges it in an hour or so.

Reply to
Peter Parry

DONT rely on it. Always short out (from a distance) with an insulated tool.

Reply to
<me9

He is correct. Drain resistances do fail!

Reply to
<me9

Single component failure!

If for no other reason than that I wouldnt rely on a resistor alone to preserve safety.

Derek

Reply to
Derek Geldard

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