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Carvin_Marvin's avatar
Jun 15, 2015

Microwave Died "maybe"

A few minuets ago while baking a meatloaf we heard a sizzle and the micro died dead. It is a Sharp 14 years old model R-820 BK. Any thoughts as to where I should start to determine what died and is it terminal. Amazon has one for $250 maybe that is the best route. Thanks in advance for any HELPFUL comments. Marv
  • Thanks for the replies. Probably get excited today (or tomorrow) and remove it from the cabinet, and check the fuse.
  • Agreed more than a fuse boards make sizzle noise then you let the smoke out and your done
  • The sizzle was most likely the magnetron. A crackling hiss-like noise. Many times a failed magnetron takes out the electronics the circuit board. And both fuses.
  • Here's more information than you probably wanted to know about microwave oven repair. Please pay particular attention to the safety information here—while it's certainly possible to work with microwave ovens safely, they have lethal electrical voltages when in operation (and potentially even when unplugged if the bleeder resistor is broken—and bear in mind you know something is broken on your oven.)

    If it's not a relatively simple problem to fix, it's probably more cost effective to buy a replacement oven these days. (A simple fix would be the main fuse, cleaning the door safety switch mechanism of accumulated crud, perhaps cleaning junk out of the waveguide, etc.) If you want to microwave under inverter power, I'd suggest looking into replacing it with a Panasonic Inverter model; these have some rather significant advantages over traditional designs particularly for inverter operation. (Specifically, they're more efficient; they are less affected by strange AC waveforms such as MSW inverters produce; and their maximum power consumption actually is reduced as cooking power is reduced, rather than merely cycling on and off as virtually all other units do, which reduces the peak loading on the system.)
  • I had one at home and two at work over the years that quit working. All three of them were brought back to life after I took the back sheet metal cover off and replaced the old automotive type fuse that had burned out.
  • when ours died (about 17 years old), we went to walmart, I think and got a new sharp to replace the old one. DH had to do a little modification to the slot to make the new one fit right, but not too complex. works great.

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