Microwave failure
Microwaves have weird failure modes. Our old Sharp has been working for a long time (more than 13 years I'm sure) but in the last year the light inside has been erratic. Sometimes would come on, sometimes not. Sunday morning as I was making breakfast, though, something else failed in a more spectacular mode. I had put some butter in there to melt for the pancake batter only to hear a buzzing sound like a chainsaw when it started up. I hit STOP immediately and opened it to look. The inside was full of smoke.
Apparently something that diffuses the microwave beam had failed. There's a square of some fibrous material in the wall of most microwaves that covers the mouth of the waveguide. We now had a rectangular hole about a quarter inch across burned in that stuff. I don't know enough to mess with the innards of one of these, and getting it wrong could be really dangerous. Likewise, finding someone to repair it would have cost more than what we spent to buy it years ago. So I looked around online to see what could be found locally, and we went to Sam's Club in Crystal Lake to get a new one for $170 or so.
Now we have to figure out what to do with the dead one. I'm reluctant to put it out for trash pickup for fear someone will take it and try to use it. I'm quite confident it is not safe to use any more. I guess it will have to sit here until the county has one of those hazardous materials collection days.
Apparently something that diffuses the microwave beam had failed. There's a square of some fibrous material in the wall of most microwaves that covers the mouth of the waveguide. We now had a rectangular hole about a quarter inch across burned in that stuff. I don't know enough to mess with the innards of one of these, and getting it wrong could be really dangerous. Likewise, finding someone to repair it would have cost more than what we spent to buy it years ago. So I looked around online to see what could be found locally, and we went to Sam's Club in Crystal Lake to get a new one for $170 or so.
Now we have to figure out what to do with the dead one. I'm reluctant to put it out for trash pickup for fear someone will take it and try to use it. I'm quite confident it is not safe to use any more. I guess it will have to sit here until the county has one of those hazardous materials collection days.