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So the microwave, when open, starts well... microwaving
THEPAIN73
Shiny.Real shiny.Registered User regular
Shiny.Real shiny.Registered User regular
That's right. When the Microwave door opens the microwave STARTS I have never heard of this before I saw it with my own two eyes.
I unplugged it and it's currently sitting in my kitchen.
I don't know about you but I might just buy a new one, unless I can fix it myself.
I unplugged it and it's currently sitting in my kitchen.
I don't know about you but I might just buy a new one, unless I can fix it myself.
THEPAIN73 on
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Typically they have a sensor/lever in the door latch that detects whether it's closed or not. It might have gotten stuck.
I'm not one of those guys who covers my jewels up when I'm microwaving a hotdog, but I'm absolutely ignorant of the mechanics of the whole thing.
No it doesn't. When it's closed it just looks normal. When the door is open you can feel the heat from it and the glass spins.
The time doesn't even need to be on.
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
Sounds like it turns on by itself the moment the door is opened.
Return it and get a working one.
http://www.bringgoodthingstolife.org/
So retarded.
That really is pathetic.
A slight malfunction = SUE SUE SUE!
perhaps you missed the part where it said
But yeah, I mean, who would sue over something as petty as having your house burnt down. :whistle:
For the op, I'd say if you are comfortable around electronics and know how to not get electrocuted, give it a whirl and try to fix it. Worse thing is you damage it or something and end up having to buy a new one anyway.
I'm not saying the suit is wrong. If your house burns down, sure, go ahead and sue.
But I'm complaining about the fact that so far nothing bad has happened to the OP, yet a poster is advising that he "get in on that." That's not selfish to you?
not really since its a class action lawsuit against a manufacturer for a long running history of dangerious appliance faults.
It'd be different if it were a personal suit.
The OP should probably just pitch the microwave and get a new one (or a toaster oven!). It *could* be fixed but I don't know that I would want to mess about with such a thing. The cost/benefit ratio is not favourable in my mind.
GIANT FUCKING CAPACITORS WILL KILL YOU.
Then you sell it on ebay for $200.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Close friends of me and my gf used a microwave in their home that had neither a glass door, or that plastic 'screen' inside. Yes, it was basically a open-sided cube that radiated all who would foolishly hang around it as it cooked your Hot Pocket, and cooked your hotdog and tatertots too. Seriously, who the hell keeps something like that around? Besides the people I knew.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Seriously, this is no joke. The high-voltage power supplies of lots of equipment and consumer electronics can hold a lethal charge for quite some time after it is turned off. A microwave is one of those kinds of devices. It can kill you.
Microwave radiation is also dangerous. It cooks just as well with the door open, as closed - but the door is there to keep it from cooking you and everything else standing nearby (as well as to keep it from interfering with your cordless phones and WiFi). Don't keep using a microwave that's operating with the door open.
Chances are, the diagnosis is correct, it's likely a shorted door interlock switch. That repair could be completely safely, if done with the proper OEM parts by someone who understands what they are doing. But keep in mind that one of this thing's primary safety features failed catatrophically. Even if you fix that, it's not exactly an endorsement of this particular appliance's state of repair.
All things said, totally not worth it. Get a new micro, it's not just easier, it's far safer.
This is absolutely stupid to the point of bordering on Darwin Award worthy. Depressingly, this is what keeps very cool technologies from being available for public use - because the bottom 10% of intelligence is really pretty stupid.
The ENTIRE POINT of the mesh thing on the door of a microwave is to block microwaves (google searching indicates that the wavelengths typical of microwave ovens are in the few-10 cm range); I don't think the glass door itself actually does anything. Either way, though - that "heat" you're feeling is the heat that your microwave cooks with, which is a sign that maybe you shouldn't be feeling it.
Yeah I didn't feel like DYING for trying to fix a microwave.
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
For those that are interested, the mesh thing on the door is called a Faraday Cage, which is a pretty cool application of physics.
As to darkgrue's comment about capacitors, yes, they will kill you, but the main electrical component of microwaves is a transformer, not a capacitor as in, say, a computer power supply. Which is basically harmless when it's unplugged, since they don't store energy the way a capacitor does. I know this because I was going to make a jacob's ladder for a lab project, but it got rejected because the professor was afraid I would kill myself with two wires exposed with a bigass current and/or voltage. I needed a big transformer, and the best (cheap) way to get one was to salvage one from a microwave.
As to the guy's friends who cooked without the microwave door, that's pretty smrt. However, it's not like it's UV or gamma radiation or anything like that - these microwaves aren't powerful enough to ionize things and cause free radicals and cancer. However, they probably did lower their sperm count from raising the temperature a little bit.
tldr: at least it's not cancer! but still dumb.
I'm sorry, but this isn't correct. Disclaimer: I am a EE, I just don't practice that disciplne professionally.
The largest component in a high-voltage power supply is almost always going to be the transformer - you might even claim it's the main component, as it's the core of the voltage conversion stage. You are correct that it's not the transformer that kills you when the power's off, it's the stored charge in the capacitor(s).
However, you are incorrect in stating that micro and computer power supplies present no hazard with the power off. Filter capacitors are standard features of power supllies - including those of microwaves AND computers. If you open the case up, some of those capacitors are pretty grunty and present a significant, if not lethal, shock hazard if you come into direct contact with them.
If you stay out of the innards of the devices, you are generally safe, and this is by design. When doing do-it-yourself repair, you're going to be breaching the case, as well as any design features that are there to keep you from coming in contact with those hazards, and it's important to know what all those risks are, and what the proper safety precautions are.
However, not all power supplies use the same design or handle the same voltages (degree of hazard varies - a 12V power supply is very low, a 110V computer power supply is more significant, and a 2.4kV micro power supply or a 10kV flyback is well into lethal), and some do have features where the capacitors have drain lines designed to siphon off the charge when the circuit is powered down to address that particular hazard. It's not a design requirement (costs extra in parts, and manufacturers will gadly save a penny or two on a product by eliminating an unecessary feature), and you don't want to bet your life that feature is there, or that it's working correctly.
Best way to get the necessary high-voltage component would have been to salvage a heavy tranformer-based neon sign transformer, or perhaps the flyback from a CRT television. While it can/has been done, the power supply from a micro isn't all that great for this sort of application (mostly because they're not designed to be run in series).
Just because it's not ionizing radiation doesn't mean it's safe - or funny. It's not cancer that's the safety risk.
The danger from microwave radiation is from internal heating effects. The eye is particularly sensitive to this and it doesn't take much of an increase in temperature to denature the tissue of the central nervous system. Field density and exposure time are a large factor, and since power does fall off with the square of the distance and microwaves are very directional in nature, a commerical microwave is somewhat limited in what it can deliver. However, it can be difficult for an indivdual to detect or judge their exposure, as nerve endings sensitive to heat are somewhat sparse internally. While the dangers may be overstated, it doesn't make sense to take chances.
Anyway, glad to see the OP got a new micro.