Are you frustrated with microwave oven malfunctions? Are you facing problems in running microwave oven? Is it not working properly?

Microwave oven is very useful kitchen appliance nowadays. It makes many house owners’ life easy, especially who love grilled items or tandoori items, crispy & baked food. Not only that it is also essentials for those households who prefer to eat hot food at home also. That is why you can find a microwave oven in every modern house’s kitchen.

But it is an electrical appliance and it has a limited life with desired performance. Its life totally depends on two things. These are “how long and which way you are using that”. If you use it properly and clean after every use and check for any minor malfunctions periodically then microwave oven will serve best performance for longer period.

Generally a microwave oven with all normal features works four to five years without any disturbance or malfunction. After that it may need repairing and maintenance work to continue using that appliance. So selection of a proper microwave oven for your kitchen is mandatory and spend right amount for microwave oven. Selecting right appliance and spending right amount are important as you can not use your appliance for eternity.

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Suppose you have bought a expensive micro wave oven with lots of features and you are only using it for warming food, suddenly after 2-3 years it stops working and you would start shouting  “Ohh God!!! I have wasted my hard earned money”

Okay, now I am coming to the point as I have drawn your enough attention. 🙂

5 common microwave oven malfunctions

Sparks inside Oven Stops running in the middle of operation No heating inside oven Turntable not revolving Microwave oven not running

Sparks inside Oven :

Sparking inside oven is common as compared to other microwave oven malfunctions but it is most scaring to users as they think of larger accidents. But it is not that much serious problem and can be solved with proper visual inspection.

Reasons behind any such sparks inside oven are mostly simple which will not be a cause of major damage. So calm down and find the causes behind such sparks. Now what are the potential reasons of sparking inside your oven?

• Unwanted particle inside microwave : Sometime some unwanted food particles are stuck inside oven. It may be a food particle or any other thing (some people use metallic item too) what you may used during cleaning microwave. If it is food particle them it may be transient and should not sustain longer period but it is metallic particle then you may see continuous sparking for certain period.
• Damaged internal parts of microwave : Three things can be damaged which may be cause of sparking. These are firstly damaged part of turntable, secondly worn stand (if any) or rack inside oven and lastly damaged high voltage diode.

Solution :

If you have found sparking inside oven, then switch off that appliance and open microwave oven door to inspect weather there is any unwanted particle inside your oven if any then remove that. You can run your oven again to test. If still sparking is happening or you do not find any unwanted particle then inform authorized service center to check this issue.

Stop running in the middle of operation :

Suppose you want to cook an item which needs 30 min and you did all setting and run your microwave. As it will take time so you leave your kitchen and start doing some other task. After 30-40 min you come back and see nothing happened. The item is almost same as it was very first and that means your microwave stopped running just after some time of operation started. Is it possible?

Yes, it happens and this is the most irritating microwave fault. As it has started running then your magnetron should not be faulty. It should happen due to other faulty supporting parts what helps magnetron generates microwave. So high voltage transformer must be inspected properly as it charges magnetron. But microwave cooking may stop due to defective oven door and buttons also.

Solution :

You should call a authorized technician to inspect microwave if your microwave oven comes under manufacturer warranty. Microwave oven may give you electric shocks as high voltage transformer & capacitor may have residual charges even after when you have switched off. Such malfunctions may be due to some other defective supporting parts also. So always inspect your microwave with trained technician only.

No heating inside oven :

Suppose you run microwave oven, now you are seeing that turntable is spinning and you can also see the light inside oven. But once the operation is over and take out the food, then you realize it is as cold as it was earlier. So what happened inside oven? Surprised ?

Actually your microwave oven did not generate microwaves. That is why it was not cooked.  Now question is, why this was happened and how?

Very first thing comes in our mind when we think about microwave is magnetron. Actually magnetron did not generate microwaves here. So why did not magnetron generate microwaves? Reasons behind this are :

• Defective magnetron : In your microwave oven magnetron generates microwaves. So if your oven is not heating up food, then it may due to defective magnetron. You can test it with ohmmeter. But if microwave magnetron is found defective then it it can not be repaired. You have to replaced that. It may cost around Rs 1000 to 1200. You may get cheaper magnetron but that will not be a good quality item and you will not get any minimum warranty too.
• Other parts what help magnetron to generate microwaves : If your magnetron is found okay then do not worry as you may not pay high cost for other parts. These parts are high voltage transformer, power diode and high voltage capacitor. High voltage transformer steps up domestic voltage to high voltage to charge up magnetron. Power diode maintains unidirectional current flow what is providing high resistance to opposite direction current flow. Capacitor is used to store charges.

Solutions :

You should call service center. If you are not trained then it is very dangerous to rectify such high voltage parts yourself. Trained person will discharge all and rectify very carefully. Secondly you should take advantage of warranty what manufacturer offered you.

Turntable not rotating :

Now what will happen when every thing is okay but your turntable is not rotating. That means food will not be cooked evenly. Actually turntable plays a very important role to cook food properly. So turntable must spin while microwave is running.

Solution :

Now how turntable rotates. It has a motor what spins drive bushing on what turntable is placed. Turntable guide is located there and properly aligned to help in rotating. If any thing is being obstacle (debris, food particles etc) in whole mechanism then remove that. Check all are aligned and everything is placed properly. If after inspecting everything, still it is not rotating then it may due to defective motor. So inform manufacturer’s authorized service. Let them inspect and replace motor.

Microwave oven not running :

You keep food inside oven, close door and press button to run microwave oven. But it do not respond & you are surprised and scared too. This problem may happen due to defective touch pad or buttons. It may be due burnt or shorted control panel. So call service center people and let them check which button is not working or they can replace individual button (prefer only when warranty period has been expired). If control panel is defective then you have to replaced that with new one.

There are some other malfunctions too like facing problem to lock oven’s door. Sometime you may see bulb is not glowing inside oven. But this is common problem and it may be due to defective lamp, socket or blown fuse. So you can replace that and it will not cost high.

If you faced any of such kind of microwave oven malfunctions or problem during operating microwave oven, then please share your experience and also do not forget to mention ‘how you solved that issue‘.