What does this have to do with anything? There’s nothing wrong with the old microwave, and no one repairs microwaves anyway.
I don’t understand the people who are telling you to keep the new one. The old one works fine. I mean, if you want the new one because it’s better, go for it, but to keep it just because you happen to have it based on a missing the circuit breaker doesn’t make any sense. There’s got to be some kind of fallacy involved here. If you posted a question that said “My microwave’s working fine, should I go buy a new one?” would they still say yes? Of course, make sure you weigh the cost of going back to the store to do the exchange. I’d love to be rich enough that it was worth $100 to me to not have to drive to a store to return something. If you are, congratulations!
The idea that the old one is old enough that it’s probably going to break soon doesn’t really hold water. Microwaves aren’t particularly complicated devices, and the old one could easily work for another decade or three. If it hasn’t broken yet, there’s no reason to think it’s likely to in the near future.
And, pretty much all microwaves are going to interfere with wifi. It’s possible that the new one is better shielded, but there’s no reason to think so without testing it.
Take it back. I’m with the Walrus here, if you wouldn’t spend $100 to replace your fully functional old microwave, why would you keep the new one? You don’t mention it being a burden to go to Best Buy, so I’m assuming it would not be particularly burdensome to return it.
Microwaves aren’t CO detectors, they don’t just “go bad” after a while. They’re not automobiles, they don’t get crappier and crappier, more costly to maintain, and lack new safety/convenience features when they get old. Use it until it stops working, then buy a new one.
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Microwaves aren’t CO detectors, they don’t just “go bad” after a while. They’re not automobiles, they don’t get crappier and crappier, more costly to maintain, and lack new safety/convenience features when they get old. Use it until it stops working, then buy a new one.
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They do go less good and they do get crappier and crappier.
Ours is of unknown vintage, and while it works more or less as well as it ever would have, there’s a few burns inside, the display is scratched from a previous owner’s overzealous scrubbing, the vent fan shrieks and whines randomly and we’d love to have the property manager replace it.
Microwaves do get crappier and crappier, the newer microwaves are more energy efficient and thus have lower operating costs, the new microwaves do have more convenience features, the newer microwaves have better safety features. So other than that you are spot on.
If there was no difference between a new microwave and a ten year old microwave the old ones wouldn’t depreciate so significantly. If I want a working ten year old microwave it’ll cost me 20-25 bucks on craigslist. Where as a new one cost the OP $100.
Functionally a microwave isn’t necessary at all. It is a quality of life issue. I’d rather have the newer microwave because it is less likely to crap out when I need it, It looks nicer, it looks cleaner, it has better shielding, it has a better processor with better convenience settings.
My current microwave is about 4 years old, so weighing those things against cost I’ll hold on to what I got. When it’s ten years old I probably won’t be thinking about it either till there is a problem. If circumstance landed a new microwave in my house while I still had a working ten year old microwave I’d probably opt not to return the hundred dollar device for a combination of the reasons I stated earlier and the reasons I’ve stating now.
Nonsense. You can buy solid wood furniture on craigslist for 20% the cost of new, too. Pretty sure that tables haven’t added any new features to justify this. Most people just prefer new stuff, and prefer to be able to buy exactly the thing they want rather than what’s available on Craigslist. That’s why the price is lower for used items.
I’d take the new one back and wait until the old one stopped working.
And when it stops working, I’d check the fuse to see if that’s why it stopped. I’ve had a microwave stop working many times, and most of them, it just needed a new fuse.
I convinced mum to replace her old one even though the only thing wrong with it was that the door release didn’t fully disengage anymore and you had to pull the door from the edge while pushing the button to open it. She says she’s so glad she did because the new one is greatly higher wattage and does everything much, much faster. Defrost mode that used to take 30 minutes now takes 5, things like that. If there’s a power difference between the two, the newer one might offer a similar advantage to you (and only you can decide if it’s worth a hundred bucks to ya).
Seeing as I’m a radar technician, I do have a bit of insight on this, so you get my $.02
Microwave ovens use cavity magnetrons and over time they do get weaker due to loss of vacuum and other aging effects. Like any other product advances in material and technology tend to get better both in terms of how evenly they distribute the microwaves and in terms of shielding and feature sets. The one you buy today is in all likelihood a better product than the one you bought 11 years ago; keep it and give the other one to someone like a college student who may be able to use it for popcorn and ramen :D.
