I think I may have made a big boo boo. I often use the microwaves timer feature in the kitchen. Tonight I fear that I hit the COOK button rather than the TIMER button. The timer/clock isn’t running and it doesn’t appear that I blew a fuse. Just what did I do to my microwave?
I assume by “fuse”, you mean the circuit breaker for the outlet.
Does it show any power at all? If it’s completely dark, you may have blown the microwave fuse. They’re just like those inch long or so glass tubes, except that the tube is ceramic. They’d be labeled “appliance fuse”. You have to open it up to to find it. Hardware stores sell them.
Before that, or if it does show that it has power, have you tried unplugging it for a bit, then plugging it back in? I don’t know how that would help, exactly, but appliances are getting more and more computer controlled, so I’d try it just in case.
use something known to work (light, radio) to see if the is power going to that receptacle (outlet).
if no work then replace the fuse or move the breaker to OFF then ON.
if no work then the receptacle or wire connecting it may have gone bad.
check this and report back.
On my microwave, you have to hit CLOCK a second time to start it running.
Well, I’ve always heard (anecdotaly) that running a microwave oven without a “load” is completely detrimental. Something about the radio waves having nothing to absorb them.
Maybe you fried the oven?
I’m interested in hearing the results.
Thanks for the replies. The fact is I don’t know exactly what happened.
The microwave was warm but the front panel wasn’t working at all. It was dark like a power failure. Now I did open the door, but I didn’t notice if the light was on inside or not. However, some time later, I am not sure when, the front panel was lit up and asking for the clock to be set. I haven’t tried to heat anything up yet though.
Ah, then the protective circuit breaker turned it off and eventually reset automatically. That happened to me about ten years ago (I was trying to melt dark chocolate in it and it wasn’t melting and just shut off) but after it reset it was fine and is still going strong.
My owners manual says exactly that, nothing anecdotal about it.
Minimum load for my little cooker is a couple ounces of water.
Many microwaves have fuses in them. I have replaced several. They are similar to the old automobile style fuses.
Yeah, without something in the microwave the energy can travel back down the waveguide and overheat parts like the magnetron. or the circuitry. Not good.