Re: Microwave Croaked

Joerg wrote:
ChrisQuayle wrote:


No experience of that model, but recently junked a Sharp microwave that we bought new in 1985'ish. Was one of the first of the combined microwave / convection ovens and we went through 3 magnetrons, 2 hv rectifiers and several si diode base temp sensors and line fuses during it's lifetime. The final nail in the coffin that the roof rusted through and the fan stirrer in the convection section rusted all it's blades away.


My mom's fried its HV rectifiers after about 5 years. I was a kid back then but had enough electronics knowledge to see that they were marginal. So instead of shelling out big bucks for the spares I made two long ladders of 1N4007/resistor sections and we used it another 20 years or so. Never failed again. Took it with us to the US but the 120V/230V conversion with a bulky transformer next to it got old. The WAF of that setup wasn't sufficient.


Reuse: Suggested pop riviting a new roof section in and make a new *** metal fan, but higher authority decided it was time for new one :-)...


Now only an engineer can come up with that idea. How often do we hear from our wives "You've got to be kidding!"?

What blew me away was when I went looking for a small microwave that would please my wife. Found one for $50 or $60, don't remember, but it was dirt cheap. The oven mentioned above had been almost $1500 and a guy from the German equivalent of the FCC had to come out and bless the "installation of an RF generator". We got an operator's license for it!


That's bureaucracy for you - probably better not to tell them and just get on with it :-).

I took some convincing about the Sharp, but went to a catalog returns auction late last year and picked up two identical Sharp convection / microwaves in the boxes for 6 uk pounds. One had a display fault (nasty display drivers epoxied onto the pcb, thermal cycled every time it was switched on) and the other had accessories missing. So now have a new microwave and another in store with nearly a full set of spares + higher authority happy. Internal can is stainless, rather than steel I think, but the overall build quality isn't a patch on the original.

Tend to repair everything here - the idea of throw it away when it breaks really irritates, but much of modern consumer electronics is so cheap and nasty and labour charges so high that it's often more economic to just buy another if you can't fix it yourself...

Chris
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