Re: Faulty Microwave Oven

From: Martin White (martin_at_NOSPAMguddler.co.uk)
Date: 09/28/04 

Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 17:02:37 +0100

Don't know where you guys are from, i'm guessing the US, but at the moment
on Sky TV in the UK there's a program called "Brainiacs: Science Abuse".

Needless to say one of the featurettes they have every week is to put
various things in the Microwave that you clearly shouldn't to see what
happens.

Most of them involve the "Brainiac" being well out of the vicinity, if not
running. Many also cause the microwave oven to quite literally explode.
Obviously some of the substances would be pretty unstable whatever you did
to them.

Fairly irrelevent to this guys keypad problem but all the talk of what you
should or shouldn't do to / with a microwave reminded me of it.

:O)

Martin.

"Andy Cuffe" <baltimora@psu.edu> wrote in message
news:t2dcl015f68e4gkemq41t4u2fjo1sopi0k@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 23:18:31 GMT, "James Sweet"
>>
>>There may be some truth to this myth, but I've run microwaves without
>>anything in them a number of times as well as trying various metallic
>>objects in a discarded oven, never did have one damaged from it.
>>
>
> Running a microwave empty is bad for it because there's nothing to
> absorb the 700 Watts of microwave power coming out of the magnetron,
> so it all ends up going back into the magnetron. Eventually it will
> heat up enough to either trip the thermal breaker, or destroy the
> magnetron. Nothing will explode though.
>
> The dangers of putting metal objects in the microwave is more of a
> myth. It's true that certain things like crumpled foil will cause
> arcing, but this isn't dangerous and shouldn't hurt the oven. Things
> like metal twist ties can heat up and catch on fire. Keep in mind
> that the oven walls are made of metal and metal temperature probes
> have been around for years. You're generally ok with flat metal
> objects, or even things like spoons and wire racks. You don't want to
> use metal pots because they will shield the thing you're trying to
> cook from the RF.
> Andy Cuffe
> baltimora@psu.edu

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Faulty Microwave Oven
    ... >There may be some truth to this myth, ... Running a microwave empty is bad for it because there's nothing to ... so it all ends up going back into the magnetron. ... The dangers of putting metal objects in the microwave is more of a ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Faulty Microwave Oven
    ... We use the microwave at work to destroy recordable CDs. ... >so it all ends up going back into the magnetron. ... >The dangers of putting metal objects in the microwave is more of a ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Microwave Magnetron Projects
    ... Martin Brown wrote: ... magnetron works, but the rest of the oven isn't worth saving. ... It works pretty well to ionise Helium for a microwave induced plasma ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Microwave oven arcing
    ... magnetron, ... so it is worth more to me than a bottom-of-the-range replacement. ... Incidentally, I started my carreer as a microwave engineer, though ... Since the microwave cost more than 2 times the replacement cost ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Microwave oven
    ... How can one test the heating power of a microwave oven: Perhaps by heating a known quantity of water to a desired rise in temperature over a prescribed time period? ... It`s also important to check the spade connectors on the magnetron, these sometimes become loose and erode away making intermittent contact for the heater current. ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)