Hubby killed the microwave

After 25 years, my microwave has finally died. Hubby was doing electrical work and accidentally cut the power to the kitchen. The microwave seemed to recover but when hubby used it again, it no longer works. It is dead, no display, no life. The plug worked with another appliance so the circuit is ok.

My Amana has been a good, dutiful appliance and I will miss it. It was the first major purchase after getting my first real job ($750, when microwaves were expensive). I've had it longer than hubby.

Now I get to go shopping for a new microwave on Thursday. Does anyone have recommendations?

I have a Whirlpool that I have been using for 8 or 9 years. You're going to be surprised at how cheap they are. I got my first microwave about the same time you did. When it died I thought I would be without one for awhile until I had the money saved up to buy another one. I went to just look and ended up buying one because they are so much cheaper.

My parents had an HUGE Amana that they bought in the early 1980's and I sold it with the house after they passed in 2005, and it still worked great. It was so big my dad had to mount it to the wall because it took up half the counter. You could cook a full turkey in that thing if you wanted to, I'm sure (not that we tried, of course).

Good luck finding something like that again. They don't make things to last anymore. Everything is disposable now. Cheap to buy, and cheap to replace. That's what keeps companies in business now.

I just checked and the microwave we have now is....a Amana Radarange. We've had it for 4 years and it's going great. LOL, until now, I didn't know what kind of microwave we had. I only knew it was black!

Originally Posted by calico2222

Good luck finding something like that again. They don't make things to last anymore. Everything is disposable now. Cheap to buy, and cheap to replace. That's what keeps companies in business now.

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That is what I'm afraid of. I often wondered at the beginning if I paid too much for it, but when we passed 20 years, I figured I got a good deal.

Sears has some very nice Kenmore models, all sizes. I can't say how long it'll last but I think you'd get your money's worth. I kind of want mine to die so I can get a nicer one--this is just a cheap one I picked up at Wal-Mart when I moved out--but it's been 7 years and it's still fine!

I have a 10 year old Danby that I paid a whopping 99.99 for at some box store, and it still works great (probably jinxed the poor beast now) although the carousel in the middle doesn't turn any longer. At least they are a whole lot cheaper now, ranging from 60.00 for a small one and up to whatever you care to spend.

This is what I have http://www.walmart.com/ip/Half-Time-..._fb_revshr_001 I love it! If I want to not heat up the big oven this is what I use. It does a pretty good job whether you use it as a microwave or the oven.

Our over-the-stove died after 20+ years, (GE Spacemaker) so no complaints about it.
Since we want to re-do the kitchen, we bought a cheap one - a Magic Chef - well, you get what you pay for.

My sister loves her Sharp.

Maybe yours has a reset button someplace?

I've got a funny story to tell on my husband after he almost killed our first microwave.

I was concerned about the microwave leaking microwaves so I bought a meter to detect any leakage.
So, we wondered how you could tell if the meter was working ???

My husband had the brightest idea - put the (METAL) meter inside to see if it registers the microwaves.
Imagine our surprise to see the thing blow up! Guess it worked, but - we'll never know for sure. How funny, he still winces when the story is told - we knew there is a "no metal" rule for microwaves!

Hmmm. That almost sounds like a blown fuse. Do microwaves have fuses inside? If they do, maybe it can be replaced.

So far as microwaves go, they don't make them like they did when they were worth $700 which is around the time I got my first one around the mid 1980's. That microwave burned itself out around 2008. That one burned out last year. I'm hoping the one I have now lasts longer than 2 years!

Originally Posted by GloriaJH

My husband had the brightest idea - put the (METAL) meter inside to see if it registers the microwaves.
Imagine our surprise to see the thing blow up! Guess it worked, but - we'll never know for sure.

How funny, he still winces when the story is told - we knew there is a "no metal" rule for microwaves!

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That's hilarious! I can imagine your faces! Sorry, but it is funny! I've used tiny bits of foil around chicken drumsticks and such. DS tried to use a large piece of foil when he was reheating sticky buns one time. Boy, that did that oven arc! Scared the crap out of him.

We have a Sharp and we love it. I use it for everything under the sun and often we cook complete meals in our microwave, esp when we don't feel like heating up our oven.

Our old Sharp died after about 14 years or so and I was devastated. It was a convection and microwave and the things I could cook in that thing! Since our big oven is also convection, this microwave is just a regular microwave.

Our microwave we've had for 21 years It has outlasted 3 cats, 4 cars, and all of the major appliances in the house. I do remember we had to have it fixed once, and I think the fix was maybe $100 or so, well worth the money. And I think it might have been a fuse that broke.

It's a Kenmore. And say what you want about Sears appliances, but I have to admit we've had pretty good luck with them, and that's what all the major appliances in the house have been replaced with.

We do have to replace the ignitor in the oven, but that's the first fix we've had to do to the stove, and that's 6/7 years old.

Now if it died, I think we'd just replace it, since they've come way down in price.

Cheryl

Just so you know, Sears doesn't make any appliances. They are all proprietary models of other makers.

It sound to me like a fuse or something blew on your microwave. But, sometimes, they're built in a way you can't repair them. Many items these days can only be repaired with the replacement of major components, such as the complete circuit board. Usually that one piece costs within a few dollars of the total cost of the unit!

Have you heard the comedienne Katherine Madigan talking about her family's early microwave? "Dad, I'm not saying the thing is overpowered, but Mom has grown a tail..."

I just had to go and look . We have an EWave. Probably got it at Best Buy but can't remember. It is about twelve years old and it one of those touch pad micros. It is stainless/black to match my other appliances. Have not had one problem with it and it is a good size. It wasn't that expensive. You will be surprised to see how cheap they are now.

Awww.... RIP Microwave.

We have a Sharp that came with the Microwave in 1993 and it's still going!

My microwave is going fine, but hubby killed the water heater a couple months back.

RV anything is expensive, we were looking at a $600 bill.
Luckily we found a 6 gallon residential water heater that would work for us for under $150.

Hubbies working on electrical 1 in 10 times they kill something it seems...

I would hate to lose an appliance after 25 years though, after that length, they are almost part of the family.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Just so you know, Sears doesn't make any appliances. They are all proprietary models of other makers.

It sound to me like a fuse or something blew on your microwave. But, sometimes, they're built in a way you can't repair them. Many items these days can only be repaired with the replacement of major components, such as the complete circuit board. Usually that one piece costs within a few dollars of the total cost of the unit!

Have you heard the comedienne Katherine Madigan talking about her family's early microwave? "Dad, I'm not saying the thing is overpowered, but Mom has grown a tail..."

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Really! I knew that some of the appliances Sears had were from other makers- but I didn't know every single Kenmore we own is a model of another maker.

That does make me feel better. With Sears on the edge (I keep reading that it may go under- or is that all speculation as well)- it's nice to know that I'll be able to find replacement parts for all of the appliances we've bought from them. Since dh likes to run appliances into the ground

The oven only blew the ignitor. That part was only $80. So I don't mind paying that much to have the oven run for a few more years.
Cheryl

When we made our purchases 20 + years ago, at Sears, I made sure that the appliances were made by Whirlpool - at the time very highly rated by Consumer Reports.
Here's a link with the Sears Codes:
http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/sears.shtml

BTW, they're still working just fine.

I got my first microwave in 1984. It was a Toshiba -- a real tank that served for I forget how long, day in and day out. We replaced it with a smaller Samsung for a quarter of the price, which is still serving like a trouper. They're dirt cheap these days. I'd buy either brand again in a heartbeat (though I don't think I've seen Toshiba in a long while).

RIP Microwave