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More on the microwave oven saga

Ran a little experiment on the GE microwave oven that has been vexing me per my postings here a few days ago. As you may recall this GE oven will perform flawlessly with its control panel tilted out at about a 45 degree angle, but shuts off after only a few seconds with the panel in its normal position.

Happened to notice that the display began to act weird as the board was tilted upward to nearly vertical. Got some aluminum foil and cut a piece that would fit inside a plastic sandwich bad. Carefully draped this "shield" over the control board on the inside of the cabinet where it mounts. Tried the oven. Worked perfectly. No more display problems. No more shutting off early.

What do you think the shield is blocking? My intention is to permanently mount this shield and resume using the oven.

Reply to
Silver Surfer
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Sounds more like an intermittent connection.

Reply to
Charles Schuler

You may have an intermittent connection, and it is somehow moved. Or, there may be some radiation leaking, and it is effecting the circuit board when the foil is not present.

If you want to add some shielding, just make sure it is properly insulated.

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JANA _____

Happened to notice that the display began to act weird as the board was tilted upward to nearly vertical. Got some aluminum foil and cut a piece that would fit inside a plastic sandwich bad. Carefully draped this "shield" over the control board on the inside of the cabinet where it mounts. Tried the oven. Worked perfectly. No more display problems. No more shutting off early.

What do you think the shield is blocking? My intention is to permanently mount this shield and resume using the oven.

Reply to
JANA

You probably ought to check for RF leakage, perhaps microwaves are leaking into the casing of the oven. (and if they are getting into the casing then this increases the chances that microwaves would be leaking into the room as well.)

If you don't have a leakage detector, perhaps a local repair shop would test it for leakage.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Jones

Rather repair/have repaired the leakage. Check that the magnetron is properly mounted. However, if you measure the leakage to be in "normal" acceptable range and it can't be easily reduced more, then the controller circuitry might just be too sensitive. Then you can use the shielding, but make sure it won't cause shorts!

-- Top-posting not supported.

Reply to
Simoc

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