GE Microwave

Once again I opened my fat mouth and said, "I'll have a look at your busted microwave." Now I have this big ole GE JVM1190WY microwave convection oven on my bench. It's a '98. It has a fuse inside that started blowing. They go to start it and the fuse blows. Looks like an old automotive glass fuse but grey coating on the glass. Initial research, can't find a service manual. Did find a place called Appliancehelp.com that has parts. A couple of similar searches revealed that typical parts that could cause this are HV diode, HV capacitor, magnetron tube. These parts would run $200 right away, $23 for a 50cent diode.... etc. I would have to use the hunt and peck method of repair. Probably answering my own question by telling my buddy- ya gotta find a new microwave. This is a wall mount with an outside exhaust so the only reason to fix it would be the convenience of putting it back on its bracket. I suppose I could test the diode and capacitor, but no idea how to tell if a magnetron is bad.

I was in the same position a year ago except with my own mico-wave. I looked around & found almost the same one except an up-dated model in the scratch & dent section of H.D., took some measurements & was able to use the same bracket. All for a lot less than a repair would be my son looked at it & said it was the mag., he used to do resturant repair.

Buy a new one. They have more power than the old ones, and are more efficient.

The guy came over today, boy he really wants that old box fixed! I was able to find a place online called fixitnow.com that had a bitmap copy of a page from a repair manual for this model. It had tests for the magnetron, high voltage transformer, capacitor, and hv diode. The magnetron tested good, the transformer primary winding spot on, secondary winding not enough resistance, filament winding no good. Capacitor tested bad, you know a cap is supposed to jump up then go back on the ohmmeter, didn't do that at all. Diode tested bad. So this is already up to about $250 in overpriced parts, and I can't guarantee anything.
I have to convince the guy this is gambling with a smelly, dusty old bomb.
On top of that, if I want to post questions on this fixitnow.com forum, which has a "Samurai" theme, I have to pass a technician's test!!! I gave it a try but I'm not really up on the basic electricity questions!

Maybe this microwave took a power surge, no telling what else is going on with it. It's a convection oven too.
I think he's worried about the hassle of a new unit; this one is outside vented and has a big mounting plate over their stove.

If he is really in love with this unit, have him pack it up
and send it to GE. They will quote him a repair price.
Game over.
Tell him you can't be liable for something this complex
and potentially dangerous.

Tom

tsb wrote:If he is really in love with this unit, have him pack it up
and send it to GE. They will quote him a repair price.
Game over.
Tell him you can't be liable for something this complex
and potentially dangerous.

Tom

I agree. By the sounds of this, it is to old and going to be to expensive to even bother with.

I have the same problem with opening my mouth and saying " yea, i'll take a look at it" then regretting it later.

Jeff