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December 12, 2013 at 10:37 pm #609908
trickycooljParticipantOf course last night I decided to grab a Christmas cookie out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave for 30sec to thaw it. Pulled it out after 20 seconds realizing that was way too long and shut the door… and the microwave keeps buzzing loudly like it’s running with the light off! I pressed Stop/Cancel. Nothing. Open the door it stops. Close the door, buzzes! It’s an over the range built in, so I flipped the breaker just in case, still buzzing with the door closed. Unplugged it over night (ah-ha it’s in the cabinet above!), plugged it back in, still buzzing with the door closed this morning! EEK.
Naturally it’s permanently unplugged. Also 8 months passed it’s 1 year warranty. Called GE, they want $80 to send a tech to diagnose then more for parts and labor. Called the home builder to see if the 3yr home warranty still applies, no they just support the 1 year mfr warranty on appliances. But said to keep the bills and submit them to the home warranty department and they would talk to their appliance rep since a brand new microwave in a brand new house should be expected to last more than 20 months!
Put in a call to Wiseman Appliance since they had awesome service and prices for my washer and dryer. Still waiting to hear back, but at this point if the repair diagnostic is half the cost of a new unit then maybe I should just replace it.
Will probably also call Scott Wiseman Repar (different number than the appliance shop, are they not affiliated directly?) to see if it’s worth while to fix. I am not attempting to DIY a microwave fix, too many hazards inside.
Mostly just annoyed that it failed so quickly and that it’s an over the range style so I can’t just run over to Costco and get a new one.
What would you do West Seattle?
December 12, 2013 at 11:16 pm #801414
CostanzaParticipantIt could be several possibilities causing this, but it sounds like it could be a shorted or bad door switch.
Does it actually heat anything with the door closed but not running? You can test by putting a glass of water in there and shut the door. If it does, that will help a repairman diagnose.
If it’s a good microwave and you like the way it works/heats, then it may be worth it to repair (and if that method is cheaper than new). But if you don’t like the microwave to begin with, just look at it as an opportunity to treat yourself to a new one ;)
December 12, 2013 at 11:18 pm #801415
CostanzaParticipantAlso could be the transformer within the unit… those are pretty expensive to repair, so if that’s the case may just be easier to replace the whole thing
December 12, 2013 at 11:37 pm #801416
KBearParticipantScott is the brother of Dan, who owns Wiseman Appliance, so same family but separate businesses. I don’t know if Scott works on microwaves, but I’ll bet he’ll have some suggestions for you.
December 12, 2013 at 11:48 pm #801417
trickycooljParticipantAh that makes sense! Figured he’s the best one to call before settling for someone random sent by GE. Either way I’ll be sending bills to the home builder to see what they can get their appliance rep to admit to. Oddly enough GE has the best rated microwaves on Consumer Reports but it’s now the least reliable. I had a $50 tiny thing from Target in my previous apartment for 5 years and it’s still chugging along at a friend’s house!
December 13, 2013 at 12:23 am #801418
trickycooljParticipantWell unfortunately Scott Wiseman doesn’t do microwaves. Now it’s time to figure out just how much a new one is plus install to compare with GE’s $80 fee.
December 13, 2013 at 12:29 am #801419
squareeyesParticipantSeveral years ago my microwave (purchased at Sears) did a similar thing. One day it decided to run when the door was open. It was less than a year old so I took it to the Sears repair center, they fixed it for free, and that hasn’t happened since. I don’t know if it was actually heating or not, didn’t try to test that.
The digital display has been faulty for years as well which is/was apparently a common Sharp problem. It can go for months with a faint display, and sometimes no display, but it’ll occasionally come back full brightness for days at a time.
December 13, 2013 at 2:01 am #801420
CostanzaParticipantI’ll email Jack Donaghy at GE and see what he has to say about this
December 13, 2013 at 2:24 am #801421
WS PersonParticipantI bet you could buy a new microwave for less than the price of getting it repaired. A quick look (online) at target shows them from $55.
December 13, 2013 at 2:34 am #801422
trickycooljParticipantUnfortunately this isn’t a $50 countertop model, it’s also my range hood so it has the vent fan built in. To get the latest model of what I have (easiest installation since the brackets and holes are likely the same) it’ll be $350-400 plus installation. Yay homeownership! First broken down appliance!
December 13, 2013 at 4:36 am #801423
WS PersonParticipantah, totally understood! Bummer! Unfortunately my experience is appliances like that have a problem being over heat (stove) even though they are supposed to deal with it. Especially if they are over a gas range?…
December 13, 2013 at 4:58 am #801424
trickycooljParticipantNot really, glass top electric range. I’m not an extreme chef (oh how cool would that be though?) and it’s just a household of one so it’s not getting the extreme use there might be in a large family. Just boggles my mind! Wiseman’s said it was a really popular seller for them and they find GE really reliable for these microwaves. When I showed them the video it was certainly a head scratcher!
I keep debating the $80 fee to have GE come out and at least declare it broken so I can maybe pressure the builder into getting me a credit through their GE rep but it seemed like a long shot and a lot of messing around than I want to tackle with work getting super busy before we go on holiday break. Oh well. First time homeowner and I’m so glad I’ve kept a small stash of oh crap homeowner drama cash LOL
December 13, 2013 at 6:16 am #801425
jissyParticipanttricky — Do try calling GE, I built a new house once upon a time and something went out on my jacuzzi tub. My plumber (who also happens to be a good friend) said he could buy the part from Ferguson for just over $100, but in his opinion this was something that should not have broken as soon as it had and he encouraged me to call Kohler, tell them about it, when the house was built/tub installed and could they help me out with a replacement. They sent one within a week, no charge b/c they too recognized that it was probably a lemon of a part to have broken that soon.
Same deal with a GE washing machine, it was just over it’s warranty, but their repair guy said, “Nope, this is a bad machine”, GE was going to authorize repairs to fix it, but there were so many parts back-ordered and the repair would have been so costly, they gave me a new one. This was of course after I had their guy out and I did have to pay for that service call but he really went to bat for me.
It seems like if it’s something so out of character for one of their items (based on the timeframe it goes bad), they will make it right — I think they’d rather have a repeat customer some day from a good experience than a pissed off one.
December 13, 2013 at 4:30 pm #801426
metrognomeParticipantif you have the owner’s manual, the troubleshooting section might help; if you don’t have it, they are pretty easy to find online. You can also use Bing or Google to search for a solution (e.g. ‘GE model no microwave range hood won’t shut off’). I’m pretty limited at writing that kind of query, so maybe someone else can help out.
Good luck.
December 13, 2013 at 8:28 pm #801427
trickycooljParticipantI called GE and they just kept flat up saying oh it’s from April 2012? Sorry that’s $79.95 for a diagnostic fee then parts and labor, or if you choose not to have a repair we’ll give you $100 off a GE Profile Microwave (these retail $600+) or $50 off any other GE Microwave. Not particularly accommodating.
I do have the manual, the troubleshooting had nothing to do with the current issue.
I spoke with the warranty rep from my home builder, he’ll be out Monday afternoon (thankfully High Point is still under construction) and will double check how crazy the microwave is acting (yeah I tested it a ton more times just to be sure) and he’s going to contact their direct GE rep. I have my fingers crossed their GE rep will recognize it should last longer than 1 year 8 months!
December 13, 2013 at 8:30 pm #801428
trickycooljParticipantUploaded a video of what the microwave does to YouTube: http://youtu.be/A8VYmt7Lgi0
It sounds like the magnetron is not turning off, which if it needs replaced, is almost the cost of a new microwave.
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