Oven Trouble

The day is 87°F and sunny and breezy in my central Virginia city. The front window near me and the back door are open, allowing a nice draft to pass through the room.

Last night I was heating a frozen dinner when the microwave oven died. The hour was late and parts stores were closed. So I moved the partially heated dinner to a skillet on the stove and finished heating it. I put a little avocado oil in the skillet, set the temperature to medium, and plopped the dinner into the skillet. I let it heat for 20 minutes, and every few minutes I added a small amount of water and stirred the dinner. It tasted fine. Best of all I had no symptoms of food poisoning, and that’s always a plus.

This morning I removed the oven’s sheet metal housing, then I removed the main fuse and checked it. It was blown, as I expected. So I drove to a nearby store and bought a new fuse for a dollar. I returned home and installed the fuse and replaced the sheet-metal cabinet back on the oven. I placed a glass of water in the oven and ran the oven for 15 seconds. I checked the water; it was hot. Mission accomplished.

Microwave ovens have become inexpensive. If an oven quits working most people will throw it away and buy another. Even if you have a warranty it probably covers only the cost of parts, not labor. But if I can repair it in 30 minutes, including driving to a store for a part, and if that 30 minutes saves me $100, then I have done the financial equivalent of working a half hour at a pay rate of $200/hour. At that pay rate, I can’t afford to not make the repair.

Although, this same oven went down just over two years ago and I repaired it. So this was the second repair. If it goes down a third time, it’s on its own. I hope it knows that.