For those who have followed the remodel project, new appliances were part of it and we bought the new microwave at the very beginning since the kitchen was gutted. The microwave moved from master bedroom to the front room as we created a makeshift kitchen once the new flooring was installed. So, a couple of weeks ago when the only five month old microwave quit working in the middle of cooking something, shall we say that I was not happy? We could use other words and the fact that the repair guy wasn’t going to be able to get there for a few days was equally upsetting. Then of course the part that was required wasn’t on hand and had to be ordered. Of some concern though was he mentioned to my husband that with the new custom built cabinet, perhaps the microwave wasn’t getting adequate air circulation and that had caused the overheating. That idea really didn’t make me happy.

When the part came in, a different technician brought it out to do the repair and after he finished, I asked him about the cabinet. He said that he didn’t think it would be a problem and he then went on to explain that microwaves are being built with these sensors that “blow” and shut down the microwave to keep it from overheating to the point of catching on fire. Okay, I can see that as a safety feature. Then came the interesting part. He said that if a lot of humidity is trapped in the microwave that can also blow the fuse. Humidity as you get when baking potatoes. We do that frequently and since potatoes varying in the amount of humidity, it isn’t the same as cooking something in a bag or with a specified amount of water in a bowl. We have changed our process a bit with potatoes by cooking them the first four minutes, pulling them out of the microwave, wiping the moisture from the interior of the oven, then cooking the potatoes for the remaining time. We will definitely be more careful about moisture build-up and hope that does the trick.