Hamilton Beach Microwave danger

[exscream]

Our 2011 Mini Lite has a Hamilton Beach microwave. On one occasion when my wife wanted to open the door after cooking was done, the door would not open. After a few tries it opened. With the door wide open, the microwave started up again. She almost reached in. We closed the door, the microwave stopped. We repeated this many times. I finally tripped the circuit breaker to get the food out. This is unacceptable. The mechanical interlock must stop the oven when the door is open.
I emailed Hamilton Beach. They told me that they did not make this microwave. I found out that Galanz is building them now. So I get the run around...

[jimh]

not a good thing... looks like hamilton beach would take a greater interest sense it is their name on the outside.
there should be at least two interlocks: one when the latch is unlocked and the other when the door moves no more than 1/4 inch.
regardless of my next statement there is a problem. i'm wondering if just the fan was running or if the microwave cooking element (magnetron) was active. i had a sharp that the fan and light would come on at random times. the magnetron was not being activated but sense it wasn't supposed to come on randomly, i was concerned that one time it would activate.

[Herk7769]

DO NOT TURN ON the microwave at any time!
Put your cell phone inside the microwave and close the door.
CALL your cell phone.
If it RINGS your microwave is leaking and needs to be repaired or replaced.

If not. it is tight.

Obviously if it starts up by itself with the door open there is a switchology issue and the thing is dangerous. They are not all that expensive in the tiny sizes used in RVs if your can't get a free repair. (or too much hassle to get it done under warranty).

[exscream]

The dealer offered to have it repaired. I used to work in the microprocessor field. I know what the Problem is: The computer went out to lunch. After I powered it down and up again, it reset and worked ok. The real problem is that the door interlock is not over riding this kind of failure. I am worried that when I take it in for repair, they wont find any problem and I will be out of a unit for a long time.

[brianb]

Originally Posted by herk7769

DO NOT TURN ON the microwave at any time!
Put your cell phone inside the microwave and close the door.
CALL your cell phone.
If it RINGS your microwave is leaking and needs to be repaired or replaced.

If not. it is tight.

This is more urban legend then science. Microwaves operate in a much higher spectrum then cell. phones. Microwaves 2.5Ghz, cell phones 800-2.1Ghz.

[bend302]

Try it...I put my cellphone in my microwave oven and it could not get a signal enough to receive a call. Opened the door and it worked. Since the microwaves from the phone tower could not get to the phone I assume the seals are good.

Now, the next test (urban legend) is to see if your CMO will light up a flourescent bulb. That is supposed to mean it's a leaker but I'm not going there

Bill

[BigDTx]

Originally Posted by bend302

Try it...I put my cellphone in my microwave oven and it could not get a signal enough to receive a call. Opened the door and it worked. Since the microwaves from the phone tower could not get to the phone I assume the seals are good.

Now, the next test (urban legend) is to see if your CMO will light up a flourescent bulb. That is supposed to mean it's a leaker but I'm not going there

Bill

CMO??? C.....Microwave Oven?? does C = camper? just wondering.

[bend302]

Sorry, too many years in the appliance biz...CMO=Countertop Microwave Oven

Bill

[Herk7769]

Yup. Urban Legend:
Answers.com - How do you check for a radiation leak in a microwave

Sorry, should have checked it out.

[jimh]

Originally Posted by bend302

Try it...I put my cellphone in my microwave oven and it could not get a signal enough to receive a call. Opened the door and it worked. Since the microwaves from the phone tower could not get to the phone I assume the seals are good.

Now, the next test (urban legend) is to see if your CMO will light up a flourescent bulb. That is supposed to mean it's a leaker but I'm not going there

Bill

my heathkit microwave had neon lights to indicate cook, door open, etc. when it leaked, those lights would randomly flash.

the door is abt the only place u can get a leak. it isn't going to come thru the glass area because of the metal perforated shield in there. the glass is there to keep u from pushing metal thru the screen and creating an antenna to the outside world.
the area around the door is protected by a capacitive shield (the Teflon coated metal area around the (parimeter of the) glass area that fits next to the oven cavity). the next shield is a square channel on the flange area of the door that fits next to the flange of the door cavity. this inverts the microwave energy and cancels it. the heathkit also had a conductive vinyl shield that resembled a gasket that fit around the door and next to the cavity. the only thing i've seen the vinyl on is the convection/microwave (lately).
for the protection to work, it is to remain undamaged and clean. it isn't likely ur going to bend the door but if u do, u have a possibility of a leak.
your microwave light and fan coming on when it shouldn't most likely is going to be a problem with the control panel. you have to have at least 3 things go wrong for the magnetron to activate: 2 independent switches must fail and the timer must tell it to come on. or one thing common to all; the logic circuit that reads these failures has to fail.
i doubt that it is repaired by resetting. it will only get worse. had that with a sharp (the light and fan came on but not the magnetron). started out every once in a while and progressed to staying on.
if the person making the repair is told abt the problem, they should take it seriously even if they can't find a problem.

[capucine]

excream: our minilite 2011 has the same problem but see how it is doing this problem. If my wife push the express button let say for potatoes and time 3 for 3 potatoes it start and when finish she open the door and the crazy microwave start but the turntable does not turn. It sound like only the fan is working. and no matter how many times you try it the fan start again. The only way to clear this problem is to shut off the breaker and reset it. On all the regular other push your time there is no problem. Our trailer just turn over a year last week and I am planning to call Hamilton Beach this morning to complain. We used this oven only a few times and this is the model HB909H3B. What a crappy affair and I am trying to find another make that will fit in the faceplate that came with the microwave and I cannot duplicate the opening. If someone can help me to see I there is a fit model I would be very happy.

[frankm]

Originally Posted by capucine

Our trailer just turn over a year last week and I am planning to call Hamilton Beach this morning to complain. We used this oven only a few times and this is the model HB909H3B.

Good luck with Hamilton Beach. We also have the same MW and recently experienced some issues with it (it completely died, as in no control panel lights, no nothing. Checked breaker and GFI's, all fine. Five minutes later the MW started working again. Brought it home, tested for long periods and it worked fine everytime. For now I'm just going to assume it may have been due to low voltage at CG. Will know next time out). Anyhow, I called HB customer service and they claimed that the had nothing to do with MWs bearing their name brand!! Called our dealer and at least he said if it happened again he would look at our unit and if necessary replace it with a Magic Chef mw. Fingers crossed!

[capucine]

frankm: Yesterday I made more investigation on this microwave. First I tested the oven with a radio set on AM station. If you bring a radio with a AM band close to the microwave when it is working you will have a lot of noise and static in the radio everytime the magnetron comes in action. For our problem when it still work when the door is open there is no microwave action at all except that the fan in action. The turntable dont even turn. After letting the fan running for a minute with the door open I heard a click and the fan shut off. Also this issue only happens when the microwave is hot after let say running for 5 minutes. These microwaves are running very hot because of the lack of ventillation except the tront plate grill. I am starting to think that this issue is normal except that it is not written in the owner manual. I cannot email them because the email in the book is not in service. Called my dealer and he said that they will try to give me a number to call and a new microwave is $500. I cannot believe this when you can get a .9cu at wall mart for$70. Still a crappy affair!!!

[frankm]

Originally Posted by capucine

Also this issue only happens when the microwave is hot after let say running for 5 minutes. These microwaves are running very hot because of the lack of ventilation except the front plate grill. I am starting to think that this issue is normal except that it is not written in the owner manual.

capucine, I follow your thinking and would tend to agree. Ironically both of our issues were started by potatoes!

However my MW quit working altogether and it wasn't until about 5 or so minutes had elapsed (MW cool down time?) that it would come back to life. It did it twice then for safety reasons we didn't attempt to use it again. When I tried to replicate the issue here at home (MW out of the trailer connected to house ac outlet) it worked flawlessly. We put it back in the trailer just this weekend and tried it again. It also worked flawlessly, thus my reasoning that it did what it did due to low voltage at the CG we were at.

If what we are experiencing are undocumented "features", I can tell you: I don't like undocumented features in microwaves!!

[jimh]

is ur microwave built in? if so there should be a fan to move the air from around the enclosure (in addition to the fan built into the microwave to cool the magnetron). make sure that is running. heat build up may be causing ur problem.

[frankm]

Originally Posted by jimh

is ur microwave built in? if so there should be a fan to move the air from around the enclosure (in addition to the fan built into the microwave to cool the magnetron). make sure that is running. heat build up may be causing ur problem.

Yes it is a built in mw but there isn't an additional circulating fan. What the mw has is an add-on air duct contraption attached to the top of the mw (not visible from the outside) that channels the air out the front grill vents. If it does turn out to be an over heating (I have used this mw for over a year w/o a problem) then I will consider cutting an opening here (see yellow arrow in pic) and use a black screen or in-wall speaker cover to hide the opening.

[jimh]

they may have sized the fan in the microwave to accommodate the built in configuration. the only built in i had played with had an additional blower in the back to force the air thru there.

it sounds like the control panel. i was just trying to see if there was something else that may have caused it to fail.
in the case of my sharp, the panel was replaced twice under warranty. when it went out abt 3 yrs after warranty expired, i found the cost of the control panel was more than the original cost of the oven.
u may want to see if u can find one of the cheaper microwaves and see if u can set it in there and take ur chances.

[frankm]

Thanks jimh, for now I'm hoping that my issue was totally related to poor CG voltage (fingers crossed) and not anything else wrong with the MW or camper electronics. If not, I have already alerted our dealer and they are standing by.

[capucine]

I would still say that these microwave are running very hot and it is most of the problems with these issues. I called Hamilton Beach and they told me that they dont deal with trailer microwave oven. What a good service!!!!! Try their email at bestrvproducts and you end up nowhere.