Wife was cooking food, she says she heard a big pow and saw a blue light in the MW. Now everytime we turn it on it jumps the breaker. Everything else works fine.

The fan, a door switch, or control board relay may be causing the fan issue. Running the MW without a fan will not only cause steam buildup inside the cavity, it will cause the magnetron to overheat. If the MW has a thermal protector on the mangetron, it should shut the oven off when the temperature gets too high.

Sounds like the MW Emitter is not working or the wave guide is disconnected. If it is the wave guide then you can fix it yourself if you take the rear cover off. It is the pipe, which in cross section is quite rectangle shaped with rounded corners. It should be connected to the emitter at one end and the opaque guide cover at the other with no breaks. If the emitter is faulty then seek professional help.

Popcorn is a low-moisture food which can cause a microwave to overheat, as can a failure of the cooling fan or blocked vents.

You should always turn a paper plate upside-down on the turntable (slightly off-center for better heating) and place the popcorn container on top of that.

The paper plate elevates the popcorn for better exposure to the energy and protects the turntable from excessive heat.

Placing food off-center instead of in the center increases exposure to the energy and prevents the same spot on the turntable from being overheated repeatedly, which leads to material fatigue and cracking.

It's also a good idea to put about 1/2 cup of water in a 1-cup microwave-safe container in the corner of the oven when cooking low-moisture foods like popcorn, bacon, and potatoes.

The microwave's magnetron has a thermal protector (thermostat, TCO, or thermal fuse) attached to it.

If the magnetron gets too hot, it can be damaged or destroyed, so the thermal protector opens and disconnects the power to the whole oven.

If it is a resettable device, the power will be restored when the device cools. If it is not resettable, the device must be replaced.

FixYa does not directly notify us experts of responses, so if you have other questions, please contact me directly.

- William E. Miller, AS-EET
[email protected]
http://www.microwavecontrol.com
Microwave Oven Control Panel Repair Nationwide
"Recycling by repairing since 1982"

The magnetron is shorted or the inverter board is defective if microwave is 7 years old or less.

check the GFI breaker in your kitchen or bathroom. It could have tripped. Plug a light in the socket to test it.

If you got it hot enough from your soup there is a fan switch to turn the blower on to cool the unit. Maybe next time cook that on a different burner on the stove to try to not heat up that area under the microwave.

Magnetron may be faulty. Have it checked by a qualified microwave engineer.

If there is no heat but all other functions work, then the magnatron is likely faulty. The magnatorn provides the heat. You can get one at repairclinic.com or partselect.com

you may have gotten a power surge and that can cause some funny things to happen, 1st is there power to the oven, 2nd if so there may be an internal fuse protector built in to the oven, check with the manual for anything of that sort listed. if not you may have to take it in and have it repaired by a pro. there is a lot of voltage in these ovens and unless you know what you are doing a person could get hurt