Just started happening. Microwave turns on & all works properly... LED panel & controls and heats food well. BUT... a few days ago it started acting "funny". While running, all of a sudden you will hear it like it's starting to powerdown and the bulb inside will dim, but then within a second it returns to normal. On a full power 4 minute cycle, it can happen several different times randomly and intermittently, or none at all. LED panel does NOT flicker. Also, none of the lights in the house flicker, so it is NOT a power company issue, like a real brown out. Unit was built in 2002. Had the magnetron & control panel replaced about 6 years ago. My question... is it a failing/shorting magnetron, something in the control panel, a failing door switch or something failing in the microwave's power supply? Has anyone seen this happen in KitchenAid Microwaves? Is it a common thing? Is there a TSB on it? I realize the oven is old, but replacement is NOT an option as it is the only combo unit where the microwave door opens downward, and not from the side. My wife LOVES this feature. Trust me...we've looked. Thank you for any help.
There is a huge capacitor inside microwaves, and that description sounds like it is starting to fail. There are smaller capacitors as well. It won't be a door switch, they work or they don't.
I had two Panasonic Commercial microwaves in a pub kitchen, one plain and one was a combination machine and both had drop down doors.
THANK YOU for the lead. As an electrical engineer, I thought it might be something like that. I'll go in that direction and see what happens. I'll post back once it's changed to let you, and others, know how it turned out. Again, THANK YOU for the prompt response! Have a beautiful holiday season.
As promised, I'm reporting back. So I changed the big mfd cap off the Magnetron. No change. It's actually getting worse. I now sometimes see the led display, the light inside the microwave AND the light in the lower oven dim intermittently several times just after using the microwave and it has shut off. So it must be some component on the high side of the power supply that is common to both the microwave & at least the light supply in the oven. Otherwise, the lower oven continues to work 100% flawlessly.
So, I'm going to now check the common components on the high side of the supply (transformers, power board, etc.) to see if I can find the faulting part.
I'll continue to keep you updated.
You are very welcome. Happy Christmas to you are well.
RESOLVED!!! Turns out that upon further inspection, two of the wires in the molex connector on the high side (220V from the wall), were singed/charred and they MELTED the connector and the electrical contacts were touching intermittently. Must have been a bad capacitor that was causing a LOT more current to be drawn than should have been. So after changing the microwave capacitor, I replaced the melted Molex connector, made all new connections and voila... it WORKS!!!!
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?Just glad it didn't catch fire! And don't know why the circuit breaker didn't trip for such a current draw.
Great, well done! Thanks for the update as it does help others.
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RESOLVED!!! Turns out that upon further inspection, two of the wires in the molex connector on the high side (220V from the wall), were singed/charred and they MELTED the connector and the electrical contacts were touching intermittently. Must have been a bad capacitor that was causing a LOT more current to be drawn than should have been. So after changing the microwave capacitor, I replaced the melted Molex connector, made all new connections and voila... it WORKS!!!!
Just glad it didn't catch fire! And don't know why the circuit breaker didn't trip for such a current draw.
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