I had to get a new microwave for my kitchen because my old one started acting up. Over the past year or so, the fuse blew a couple of times, but replacing it cured the problem and kept it going just fine. Then one night I put in a frozen dinner and when I took it out it was only about half cooked. That was a bad sign. I tried making some popcorn but it sparked, which was a really bad sign. I pulled the plug on it and decided it was a lost cause. I got great use from my old microwave, it was original equipment with the house and was more than fifteen years old.
So it was time to get a new microwave. That night I did a little web surfing to see what was available and was overwhelmed by the variety of styles and options. I sorted through them and decided on a few features that were must haves. It had to be an over-the-range model so it would replace my old unit, it had to be a full power model, it had to have a turntable built in, and it had to have controls that were easy to use.
The next night I stopped at Lowe's and looked at the dozen models they had for sale and settled on a GE model that met all my modest requirements. I discounted the low end models because they were not full power units, and I discounted the top end models because they were very expensive and their features didn't justify the price in my opinion. Other models I wrote off because I couldn't see how to use the controls to just select a cook time and hit start. The controls on them seemed much too complicated.
The GE model I chose would do everything I needed just great. It did have several new controls that would make things easier sometimes. For example, it has a popcorn button. Just pop in a bag of popcorn and punch the button and it does the rest. There are heat and humidity sensors in the microwave that can sense when the popcorn is heating up and how much steam it is putting out while it is popping. Using that information it can figure out when the popcorn is finished and shuts itself off automatically. That would be very cool.
I asked if they had the model in stock, but unfortunately they didn't. They offered to check the other stores in the area but they found they were out as well. They said there would be more arriving in a day or two, so I went ahead and paid for one. Now it was just a matter of waiting a few days.
I stopped by the next two nights after work, but it hadn't arrived yet. That was starting to make me uneasy. I checked back on Saturday and they didn't have it either. They said there was another truck due that evening and to check back on Sunday. I went back Sunday after lunch and they still didn't have it. They finally admitted they had no idea when it would arrive. I was greatly disappointed with them because this was the first time Lowe's had ever let me down in purchasing anything. I asked for a refund.
I drove to the Home Depot a mile or so away to see what they had to offer. I was greatly pleased to find that they had the same model I was interested in, for $50 cheaper, and they had it in stock. I bought one and drove home with it in my truck in under a half hour. I was very happy.
I had had lunch with my friends Virgil and Denise the day before on Saturday and told them what was going on with my microwave and Virgil volunteered to help me install the new one during the week, which was great. It is definitely a two person job and I could use his expertise and help.
He came over on Tuesday evening after work and we uncrated the new microwave and looked through the instructions. There were a fair number of steps but they seemed pretty straightforward and matched what the sales person had told me when I asked about ease of installation. All over-the-range microwaves have been standardized in size for years so there was no problem with the new one fitting in the same spot as the old one. I had carefully measured things just to make sure, though.
Removing the old one easy enough. There were three screws in the overhead cabinets that held the microwave up, which we unscrewed. Then we tilted the unit down and lifted it off of the tabs of the back plate that was attached to the rear wall. That's what holds most of the weight of the unit. That was it. It was all disconnected. We removed the old rear wall plate since it wouldn't fit the new microwave at all.
The instructions had good descriptions and pictures of how to mount the new rear wall support plate. We found the studs behind the walls easy enough and drilled the holes as directed. I always enjoy drilling holes in people's houses, even my own. :-) One of the holes, though, didn't feel like it was in the stud properly so we used a different hole in the plate instead. With the support plate in place we were a third of the way done.
The new microwave came with templates that you could tape on the cabinets to show you where the holes for the screws and power cord were needed. We trimmed it according to the instructions and taped it in just fine. A couple of seconds with the power drill and we were ready.
Well, almost. They recommended using pieces of scrap wood between the top of the microwave and the recessed bottom of the cabinet shelves so when we tightened up the mounting screws we wouldn't be pulling the top of the microwave out of alignmenet. Unfortunately, I have very little scrap wood around the house. I just don't need it often so I keep very few supplies of it.
Virgil asked about the spare cabinet shelf that I had removed from the cabinet above the microwave prior to us getting started. It was an extra shelf that I had never needed in any of my cabinets since they day I moved in years ago. It was the right thickness, being a 1/2 inch thick. We could cut two pieces and tape them together to form the 1 inch thick blocks we needed. I'm glad he thought of using that extra shelf. Now we had scrap wood to use.
More tools were needed, of course. The carpenter's square for laying out the blocks on the shelving. The hand saw for cutting them out, and then the drill for making the holes in the them so the screws could get through. The blocks were way too small to be held safely by hand while being drilled, so I got out my portable workbench and we clamped them into it to drill the holes. That went quickly. Now we were ready.
We removed the last of the shipping tape from the microwave and lifted it into position. It weighed about 70 pounds, so it was moderately heavy but easy enough for the both of us to manage. We got the bottom rear edge locked into the tangs on the bottom of the rear wall mounting bracket and tilted it up into position. We fed the power cord through the hole and got the wood blocks into position with the screws thorough the cabinet and through the holes in the blocks. The only tricky thing was getting the edges of the vent duct pried up a little bit so it would slide over the vent in the microwave properly. Virgil got that sorted out nicely.
We tilted the microwave into its final position under the cabinet and screwed in the two main support screws and the third safety screw in the middle of the unit (no wooden block was recommended for that screw). It was installed! Yea! I removed the last of the protective packaging from the front door and control panel and opened the door up to remove the metal shelves from their packing.
Yes, you heard right. Metal shelves. What's the one thing we all learn to not put into the microwave? Metal. What does my new microwave come with? Two wire metal cooking shelves to use inside the microwave. Ahhh! I know they're safe to use because of how they are designed, but the irony of the situation just struck me as odd.
I plugged the unit in and it came to life. I had to program the time and date into the unit before it would turn on, so I did so according to the manual. I understand knowing the time, but why in the world does a microwave need to know the date? I'm not planning on cooking anything for multiple days in the thing, so I don't know. Perhaps the manual will shed some light on it when I finish reading it. I tried it out for a couple of seconds and it worked great. We tried the range vent fan and that worked great, as did the range surface lights which are much better than the one I had in my old microwave.
Of course, the kitchen was now filled with tools, bits of paper and cardboard, instructions, packing material, and bits from the old microwave. I thanked Virgil for all his advice and help and he headed home. I decided to leave the cleanup till the morning.
So my new microwave is installed and working perfectly. Yea! I tried out the popcorn button later that night and it worked exactly as advertised. The popcorn was perfectly done, with far fewer unpopped kernels than my old microwave produced. That would be a very nice feature to use.
However, the story doesn't end there. Over the next week I used the new microwave several times, of course. But I noticed that the fan was squeaking when it was running. That was not a something I expected to hear in a brand new appliance. Then one night the microwave turned off prematurely near the end of the time I had set it for. It didn't just stop cooking, it powered itself off completely, which was quite odd. I figured the power had flickered and it shut off. The power had been flickering for several days, so I thought this was another case.
Then I had friends over to play games this past Saturday and it happened again. Miles was heating up a frozen pizza for his lunch and the microwave powered itself off completely. The power hadn't flickered at all, so there was definitely something wrong with the microwave itself. I was very disappointed that the new microwave was dead.
Miles offered to help me take it back to Home Depot to trade it for a replacement, so we took the dead one down and stuck it in my truck. I got the receipt and we headed to the store. They did have a replacement in stock and got it for me. It took them a while to get it down off the high shelf, though. They did mention that I could have just called GE and they would have sent out a repairman to my house to fix the dead microwave. I had no idea that they would do that. I'll remember that for the future.
We got the replacement back home and set it aside. Miles, Pat, Marie and I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon and evening playing games. Before they left, Miles and Pat offered to help me install the replacement microwave. We got it installed with only a little trouble.
One trouble was that one of the screws wouldn't screw in properly. I looked at the threads and found that two of them were closed together and that's why it wouldn't screw in. I don't know how if worked in the original microwave, but it did. But it wouldn't fit into the new one. I'll have to fix the thread before it will be usable. Having just two of the three screws installed is no problem for safety, so I'm not worried about that.
The other problem was that I was fumble fingered and managed to drop the screwdriver on Miles' head, for which I am very sorry. He was still able to speak normally, so I don't think there was any permanent damage, thankfully.
I thanked Miles and Pat for their help installing the replacement and they headed home.
So now my second new microwave is installed and working perfectly. The fan does not squeak at all and because this one works I think I've figured out what was wrong with the dead one. When the replacement is cooking, the fan blows air out the top front vent. The dead one didn't do that at all. So I think the fan was squeaking and barely turning at all. The microwave was probably overheating and a safety tripped and powered the unit off, which was a good thing. Fun, fun, eh?
So, I thank all my friends for helping me to get my new microwave installed. It's now working wonderfully.
We also have the answer to the age old question: How many geeks does it take to change a microwave? Four. And we have to do it twice to get it right!
