The bulb in my microwave has blown. There are any number of diy guides for other makes and models but none for mine. There is also this general guide www.wikihow.com/Replace-a-Microwave-Lightbulb
So I was chatting with a mate whose d-i-y knowledge I respect, and he said he considered it dangerous to open a microwave.
Is that so, or is it just the usual thing of be careful, unplug it and leave it for a bit to let everything discharge? I think for once he may be wrong :-)
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Well, I did it 5 years ago and am still alive.
Microwave radiation stops when power is switched off...just like a mobile phone..
Your mate is ignorant.
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It's not the radiation that will kill you
The capacitor might though.
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>> It's not the radiation that will kill you
>> The capacitor might though.
>>
+1
Never poked about inside one but presumably upwards of 1000V on HV capacitor so one needs to be very careful.
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ISTR there was a thread on this very subject many moons ago?
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>> ISTR there was a thread on this very subject many moons ago?
>>
Yes, but the final post is missing - "I'm going to unscrew the ........."
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Arent the bulbs normally inside behind a small cover and the capacitors round back?
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A lot of them are sealed. As said the big issue is the capacitor, I have no idea what charge they hold, but seem to remember it is around 10,000v and they store enough current to stop your heart instantly.
Personally I am confident with electronics and mess about with my own circuits etc however I wouldn't want to start taking a microwave apart, I wouldn't even feel confident discharging the capacitor! I will happily take ATX power supplies etc apart as I know the caps may well give me a jolt but won't seriously injure or kill me.
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As above most of them are sealed. I used to remove (amongst other things) sealed unit capacities, about the size of a large box of tissues. Just disconnect the power supply and wait 10 minutes, that was the only safety instructions.
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>> Arent the bulbs normally inside behind a small cover
Wot he said.
All of the ones we've ever owned have had a removable cover either on the outside of the casing, or inside.
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I'd keep a torch by the microwave. :-)
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I'd just buy a new one!
Pat
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Pat owns a microwave, what for, surely not cooking!
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Microwaves are for defrosting or reheating things, cooking baked potatoes (if a combi job) and strangled eggs.
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Quite good for porridge. You don't even need a spurtle.
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Granted, I forgot the porridge. Or "hot oat cereal" in my case. And I have been known to heat up other ceribbles. Bran flakes and hot milk are OK.
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Muesli+milk, pop in microwave, dee-lish!
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Good for warming plates too.
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>>I'd just buy a new one!
Howl the other half live hey!
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Perfect for reheating left over curry & Sainsburys 50p pilau rice
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Isn't reheating rice more likely to kill you than the microwave?
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The torch seems a good idea.
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it's not the reheating, its the keeping the stuff in a warm place. Cooked rice is an ideal medium for cultivating bacteria. Rice should be cooled immediately after cooking and reheated to a piping hot temperature. Personally I always discard any uneaten rice
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>> Rice should be cooled immediately after cooking and
>> reheated to a piping hot temperature.
>>
Reheating rice to a piping hot temperature - does that make it safe?
AFAIK reheating doesn't kill off any poison that may have been formed while stored after first cooking. But then this is a theoretical risk which is not backed up with sufficient data of actual harm in UK in the past ten or twenty years.
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When my microwave bulb blew do you know what I did?
Absolutely nuffink!
I don't need to see my food going round slowly so why bother changing it?
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Clearly you don't use it for light meals then.
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I need to see whats going on, so that when it froths up I can whip it out (my bran flakes and hot milk, that is).
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I'm not that bothered by having no light but if it had been an easy and risk-free job I'd have done it. However there are two star headed screws at the bottom back which none of my 3 sets of start headed bits will undo. Also won't undo with an ordinary bit, they feel like they are screwed in really tightly.
So that's that.
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>> Put a tea light in it!
That could be interesting when the wax melts, vaporises and oxidises en masse. I wouldn't recommend being in the same room.
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 23 Nov 16 at 15:01
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In the interest of education, I chucked "candle in a microwave" into Youtube.
One video, with a sweary man, showed dramatic flashes and plasma and gobbets of fire. And another, with a nerdy man, showed absolutely nothing happening of the slightest interest.
So I remain uneducated, as always.
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"Candle in a Microwave"
Big hit for Elton John wasn't it?
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That song went on my wick.
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I'm pretty sure the nerdy man's microwave wasn't working. He took it out, holding it in his ungloved hand, after 2 minutes. I can't even do that with a cup of coffee.
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I took from nerdy man's video he does this all the time - microwaving things to see what happens. So if his machine wasn't working it would be a bit of a blinder for him.
Perhaps it was the differences in composition of the wax that gave different results.
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"Does it make it safe"
Safer I think. Here's what the NHS recommend. As I said personally I would not eat reheated rice.
ideally, serve rice as soon as it has been cooked
if that isn't possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within one hour)
keep rice in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating
when you reheat any rice, always check that the dish is steaming hot all the way through
do not reheat rice more than once
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Blimmin NHS namby pambies.
Rice keeps quite happily in the fridge for a week, just like anything else. If it's going to be longer than that, freeze it.
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Of course you would know more than the experts.
If you find yourself unable to stray more the a few yards from the loo and vomiting as a result of Bacillus cereus contamination after eating a bowl of week old rice you might ponder the fact that sometimes, just sometimes those experts are right
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>> just sometimes those experts are right
but there is no evidence provided for their theory.
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>> Blimmin NHS namby pambies.
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>> Rice keeps quite happily in the fridge for a week, just like anything else. If
>> it's going to be longer than that, freeze it.
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I'd never heard of there being any issue with reheating rice until about a year ago when some pseudo-science BBC show mentioned it.
I then searched to find the evidence behind their advice and found general statements by food safety experts that it was a risky thing to do because of the risk of botulism. However no data was provided anywhere of any actual cases having occurred.
Therefore I have continued to reheat rice. Piping hot only when converted to curried fried rice.
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It's not botulism, It's bacterial infection from a bacteria that is found on rice grain and multiplies very quickly in the right environment. Most people who have food poisoning after a curry blame the meat or fish in the curry. In fact it is usually the rice that has been kept warm too long in the restaurant.
There's loads of information out there if you care to check
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>> It's not botulism,
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I may have misheard or mis-remembered.
NHS says it is spores of "Bacillus cereus".
>> There's loads of information out there if you care to check
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All I have seen is anecdotal information. No UK sourced data or scientific stuides that I can find.
>> Most people who have food poisoning after
>> a curry blame the meat or fish in the curry. In fact it is usually
>> the rice that has been kept warm too long in the restaurant.
>>
Can you please link just one peer reviewed paper to back your claim?
Last edited by: BrianByPass on Wed 23 Nov 16 at 17:07
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>> I'd never heard of there being any issue with reheating rice until about a year
>> ago when some pseudo-science BBC show mentioned it.
There is something in rice, possibly the cereus bacteria mentioned above, that replicates rapidly in cooked rice stored at room temperature. It and it's toxins MAY be destroyed if THOROUGHLY reheated.
At it's worst the result is that the meal bounces out of the stomach; violent vomiting within 15-20 minutes of leaving table.
Been there, worn the sick stained t-shirt.
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Our slimline integrated dishwasher's door refused to hold shut at the start of a wash. It kept going, though the noise alerted us!!
I jammed a chair under the handle and weighted the chair with a 25 kg bag of wild-bird seed. The wash finished OK!
I thought the door latch was faulty so I bought a new one. On inspection, comparing the new part with the still fitted old one, it seemed that a bit of plastic I thought was broken, was not, so I looked further and reckoned the metal catch was a bit loose and had pushed back into the body of the machine. I adjusted and secured that. The door held, somewhat, but now I find the program selector doesn't want to work :-(
In fact the machine thinks it is on even with the door open = cue splashing!
I wonder if my metal catch adjustment has actually damaged the door on/off mechanism, so the darned thing thinks the door is shut even when it is open?
Do we have any dishwasher experts here? Should I go ahead and install the still-sealed-in -its bag, replacement switch (I can return it if unused) or give up and buy a new machine? (The dishwasher is 5½ years old and is a Prima LPR659 )
Last edited by: Roger. on Wed 23 Nov 16 at 18:05
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If this was me...
... I'd get my local friendly repairer in for an opinion. It might be cheaper to buy new if it's that old and you've damaged the door mechanism. But I know one I can trust.
Sometimes it's best to leave these jobs to someone that knows :-)
I see a new version of what you have is only about £250 which suggests it is probably not the best made dishwasher.... I bought a cheap one once - integrated so tried to get a colour match to the brown controls at a decent price (not cheap all the same!) and it lasted maybe 18 months. Replacement controller hard to come by.
I replaced with a Siemens (not integrated) and the difference in quality, operation, etc. was stark. Much better. And about the same price as the cheap one! And came with a 5 year warranty.
But not even Siemens and Bosch build them like that anymore sadly.
As for the bulb on our cheap microwave - no way to get at it from the inside chamber. You'd have to dismantle it. It's behind a metal grill.
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Friends had a 'free' dishwasher with their built-in kitchen. The door seal failed, resulting in hot, moist air ruining the the worktop above. Couldn't find any trace of the make or model to replace the seal, meaning a new worktop.
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>> The door seal failed, resulting in hot, moist air ruining the the worktop above. Couldn't find any
>> trace of the make or model to replace the seal, meaning a new worktop.
So the door seal failed and then:
1. Kept emitting hot, moist air and eventually ruining the worktop.
2. Make/model no obvious so no real attempt to fix - what about contacting the kitchen company that sold/installed it?
3. Didn't replace the failed dishwasher to let it ruin the worktop.
The worktop failed over time presumably and they kept using the dishwasher.
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Here we go again!
I'm really feeling deprived now.
Dishwasher?
In this house I'm the washing up fairy:)
Pat
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>>In this house I'm the washing up fairy:)
I'm with ^this geyser although, I have had dishy washers in 3 previous owses we've lived in, left behind by their owners but, I never entertained the thought of actually using them.
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We bought our first microwave - a National Panasonic - way back before 1979. It was VERY expensive in real terms , IIRC about £300 and was a high spec machine. It was very reliable and had much use - see below!
In our guest house (in Pembroke) which we bought in late 1979 there was a dishwasher. We'd never contemplated such a thing, but were instantly converted to their merits.
We have never been without one, in our many houses, since then!
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Is changing a microwave bulb dangerous? - madf
