This guy.
Our GE microwave celebrated its 21st birthday last month. And this evening the handle broke. A replacement is NLA, as is the door itself. Honestly, the entire unit is getting a bit threadbare.
All of our appliances are GE and, knock on wood, they have been really reliable. They're also all about 21 years old. So, in today's modern appliance world, what's good? Or do they all come from the same factory?
Thanks.
We don't currently have a microwave, but when we bought the house it came with some truly vintage appliances. The microwave was pushing 30 years old. That thing could completely pop a bag of popcorn in 30 seconds, and destroy it beyond recognition in 35. It was a beast. I believe it was a GE as well.
I picked up a Panasonic a couple of years ago with some really cool features. So far, all is good. It’s big enough inside for a 6x9 pan and has a quasi-convection feature that works great. My mom admired it so she got one a year later after hers died, Costco had them.
Roommate replaced the microwave a couple of years ago. Apparently it was trying to kill us by leaking the bad science stuff that I could care less about through the door. I shrugged. 
I replaced a 25 year old old, heavy one with a new, light one a few years back. It makes food hot, and it cost about 8% of what the old one did. I suggest buying the cheapest one you can find that is sized right, and has the features you want. When it breaks, bust out a $50 and get another one. I have very little faith that a more expensive appliance will last even half as long as one built in 1985.
Go to the appliance section of Home Depot and then go to the back corner with all the yellow stickers? Got a $150 amana one for $75 a couple months ago that was a special order noshow. Don’t buy the magic chef $99 Black Friday type one. It took3 tries to get one that works then it lasted 2 years
I have a Samsung. It works. It's flimsy, plastic with a SS veneer, and has no chance of ever lasting 10 years much less 25. I just hope it lasts until I sell the house in 3-4 years.
We are going to look at dishwashers today. I'm not looking forward to it. The last one made it 4 years before some obscure part, that is NLA, broke. It was also a Samsung.
If you go to the big box stores, keep one thing in mind. Shipping cost. They have a free shipping policy on anything over a certain amount. Most micros don't meet that threshold, and they don't keep them in the store. My wife wanted a new range hood. Ended up buying a stove and an over the stove micro because it made more financial sense to do so. Once the stuff was delivered, I had to shorten the cabinet above, and run a new 20 amp circuit for the micro. Still haven't shortened the cabinet doors yet, but its cool having 2 microwaves side by side. Can't imagine going back to just one ever again.
We gave in to temptation and spent extra $s for a combination convection/microwave unit-- I'd recommend not doing the same.
At that size and limited to the wattage you can pass through a 110 volt outlet, the convection bit takes too long to heat up, and then oven 80% cools off as soon as you open the door.
Also, it's amazing how soon after you put something in to convection bake you'd like to use the microwave to do something like melt butter.
Do you actually need a new microwave? We're happy to find that most of our food is better using the oven, toaster oven, or stove top to heat food.
Though we still have a microwave to heat up the heat pack.
I get about 8 years out of the ones I pick up from the Sears Outlet (scratch & dent) in town, never spend more than $80. Brands don't matter to me at that price.
Google the part number. Some where there will be one available.
Whatever you do, listen to the end chime first. Ours is incredibly annoying. 4 or 5 beeps, takes about 5 seconds to finish beeping. Then if you don't get to it in 20 seconds, it goes again. I'm ready to remove the chime from it.
nutherjrfan said:Roommate replaced the microwave a couple of years ago. Apparently it was trying to kill us by leaking the bad science stuff that I could care less about through the door. I shrugged.
My mom called a few weeks ago saying her microwave was making funny sounds. She turned it on and I heard the beginning of a magnetron coming up loudly before her cell phone lost reception. A few seconds later when she turned it off her reception came back. Yeah Mom you need to replace it .
If you generally like it except for the handle/door issue, put the part number into eBay. Who knows, you might get lucky and find a parts appliance.
Ask someone to 3D prints the part?
glueguy said:If you generally like it except for the handle/door issue, put the part number into eBay. Who knows, you might get lucky and find a parts appliance.
Honestly, the entire unit is threadbare. The trim at the top is cracked, too, as all of the plastic is looking aged.
Panasonic from Costco has been my go to for years. Last one died a spectacular death when a tree came down and crossed the legs and put 220 volts through it. It was running when the tree came down. Sparks smoke and the cord ended up melting.
I had another one years ago that decided to randomly turn on when you opened the door. Reported to the consumer safety commission and men in suits came and picked up. Manufacturer sent me a check for the value of the unit with in a week of the CSC picking it up. About a month later I got the report from the CSC. The CSC determined it was a manufacturing defect. The vibration from the unit caused the wires from the light to chafe and short the unit so when the door opened power from the light was also powering the unit up again. The day the CSC report was issued I got a call from the manufacturer wanting to know where to send the new microwave. They sent
mtn is right about test-driving the chime. Our old one gave its programmed number of beeps at the end of cooking whether you opened the door or not, but the new one is smart enough to know that if you opened the door at the first beep you've probably got this. On the other hand, the new one repeats ALL the beeps if you don't come and get your food, and it does so every minute on the minute. This gets old fast – which I guess is the point, but there are times when you're unavoidably detained on the other side of the room and can't do anything except yell at it.
You might also want to test-drive the whole unit. Our old one sounded like a microwave; our new one sounds like a Huey, and our nearest kid makes "jokes" about the opening sequence of MASH every time he comes over.
Johnboyjjb said:Do you actually need a new microwave? We're happy to find that most of our food is better using the oven, toaster oven, or stove top to heat food.
Though we still have a microwave to heat up the heat pack.
Do you have kids?
I couldn't even fathom life without one. Having 3 kids and a very busy life, it's priceless for us. We cook in bulk with the stove, oven or BBQ, but then use the microwave to heat leftovers, veggies, etc.... In fact, when we had our current house built 3 years ago, we had 2 microwaves built in. One in the normal spot over the range, and one in our island. The one over our range is starting to break already...every once in a while it acts like it's working, but it doesn't. Piece of crap...
In general microwaves are all made somewhere in Asia or Mexico, doesn’t matter as much anymore. I think magic chef has the best warranties on magnetron tubes. I’d avoid korean ones, for some reason we see lots of wiring issues with them. Silly stupid things like connectors not plugged in properly. No idea how they can do that, only seen that on Samsung and LGs. Also I’d avoid GE these days. Long ago they were great, last year they sold the appliance division to Haier, which is Chinese. As such replacement parts now cost double or more, and you can bet quality is going to go even lower. Other than that get what’s cheap I guess? No American company builds microwaves in America anymore.
We went appliance shopping this weekend--checked out some stuff in person and then spent a ton of time looking at things online. Big issue is our fridge since a lot of the new ones are deeper than our current one yet we'd rather not have a smaller, counter-depth one. I think we're honing in on something that will work, though....
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