[doozer]

You could tell a difference in the sound of my Samsung Microwave about 6mo. ago. I had the repairman out and he said as long as it's heating don't worry. The best $60 I've ever spent! After about 3months, the microwave would completely loose all power after about 6 minutes of continuous use, then the power would restore after about 30 minutes. As of yesterday it runs but does'nt produce any heat. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[PS Staff - Sheila]

It is either the magnetron or the the transformer that has failed.

When you were loosing power did the cavity seem to be hotter then it should be?

What was the difference in the sound, buzzing or no fan?

Here is a link to your microwave model SMH7177STE/BE.

[doozer]

I tore into it last night, and found that the cooling fan for the transformer had lost its blades. That must have been the cause in the difference of sound originally, and thus causing the transformer to overheat, and cut out after a few minutes. I still need to keep digging to see why it's not heating. Maybe the same thing? Thank you Sheila for your reply, and link to my model. I was starting to think Samsung only manufactured one microwave, and I was the sole owner. Doozer

[AmpDraw]

Unfortuneately far too many techs are afraid of and don;t know how to work on microwaves even though in reality they are about the easiest things to work on. Only such a tech would ever just tell you as long as its still heating don't worry about it. The broken fan blades not properly cooling it has caused either your magnetron or transformer to overheat and now probably one or the other or both are bad as a result of this. Too bad, he probably could have prevented this from happening instead of just telling you to keep using it. Good luck arguing that point with the service company you used though. I certainly wouldn't continue using them if they have warm bodies filling seats for techs like this.

You're really going to need a meter to test this stuff out, but in most cases a burnt magnetron or melted transformer windings are going to be pretty obvious. You'll like be able to even smell the transformer without even running it to tell if it smells burnt if a visual inspection doesn;t show anything obvious.

Burnt magnetron will have to be pulled out of the wave guide its mounted in to tell by visual only if it looks bad. Once you pull it out look at the tip looking piece sticking out of it (that you can't see when its installed) and see if it looks burnt or even just completely melted off.

If its completely melted off its very important for you to remove all the debri down inside that hole it was mounted into or you'll just burn up the replacement mag.

Make sure you fix that cooling fan problem before replacing either the magnetron or the High Voltage transformer.