Common Problem is Easily Fixed

We moved into our house shortly after all the appliances had been replaced in the kitchen, 5 years ago. I was immediately impressed with how nice this microwave looked. This was built in to the cabinetry with the stainless steel frame kit, and it is beautiful. It is also powerful, heating food about twice as fast as our old Litton Generation II countertop unit. This oven does not have a convection option.

It uses a turntable that automatically rotates and has 1.8 cubic foot capacity, which is plenty big for what I cook. There are several preset buttons, including Popcorn, Potato, Defrost, Vegetable, Beverage, and Chicken/Fish.

I especially like the one-touch buttons. I use the 1-minute button most often, which fires up the machine without having to press "start". It also has a button that adds 30 seconds to any existing cooking time, and I use that often to continue heating something that is not quite done.

This microwave worked every day for our busy family of five, problem-free until about a month ago, and I will share with you how to avoid the problem we had. While heating a cinnamon roll, the microwave suddenly sparked on the inside with a bright white flame emanating from the right side (interior). I ran over and turned it off within a few seconds. The sparking stopped immediately. I saw that the side panel was scorched black in a spot about an inch in diameter.

It was a frightening moment and I thought that if I had not been in the room at that time, the flame might have spread to the outside of the unit to catch the cabinet on fire. We tried using the unit again under close watch and it was still heating food correctly, and there was usually no spark, but it did happen once when melting butter in a glass dish.

When I called my local trusty appliance parts store, the helpful repair guy explained that GE microwaves do this all the time. He said that the removable side panel is a cover which is made of the mineral mica (it looks like heavy paper). Over time the mica soaks up splatters of food, and when there is enough oily residue in one spot the microwaves zoom to that spot and a small fire scorches the panel. It is easy to replace and costs about $30.

To replace it, use a small (eyeglass size) flat head screwdriver to gently pry up the white pins holding the cover in place. Save the pins to affix the new cover. Be sure to clean the interior of the microwave well before putting the new cover and wash your hands of oil before handling the new cover.

If any metal area on the interior is scorched, you must fix that too. With the old mica cover off, I sanded a tiny spot gently with fine grit sandpaper and painted it with special touch up paint formulated for microwave ovens which costs about $15. I assume they don't recommend regular paint because it might have metallic ingredients which would cause a spark.

Here is the company I ordered the items from: Marcone Appliance Parts, which has several US distribution centers. Order by phone and they will look up the item using the model number of your microwave. The number in my local northern California phone book is (888) 457-8737. I don't recommend their website (yet). Their name for the mica cover is "canopy mica". Ask them to pack it carefully and mark it "fragile" because these covers are brittle and crack easily during shipping. The touch up paint is called "cavity paint".

To prevent this from happening again, I now keep a stack of paper plates in a drawer near the microwave. Everyone is instructed to cover anything they put in the microwave before they turn it on. This prevents spatters from soiling the mica cover and cuts down on cleaning inside. The mica cover is hard to clean anyway, as it is somewhat absorbent. I suppose paper towel covers could work, but they might fall off as the turntable rotates the food. I hope to keep using this microwave for at least another five years!