Hacker News Reader

Comment by xattt | Hacker News Reader

I know of at least two Panasonic inverter microwaves that failed within a 5 year period of ownership.

Mine emitted white smoke warming up some tea while I was in another room. I hope to God it wasn’t beryllium.

I still have a Panasonic OTR microwave, but it’s inverterless. It appears to be an improved design of a GE model from the same OEM.

View on HN

Probably burnt paint from the inside of the waveguide.

Happens frequently when the mica sheet that covers the injection port gets moisture from steam (who'd have thought - steam in a microwave?!?)

Simple fix is to replace the mica (a few cents from AliExpress) and use steel wool to get rid of any carbon residue around the injection port.

It sounded like there was no magnetron load on the power supply, because the cooling fan was spinning a little faster and the interior was a little brighter. This was during the few seconds between the smoke show and from me pulling the plug.

There was indeed a char mark on the mica sheet, but the beryllium terror at the time was enough for me to chuck it.

You would expect less load on the power supply if there was an arc causing a short in the waveguide.

We have a Panasonic Inverter microwave here, must be 20 years old. It works great and I have never noticed any interference with WiFi or Bluetooth, both of which also get a lot of use in the kitchen. Just another anecdata point!

The earlier inverter models sound like they’re workhorses. The problematic ones I knew of were from around 2012 - 2014.

Oh no. Is that something that happens? Mine has smelled a little like metallic smoke lately.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com