Today I fixed my microwave.

Why fix a 19 y.o. microwave? Why not?

If something could be repaired, I’d rather do that than buy a new one — I wouldn’t have to pay for a new microwave and its installation as well as deal with the removal and disposal of the old one. And old appliances seem to be more durably built than those today, the latter of which seem to be designed to fail after only a handful of years.

Here’s my full story:

1. Things start to go haywire:
The touch pad buttons on my microwave started to act up. There is one button that turns on the light and another that turns on the exhaust fan. Sometimes, pressing the light button, the fan would come on (sometimes the light too). I’d have to press the button repeatedly until the desired combination of light and fan was achieved. It was a minor irritation.

But then the number keys started to act up. Pressing one number might work, but the numbers on the display might change to a completely different number. It was at this point I decided something needed to be done.

2. Researching the problem and possible solution
The main parts of the oven (the microwave and turntable) were fine. I suspected the touchpad and/or circuitry were starting to go bad. Maybe I could replace them? (I was successful a couple years back fixing a washing machine door, which I wrote about here).

I took a picture of the label with the model (General Electric JVM1630BJ01), serial number, and manufacture date (July, 2004) and searched Google.

I quickly found a site that showed a schematic with pictures of the various parts and their part numbers. Unfortunately, my microwave was too old to find new replacement parts, but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

I noted the specific part number for the control panel and searched Google and eBay for it. I found the used part for sale on eBay. But would I be able to do the repair myself?

I next went to YouTube and searched for videos explaining how to replace the circuit board and touch pad for a GE microwave. I quickly found videos showing how to do it, and it looked like a pretty simple task: remove a couple screws to remove a vent cover, then remove another screw or two to loosen the control pad panel, disconnect some wires, then reverse the process with a replacement panel.

The used replacement circuit board/control panel was going to cost about $60. Because it was both the control panel and the circuit board, I would be able to skip a lot of the steps in the video above.

It wasn’t guaranteed to work, but I had decent confidence it would. And it would be a lot cheaper and less time-consuming than buying a new microwave and doing the removal of the old and installation of the new. I decided to take the gamble and give it a try.

3. Taking the plunge
I ordered the used part from eBay and waited. It arrived a week later. Holding it up in front of the microwave made it clear I had ordered the correct part.

It was time to do the operation.

I turned off the circuit breaker for the microwave and within minutes had removed the vent cover — which revealed an unsettling accumulation of nearly 20 years’ worth of grease.

One more screw removed, and the control panel was loose.

I recorded detailed notes of all the wire connections, then carefully disconnected the various wires from the old panel and completely removed it. I then held the replacement panel up and connected the wires into it.

Securing the panel with a screw, I went to the circuit breakers and turned the power back on.

Voila! The panel immediately illuminated. I set the clock and pressed the fan and light buttons repeatedly, and all operated normally. Running the microwave also worked fine.

I took the opportunity to soak and clean the greasy vent panel as well as clean the grease off the exposed inner surface of the microwave before reattaching the vent and securing the screws.

Apart from cleaning the grease, the entire repair took me about 30 minutes.

I can’t guaranty your appliance repairs will go this quickly or smoothly (I have had some repairs take days to complete). But I do encourage you to at least do a little searching on Google and YouTube when something starts to fail before rushing out to buy a completely new appliance.