Easy Fix: Microwave Won’t Turn On - No Power on Microwave

Welcome back guys, it's the Tightwad, and today we're working on my brother's microwave. I know you've seen me fix mine before, but his has no power at all. So there are a couple of things that could be wrong with this, giving it the no power at all feature. If there were any other symptoms, like if the clock was working and it just wasn't heating or wasn't turning, those would be other things. I'll link the video on the screen right now to how to check for those type things. But since there's no power at all, we need to check a few specific things first. And the first thing is, is to unplug it and plug it back in, and maybe you'll get lucky and that'll fix it, but it's not likely. The second step is to find the breaker box or the main power panel in your home, and then find the switch that's dedicated to your microwave, and in my case, it is number 11. So I'd come to number 11 and see if it's kicked. You'll be able to tell that it's not all the way over if it is kicked. In this case, it's not kicked, but you could flip it off, leave it off for a couple of minutes and then flip it back on and see if that restores the power to your microwave. Once you've made sure you have the cord plugged in properly and that it wasn't the breaker tripped or kicked, then you can come back in here and we're going to start taking apart the microwave. So we're going to take it apart to show you a different component inside that would cause it to have the symptom of zero power. The first step when working with any appliance in your home or anything electrical is to unplug it. So we're going to unplug it from this cabinet first before we start doing anything else and removing any parts from the microwave. While it's a less common issue, you can plug any other type of electrical device into the outlet to make sure that you're still getting power there, or you could test with a multimeter if you have one handy. So once your microwave's unplugged, you have these three screws at the top that you need to remove. And after those are removed, you'll be able to remove this black plastic vent cover. With the screws removed, this piece just simply pulls down from the top and then out from the microwave, revealing these clips right here at the bottom. Make sure that you don't break these clips when pulling it out, and they're on the bottom of this vent. The next step is to remove this screw right here above the instrument panel, and we're going to remove this whole thing, but to do so, you have to open the door to the microwave. After this screw is out, the panel will lift up slightly and then fold out towards you. There are two clips on the bottom that you need to be careful with. After you fold it out, it will lift out towards you. You're going to leave all the cables behind here plugged in, so after you remove the instrument panel, you can softly let it sit right here and the cables will hold it in place. It's not heavy enough to really pull the cables out of the socket, so you can just let it rest right here. Now that you have the main control panel off and set out of the way, you can remove this screw right here, which is going to reveal the components inside the microwave back here. With the panel removed, I first have to caution you. This is called a capacitor, and it stores energy even after you've unplugged your unit, so you do need to discharge that to make sure there's no stored power in there, just in case you accidentally graze it with your hands. You'll see there are two leads, one on the bottom and one on the top here, and the easiest way to discharge it is to get a screwdriver with an insulated handle. This one has a rubber handle on it, and cross it across the two leads, so cross the top with the bottom, and then do bottom to the top, and just make sure you've crossed the leads really good, metal to metal, and that'll discharge any residual power left over inside the capacitor before you continue working. This is extremely important. These things pack a very strong punch and can actually kill you. And you'll see down here behind this black box is where the tube is that houses the fuse, so I'm going to pull it up and then we'll get it cracked open. So this piece right here is what houses the fuse, so you're going to need to pop that open and then you'll see the fuse inside. Now that we have the yellow tube removed, you can see that the fuse is sitting between two different wires here. So inside that yellow tube is where our fuse was located, and it was inside these two metal clips right here. So this is most likely our culprit. We are going to order a new one and then get it reinstalled and see if it works. To determine if this is actually your issue, you can either test it with your multimeter, or you can wrap it in tin foil and put it all back together and see if your microwave turns on. The tin foil will act as a temporary conductor to complete the circuit. I have to stress not to leave that running in that manner. You need to make sure you remove the tin foil, get a new fuse, but just to test it to see if this was your issue, that's a quick bypass you can try. To reassemble, the first thing you need to do, you remember the fuse was between these two wires right here, so you need to put those two caps back on it, and then we're going to close the yellow cylinder around that. And if you remember, once we have this on, we're going to tuck it down behind this little black box here out of the way. So now that I have the fuse back in place, just to test it, I plug the microwave back in, and you'll see that we do have power. You can see the little green lights there waiting on the clock to be set. So we are good to go with the reassembly. So now we've put this plate back in place, and we're just going to insert the screw that was right here to hold it in place. To put the panel back on, you have to open the door first, and then the hooks on the bottom of the panel go into the hooks on the microwave down here, and then you lift it up, and you insert a screw right up here at the top. Now that the panel's in place, we're going to replace the vent guard that goes up here. So these clips here line up with the holes in the microwave there and here, and one more on the other end down there. And then after you get those in place, the top piece of the vent should snap right into place. And then the last step is just to replace the screws right here in the top of the microwave. I do need to share that if your fuse is blown, there's quite possibly another issue going on in your microwave. There could be a short in one of your door switches that you need to check. You'll be able to diagnose that by if your fuse blows again as soon as you close the door or open the door on your microwave after it's plugged back in, then that's possibly a door switch. If it blows whenever you're trying to start the microwave, it could be either the capacitor or the magnetron or a variety of other things. I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. If you want to see more behind the scenes footage, check me out on Instagram at tightwaddiy. If you think your issue might be related to your door switches, click the video shown on the screen right now and it'll open right up on your device and guide you through that process. I hope you guys have a great day.