Upthewazzu

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Hello,

As the title says, I forgot to turn on the vent fan above my oven and now my microwave [sort of] doesn't work. The microwave itself works fine, but the bottom row of commands does not work on the key pad (I'm assuming the water vapor ruined the contacts). It's a basic GE microwave that was installed by the builder of my home. I was wondering if anyone has had this issue and if they were able to resolve it by buying a replacement keypad (w/o the control board). HERE is a picture of the part I would be replacing, please let me know if it worked for you! I'm debating on whether or not to replace the entire unit, or just that part. Thanks.

RiverCityBrewer

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I've never had that particular issue, but having worked on lots of electronics over the years I would agree with your diagnosis... replace your push button contacts and you should be good to go.

zachattack

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I don't have any direct help for you, I used to do 7 gallon boils all the time on a stove with a microwave above it, I never used the fan and had no problems.

But one time my roommate went a little nuts cleaning our stove/oven, he was soaking a sponge in hot soapy water and used it to scrub the hell out of the thing. A bunch of water ended up getting in the control/display, the next day when I went to use the oven I would just get a beeping and an error message. I tried turning off the breaker and turning it back on, same thing. But after a couple days it randomly started working again, I figured it dried itself out.

How long has it been? Don't give up hope that the problem might mysteriously go away... to speed it up you can maybe take the cover off and try hitting it lightly with a hair dryer?

Upthewazzu

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It's been almost 3 weeks. I tried like heck to dry the thing out, used a blow drier, detached it from the main unit and let it sit in the sun for a few days, and nothing worked.

DonLiguori

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This may sounds like alcohol abuse, but you could try pouring some cheap, bottom-row everclear on the control panel while you have it off. heck, you could even give it a little soak in it. The ethanol will help pull the water out of the cracks and make it a lot easier to dry. Not sure if this would be any cheaper than just getting a new panel, though.

Hermit

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I used to repair these for GE. How old is the microwave? GE parts are excessively expensive. You can get a new MW for about $200 in some places.

captainkirk83

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I did the same thing a few years back while boiling water. The microwave made a loud pop and I ended up replacing for 200 -250.

For stovetop brewing, I tape a flexible cutting board to the bottom of the microwave to keep steam away. I don't trust the weak vent fan.

Hope you can fix yours

day_trippr

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My oldest son was renting a house that had a GE microwave above the stove. He also had a cleaning service, and every time they cleaned the kitchen they killed keypad functions 'til the owner had to replace the 'wave.

After that, son left a note taped right over the keypad not to touch the 'wave. Cleaners carefully removed the note and killed the keypad...

Cheers!