cahale wrote:
One last time, then I give up. The microwave does not have a 3 leg circuit coming to it. It has one hot leg and a neutral. No matter how much manipulation you do, you can not get 240 volts from that circuit. UNLESS there is a crossover from the other system hot leg to the neutral. In which case you could get 240, except you would only get it for a very short time, since the main breaker would break instantly.
If the neutral is missing from the outside power coming in. And the only thing that is powered up is the microwave oven then nothing happens no current flow. If something that is connected to the other hot leg is turned on then you start to have current flow. If the other device is exactly the same as the microwave oven you have 120V across each device. If the device is of lower wattage than the microwave say a 100W light bulb oven then there will be higher than 120V across it and less than 120V across the microwave. If the microwave isn't on full power and when it's cycling off the voltage across it will be higher than 120V and the voltage across the 100W bulb is less than 120V. The neutral is missing from the outside coming in but from the breaker panel it's OK and thus all things has 1 side connected to the neutral.