bittermelon wrote:
After many many years, I just learned how to cook a hard boiled egg using my microwave. No more need for a timer or ice bath. Now the egg is done before the toast is ready.
Now you can buy microwaves with settings for everything under the sun, and some not even in the known food groups. My thinking has always been, the more complicated the machine, the easier it is to break down. So I'll look for one with the least number of settings.
The usual things that go bad on microwave ovens are the Magnetron tube, the high voltage transformer, and the door switches. If you have a glass turntable, don't drop it! It costs over $100 to replace one.
We have a full size GE stand-alone microwave we bought 15 years ago that still works great. But we're on our third over-the-stove GE unit in this house. The first one was here for 20 years. The second one lasted five years. We just installed the third one a month ago. They don't make them like they did 25 years ago.