combi microwave cutting out after 1 min?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Hello.

We've got a Panasonic combination oven/microwave that's a few years old, and it's suddenly started cutting out after exactly 1 minute, no matter whether it's on convection, grill or microwave setting. It's a damn nuisance. Do you reckon it's worth getting an engineer to look at it? Or is the callout and repair charges likely to be more than a brand new one?

Am a bit embarrassed to have an engineer look at it, TBH, I hate cleaning it and it is really filthy - oh dear, maybe that's the problem. Maybe there's a sensor that's so covered in grease that it's overheating and cutting out/! Seems strange that it's at precisely the 1 minute mark though every time. It just says "Refer to manufacturers operating instructions", but there's nowt in there about cut-outs.

You can buy a combi microwave for £100 so if its old its probably uneconomical to have an engineer look at it.

A long shot, but could you e-mail Panasonic and ask them.

In the meantime, I would be worried it was a safety mechanism and probably wouldnt use it.

Failing that, I'm afraid you need to get the old marigolds out and give it a good scrub

well, I've finally figured out what has caused it. Since the heavy snow fall in January we have had minor (or so I thought) problems with our electricity supply. i.e. Street light gone out directly outside our house, lights in the house flickering, interruptions to our power supply for 30 secs or so. Hadn't thought much of it really, especially as someone came out and did something round the base of the street light to get it working again the other day.

didn't think anything of it that is until yesterday when I arrived back at home after a night away to find that our burglar alarm wasn't working. Power to it but when pressing the buttons nothing happens.

We've also had a baby monitor stopped working in the last few days.

I didn't put any of these things together until I saw the local paper and saw that our area had experienced a major power cut on the day I was away from the house.

Some research on the internet suggests that a power surge when the power comes back on again can damage appliances enough to stop them working. Seeing as we've had lots of little power cuts since Christmas and then this big one the other day, I can only assume that it's all connected.

Bit of a bugger really because apparently the supply company aren't liable but maybe our house insurance will pay out for the damaged appliances - I will have to look into it. I need to check with the electricity company though that the problem is fixed for good and that these cuts won't happen again and damage new stuff that we buy. Maybe we'll have to fork out for some surge protectors or something.....

Oh wel, saves me scrubbing the microwave!!!