Things NOT to do to a microwave for a week

[Lakewood90712]

Who laid eggs in the frozen dinner? Maggots are hatched from eggs, how did they get there? Maybe microwaving kills them?

There are small round vent openings inside the cooking chamber to relieve any steam generated in cooking, and these lead to the fan that also cools the magnetron coil, then out thru the vent slots on the outside of the unit.

All it takes is one to get thru this path and lay eggs. Nature is very efficient

Cleaning the cooking chamber is no big deal, cleaning the inside with the magnetron is a lot of work.

 

[Souschef]

You have my sympathy. We came back from a trip and were greeted by a bad smell. Apparently a small bag of shrimp had fallen out of the freezer.
It took 4 months and 4 pounds of baking soda and other deodorants to get rid of the smell in the carpet.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I was too. Was the MW door left open?

Anyway, I doubt the maggots would have left the food source to wander into openings, small openings. If they thought the maggots had got into the inner workings, they could have lured them out with fresh food and water after a clean-up. If none come out, I'd have cleaned it up, disinfected, and fired that bad boy back up!

I would not have.
Time>Money!

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

To me, “on the curb” is “in the trash” and the only one who should be dealing with it is the garbage man. Hopefully, for his sake, it’s in one of those heavy duty contractor bags.

If someone else gets hold of it, hopefully they’ll reply here on how the clean up went.

I read it as he/she put it on the curb for anyone that wants it since it still works, just needs a little cleaning...
I truly hope you're right and I'm wrong.

 

[Lakewood90712]

I read it as he/she put it on the curb for anyone that wants it since it still works, just needs a little cleaning...
I truly hope you're right and I'm wrong.

The scrap metal guys cruse the neighborhood daily. I almost think they have a wifi metal detector. One time I put out a gravity furnace at the curb 2x3x5 , about 400#, I went out 10 minutes later and it was gone.

 

[old medic]

We hardly ever use the microwave in our camper except for bread storage....
3 month old bread stored in a hot camper is ripe too

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

The scrap metal guys cruse the neighborhood daily. I almost think they have a wifi metal detector. One time I put out a gravity furnace at the curb 2x3x5 , about 400#, I went out 10 minutes later and it was gone.

I understand, I also put stuff out on the curb. It's amazing how fast it goes and far better than going to the landfill if it still works and someone can get use out of it.
In this case I'd hate to see that ending up in someones home that didn't know what might be lurking deep inside though.

 

[RobbieB]

I bought a cool Panasonic micro, It's a commercial unit, NSF approved and has no openings in the cavity. No turntable and no vents, smooth everywhere so can be cleaned well. They put the magnatron on a motorized pivot under the floor and it waves back and forth to cook evenly

 

[CRLLS]

The scrap metal guys cruse the neighborhood daily. I almost think they have a wifi metal detector. One time I put out a gravity furnace at the curb 2x3x5 , about 400#, I went out 10 minutes later and it was gone.

I routinely put scrap metal out by the end of the driveway and it is gone within a day, usually less. One time the scrapper was there before I got back up to the house, maybe 60 ft away! He actually asked if it was OK. Of course I said yes. I asked him if he took used tires too. Of course. So I gave him 4 very, very old tires. He was happy and it saved me from putting them in the landfill and paying $2.50 (?) each for disposal.

As far as putting stuff out that only needs cleanup or inexpensive repair, it is not a matter of time>money for me. I hate putting stuff in the landfill that is repairable and still viable. It is a character flaw of mine, for sure. For example, I had a door come lose on our microwave. The hinge was spot welded and not easily accessed. Fortunately, there was a 1/8" hole adjacent to the weld that may heve been used as a fixturing device during manufacturing. A 1/8" SS pop rivet fixed and and has been running well for many years since.

 

[pacergal]

Ewww, rotten food smell and maggots. OP, I would have done the same thing!

 

[Scrapr]

Uncooked food for a week is not the same as cooking something. Years ago I arrived at our in laws lake place and the fridge had died(with its contents). There was no cleaning that would make it viable. We hauled it outside and hosed it in and out and it was still retched.

Our company did foreclosure clean out during the Recession. Stuff that people would leave after being forced out. On some property we found a refrig that was sitting on a back porch. Unplugged of course. We open it up....dead deer. That fridge was really bad. After the contents were buried we had to clean it up just so it could be recycled. I bought about 20 boxes baking soda. After a week it was virtually smell free.

*just in case someone needs to clean up after a body

 

[wmc1000]

When I was a ' Youngster " one of the neighbors got an " Amana Radar Range " Ya the thing was very expensive indeed.

We had a good friend who was an engineer that worked on the Amanda radar range electronic designs. We purchased one of the very first ones through him happy to part with $700 for the privilege of having one with 2 small kids in the family it was a miracle machine!

 

[braumeister]

We had a good friend who was an engineer that worked on the Amana radar range electronic designs. We purchased one of the very first ones through him happy to part with $700 for the privilege of having one with 2 small kids in the family it was a miracle machine!

I worked with a guy whose wife was a demonstrator for them. Her surefire sale maker was to make a cake in one. That floored 'em every time and I'm sure it sold a lot of them.

 

[ls99]

See, if OP set the microwave to cook it for one week, it would have fine quality charcoal.

 

[REWahoo]

See, if OP set the microwave to cook it for one week, it would have [-]fine quality charcoal[/-] started a fire.

FIFY

 

[Sue J]

Many years ago my parents were gone on a long vacation. My sister went over to check on the house and there were flies everywhere and a horrible smell. The refrigerator had died, probably a week or more before her visit.

She had to call in a cleaning company to take care of it all before our parents came home. I don’t remember if she bought a new refrigerator for them, but it was a big job to just get it taken care of before they got back.

When they got back and heard what had happened they were very appreciative of all she had done.

 

[sparky08]

PSA: NO ONE should ever cook fish in a microwave, which includes reheating leftovers in a shared office kitchen. This is a universal rule do not fight me.

We just had this discussion in our house......shortly after I reheated some smoked salmon in our microwave.

 

[ls99]

Late DW once set the timer alarm for one and a half hour on the microwave. Unfortunately in fact she set it to cook for that amount of time.
We bought a new microwave to replace the one that was toast.

 

[O2Bfree]

Back when microwaves were fairly new, a friend of my parents brought one home much to the annoyance of her husband, who considered them a sort of faddish gadget with cooking power comparable to an Easy Bake Oven. When he decided to try cooking a hot dog in it, he set the timer for 10 minutes. Amazingly, the oven wasn't damaged, but his pride certainly was as his wife had a good belly laugh over the desiccated remains of the poor frank.

 

[Amethyst]

Husband destroyed a coffee cup by putting instant coffee and a spoon in it, then putting it in the microwave without any water. I realized something was wrong from the terrible burning odor and popping sounds.

Amazingly, the MW was fine.

Late DW once set the timer alarm for one and a half hour on the microwave. Unfortunately in fact she set it to cook for that amount of time.
We bought a new microwave to replace the one that was toast.

 

[skyking1]

We hardly ever use the microwave in our camper except for bread storage....
3 month old bread stored in a hot camper is ripe too

We've made some science experiments in the RV too

 

[wildsun]

No surprise

Am I the only one wondering how the flies got in to lay eggs (or alternately, what brand of meal was it that had eggs ready to hatch when thawed?! The mesh on the compartment in my microwave is pretty darn small and the door seals well.


Pretty gross, I'd probably put outside and list for free on CL... someone with greater need/greater tolerance for gross could certainly use it.

But if you give it away to someone, make sure you tell them about the magots. Otherwise they might get a crunchy surprise!

 

[SVHoper]

Just heading out so don't have time to read all posts. However, definitely possible to clean smells. Ozone generator is used after flooding and I used a little chemical in a cup solution, just add hot water to get rid of dog urine in a house that had an extremely bad dose. (This was after trying all cleaners, peroxide, UV lights etc etc)

 

[Joggernot]

Some funny responses.
We probably use our microwave at least every other day.

That and the Foreman Grill keep us alive...

 

[Dalmore]

My first thought when I saw this was "Cool! You can take it out back and microwave all those things you aren't supposed to microwave in it now."