ENOUGH!

A couple of days ago Carol informed me that the shower water was tepid. This is rather astonishing given that the water heater is set to “scald” and has no temperature controls on it. This is how a 10 gallon water heater can provide as much hot water as your average 40 gallon home water heater, you just use less and add plenty of cold. Not great for kids, but ok for those of us adults who are supposed to be able to be careful.   But I digress.   Clearly if the water from the water heater was tepid, it was not working.   I immediately turned on the gas fired portion of the heater so my shower would be hot, but that did not resolve the issue of why the electric portion of the heater was not working.  I checked every fuse panel in the coach looking for something that was wrong or at least said water heater.  I found nothing.   All breakers and fuses were just fine.  Understand that getting to some of these can result in severe contortions, without the driver door I have no idea how I would reach the fuses above the driver’s left foot. As it is I have to stand on a step stool on the ground and lean in the open door, but I digress again. Having crawled under and into a number of places I had not known existed I determined that it was beyond my capability to troubleshoot much less fix.   Time passes.  Just as I was about to find out who to hire to fix this I opened the cupboard doors where the switches are and noticed that the last person to switch from Microwave (keep that thought in mind) to Water Heater had left the switch in the unmarked mid position, neither microwave nor water heater was on! This switch ensures that we do not attempt to use the microwave and the water heater at the same time, as the current draw would exceed our electrical system’s capability.  This is the second time this has happened in almost five years of ownership.

Tonight we had a failure that is less explicable.  Carol was ‘waving potatoes for dinner.  The cycle completed and the ‘wave went dark.  The control panel lights and the interior light would not light and there was no response to the control panel.  Knowing right where to go now, I checked the circuit breaker for the ‘wave and it was not tripped.   I pulled the plug and used my circuit tester to verify that there was indeed 120 volts at the outlet.  Stymied, I guess the microwave is kaput.   I go to the Samsung web site and am defeated by typical badly engineered consumer website design.   Nothing is straight forward not even the model number which is slightly different than that which is on the ‘wave itself.  I determine I will call in the morning, but I know there is nothing that can be done, it is broken and there is no warranty on a five year old microwave.  I’ll have to buy a new one.   Or will I?  When I gave up on my troubleshooting I left the ‘wave unplugged since, if it isn’t working it is better not to take the risk of fire.  For one last time I plug it in. It lights up with the installation screen, do you want to use KG or LBS? We are back in business for the time being.

Stay tuned for the next installment.