magnetron tube failure on GE spacemaker microwave

cepmom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 9, 2004
Anyone else here have problems with the magetron tube failing on their GE spacemaker microwave?

I bought a GE Spacemaker Microwave in August 1999. Within 18 months, the magnetron tube had failed. GE came out and replaced the part free of charge, but charged me $124.95 for labor.

My father bought the same microwave and the same thing happened to him, but his service tech did not charge them for labor because "the magetron tubes are defective in these microwaves that were manufactured during this time period".

In April 2004, the magetron tube failed again. Called GE, had them come out and after literally fighting with the woman on the phone, the only thing she would do is reduce the service call fee to $75.00 even though there is a known problem with the magnetron tubes for these microwaves.

Fast forward to December 2005, and guess what? The magnetron tube failed AGAIN. Called GE,asked why this keeps happeing and was told "I can not answer any questions for you. I will be happy to send a service tech out to answer your questions ~ for a fee". I told her to forget it and just send me the part and I will have a local appliance repair man fix it instead of giving the money back to GE. Spoke with the parts department and then demanded to speak with someone who will answer questions about why there is an ongoing problem with these microwaves. I got a very helpful woman (forgot to take down her name ~ kicking myself now for that)that admitted to me that during the time that my microwave was manufactured, they were put together by an outside company and they are aware that there are multiple ongoing problems with magnetron tube failures. She offered to have a service tech come out and repair it free of charge and that if in fact it was the magetron tube again, I could probably get the microwave replaced with a new model since it is the third time this same part has failed.

Today the tech came and told me that in fact it is the magnetron tube again(big surprise) and he needed to call the office to authorize the free service call. After I told the service tech about my offer of getting it replaced, he let me speak with the GE office. I spoke with a woman and I was told that I was never offered a replacement and that there are no known problems with magentron tube failures in these microwaves. They said the only thing I was offered was the service call free of charge and they will not be replacing it because it is repairable. I asked her what happens when the magetron tube is no longer covered (9 years from the date of purchase) and it fails again (which we all know it will). Then the part is no longer covered, nor will the labor be covered. I was pretty much told, too bad for you. She consistently ran arond my questions and told me that there was no one above her I could speak with and when questioned about why the woman last week offered the
information about the ongoing problems, I was told that the woman lied to me. It was also implied that I lied about getting the replacement offer, which was incredibly offensive to me. Too top it all off, the woman just said there was nothing else she would do for me and proceded to hang up on me.

:mad:
 
Those microwaves are pieces of junk !!! We bought our new house in Sept 1999...had repair people out w/in 18 months to replace the microwave because the tube was shot. The dishwasher that came w/ the house was no better, had that fixed twice before we finally replaced it...I would never buy GE appliances again, even the upgrade models. Next time I buy a house I'm going w/ top of the line appliances.
 
I will never buy another GE appliance again, that's for sure. Not only is the microwave a piece of junk, their customer service is the absolute worst!

So when your microwave died, did they replace it free of charge or did you just go ahead and buy another one yourself?

It seems that it's just the luck of the draw who you get to help you there ~ the woman I spoke with last week was incredibly helpful with her information, but then never documented anything in the computer system about the replacement offer (or so they say today :confused3 ) I could scream and was practically in tears by the time the woman hung up on me.
 
Yup, we just had to replace our magnetron tube last month. We built our house in 1999 and our builder used all GE appliances. What junk!!! We have fixed our stove, microwave, washing machine and totally replaced our dishwasher. I will never, ever buy another GE appliance. I make sure to tell everyone I know how crappy GE appliances are. All of our neighbors have had problems with their various GE products as well.

Our serivce call was $156.xx. The tube was still under warrranty. I wish I would have just replaced the microwave. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Krista
 
Microwaves are no longer worth repairing. You can buy a new microwave for not much more than the price of the magnetron.

I work in the electronics field, more and more, anything electronic is made to be disposable. The components keep getting smaller and smaller where it's not really economically feasible to attempt to repair them.
 
I forgot to add in the original post that back when I found out my Dad had the same problem and got his repaired for free, I called GE and got someone there to refund the $124.95 service charge. They admitted then that they knew there was a problem and refunded my money.

What really gets me is that one person will tell you one thing and then another person will completly deny any of it. Why did they refund my money once, but then charge me the second time, and then this time repair it for no charge? They claim they have no record of me having it repaired the first time. At least I was smart enough to have stapled the cancelled check right to the owner's manuel although I'm sure they will still deny that happened too :rolleyes:
 
Can I join this club? We have the same year microwave and the same thing happened to us. We bought ours through Sears contractor sales so we had them come out. The tech walked into my house, got the serial number off of the microwave, went out to his truck, came back in gave me a quote of over $400 to have it fixed, and then handed me a bill for the $65 service fee. I was livid!!!

Went to Sears and got another GE because dh says it's a better selling point to your house if you have all of the same brand of appliances. If I had my way, I would never own another GE appliance. All of our appliances with the exception of our double oven and stove top have gone bad.

GE is the pits!
 
jbdreamer said:
$124 to repair a microwave!?! It'd be cheaper to buy a new one!


believe me ~ if I had the counter space, I would have just gone out and bought an inexpensive counter top model. Mine is a spacemaker ~ it is installed above the stove and they can be quite expensive!
 
maciec said:
Can I join this club? We have the same year microwave and the same thing happened to us. We bought ours through Sears contractor sales so we had them come out. The tech walked into my house, got the serial number off of the microwave, went out to his truck, came back in gave me a quote of over $400 to have it fixed, and then handed me a bill for the $65 service fee. I was livid!!!

Went to Sears and got another GE because dh says it's a better selling point to your house if you have all of the same brand of appliances. If I had my way, I would never own another GE appliance. All of our appliances with the exception of our double oven and stove top have gone bad.

GE is the pits!

yikes! that is alot of money! I guess I won't need to worry about all my appliances matching ~ the dishwasher is Kenmore, the stove is Whirlpool (which BTW is the brand of microwave I originally chose, but it was discontinued and this is what they offered to replace it with), the fridge is Admiral... no two of the same brand as it is!
 
Yeah, it was more to fix it than what we paid for it. The bummer was, was that we really liked it and couldn't get the same one again when we bought our new one. This one is ok, but it makes a lot of noise. Oh to have the money to get all new appliances.
 
It appears to matter not what year our GE Monogram microwave/convection was manufactured. I purchased my house in October of 2006. It came complete with all GE Monogram products to include the double oven, upright freezer refrigerator, stove, and microwave/convection oven. Well, I'm here to tell you that after 18 months, the microwave stopped working. I called the builders to the house and they contacted GE. GE brought me a brand new replacement microwave without any cost to me. Guess what? Here I am in October of 2009 and my new one went out after 18 months. Not they tell me that I must pay for replacement. This microwave runs 1300.95. There is no way I will pay that kind of money to replace this. So, I ordered the Magnatron Tube which was free of charge and am replacing it myself. I understand the risks involved, but high frequency, micro waves, and high voltage is something I know about, so I know I can change this myself. It will be free of charge. The tube has a 5 year warranty on it. I believe it will go out again. They are made in Malaysia. Hope this helps someone else.

BK
 
It appears to matter not what year our GE Monogram microwave/convection was manufactured. I purchased my house in October of 2006. It came complete with all GE Monogram products to include the double oven, upright freezer refrigerator, stove, and microwave/convection oven. Well, I'm here to tell you that after 18 months, the microwave stopped working. I called the builders to the house and they contacted GE. GE brought me a brand new replacement microwave without any cost to me. Guess what? Here I am in October of 2009 and my new one went out after 18 months. Not they tell me that I must pay for replacement. This microwave runs 1300.95. There is no way I will pay that kind of money to replace this. So, I ordered the Magnatron Tube which was free of charge and am replacing it myself. I understand the risks involved, but high frequency, micro waves, and high voltage is something I know about, so I know I can change this myself. It will be free of charge. The tube has a 5 year warranty on it. I believe it will go out again. They are made in Malaysia. Hope this helps someone else.

BK


wow ...that's an expensive replacement. I hope you have good luck in replacing the tube yourself. Here I am almost 4 years after I posted this and so far so good (knock on wood). But the next time it goes, I will be throwing the whole microwave out and getting a new one that is not made by GE.
 
You can buy new range hood/micro combinations at Home Depot for about $200. I plan on purchasing one when our countertop microwave bites the dust. Now I know I will stay away from GE!
 
GE is one of the biggest brands, so it is logical that it has the most problems, and problems are not likely any more prevalent with GE than other major brands. We just hear about the big guys a lot more.

Electronics manufacturers, like all manufacturers of mass-market consumer items, face a lot of pressure to perform financially. Open up the business section of the paper on any specific day, and you'll find clear indications of the mechanics of this. The focus of mass-market consumers on the base price, and the focus of Joe Investor on quarterly profits, prompts a lot of cost-consciousness. If you can make changes to your production process to save $1M and it only costs you $500K in added warranty costs and lost future sales, then Joe Investor is going to insist on you doing that, and punish you pretty severely if you don't.

We're on our second GE microwave in the 12 years we've been here. (Not sure how old the first one was when we got here, but it seemed pretty new.) I wasn't surprised. We have also had to replace the dishwasher and washing machine (different brand). It wasn't a big suprise either time. The idea of buying something and having it last practically forever simply isn't rewarded in our society, anymore, so it isn't surprising to see that it generally isn't the case anymore.
 
Figured I would join the club after finding this post when "googling" "GE magnetron problems"

We have a Spacemaker XL 1400 installed in 1999...the magnetron just died for the 3rd time! The original one was replaced in 2004, then again in 2008 and it just died again! The original one was replaced for "free", except for the service charge. The 2nd one was $175 to replace....I've contacted GE to see if they will do anything regarding this latest one...if not, I'm ripping it out and replacing it with any non-GE one I can find. These late 90's models are crap! :mad:
 
I have all GE profile appliances, I won't buy another one. Yes they are a BIG company so you hear a lot of bad, but I have had othe BIG company appliances and I prefer them. My appliances still work, no real problems, just don't like them for little reasons, I know that nothing lasts forever anymore, but GE won't be lasting anymore time in my house when these finally break for good.
 
Microwaves are no longer worth repairing. You can buy a new microwave for not much more than the price of the magnetron.

I work in the electronics field, more and more, anything electronic is made to be disposable. The components keep getting smaller and smaller where it's not really economically feasible to attempt to repair them.

Unless you have a GE Spacemaker that fits into a specific place. That's where they get ya! Our magnatron went too. The service call was $75.
 
I have all GE profile appliances, I won't buy another one. Yes they are a BIG company so you hear a lot of bad, but I have had othe BIG company appliances and I prefer them. My appliances still work, no real problems, just don't like them for little reasons, I know that nothing lasts forever anymore, but GE won't be lasting anymore time in my house when these finally break for good.

I am with you. I won't give GE nor Jeffrey Immelt another dime!
 
Figured I would join the club after finding this post when "googling" "GE magnetron problems"

We have a Spacemaker XL 1400 installed in 1999...the magnetron just died for the 3rd time! The original one was replaced in 2004, then again in 2008 and it just died again! The original one was replaced for "free", except for the service charge. The 2nd one was $175 to replace....I've contacted GE to see if they will do anything regarding this latest one...if not, I'm ripping it out and replacing it with any non-GE one I can find. These late 90's models are crap! :mad:

Not only the 90's models. We installed a GE spacesaver microwave in 2004 and the magnetron died in 2009. It cost 165.15 to replace.
 

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