this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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Most microwaves have a spinning wave stirrer in addition to the rotating plate. From the description here, it just sounds like either your plate rotation motor is broken or you've got a weirdly simple microwave.
This is the first time I've heard that they have a wave stirrer. I've never seen one in person.
Usually it's not inside the same chamber as the food as then it would be a nuisance to clean. You need to take a microwave apart to see the wave stirrer.
The diagrams I've seen show the wave stirrer on the roof. The microwaves I've seen have the ceramic plate on the side where the magnetron is so there's no space for a stirrer.
if the diagram's any good, it should show the wave stirrer in the roof rather than on the ceiling of the food chamber. There's typically a waveguide to take the microwaves from the magnetron to the top of the chamber, then the wave stirrer is at the end of the waveguide to vary the angle that microwaves enter the chamber at. There's usually something to stop food splashing/spraying into that section, though, e.g. an extra few centimetres of waveguide afterwards with a bend in it.
I understand what you're saying, I've just not seen one with any indication of a wave stirrer. They all just shoot the beams from the magnetron through a ceramic plate on the side if the microwave. The top interior of the microwaves I've used (even one ones from Samsung and LG) had no holes or vents. Maybe it's just an American thing?
But maybe donβt take apart a microwave unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Otherwise, what you find may be shocking.
Of all the dangerous devices to disassemble, they're one of the safest. A phone charger might still have 400V across one of the capacitors ten minutes after unplugging it (if you're in a 230V RMS country, so have more than 400V peak-to-peak), but a microwave's high-voltage section is only powered when it's plugged in, and microwaves are so long wavelength that even if you reassemble the waveguide or outer case badly and leave gaps, there probably won't be dangerous levels of microwaves escaping as gaps much smaller than the wavelength in question don't compromise the Faraday cage.
Weirdly simple. It does not have a rotation motor. It is quite old.