Microwave [Turntable not turning]what to check

A turntable exists to move food through an uneven field. Microwave energy in a metal box is not evenly distributed — it has hot spots and cold ones — so a stationary plate gives you a meal that is scalding in one place and cold in another. That is why a stopped turntable presents as poor heating rather than as an obvious mechanical fault, and why people often arrive convinced the microwave has lost power when in fact it is turning out the same energy as always and no longer moving the food through it.

The good news is that this is the most owner-approachable fault in the category, because everything involved is inside the cavity where you can see it. Underneath the glass plate is a roller ring — a small wheeled carrier — and at the centre a coupler, a plastic three-armed or cross-shaped fitting that engages a spindle from the motor beneath. Those three parts do all the work and any of them can be the whole problem: a plate not dropped properly onto the coupler, a coupler worn round so the spindle spins inside it, or a roller ring jammed by a piece of hardened food or a chipped wheel.

Only when all of that is sound does the motor itself come into question, and manufacturers keep the list similarly short — Whirlpool’s service table gives just two causes for a turntable that does not turn: a defective turntable motor and a deformed turntable shaft. Note also what a still turntable is not: it is not a reason to be concerned about safety, and it is not related to the interlocks or the high-voltage side at all.

1. 1

   Unplug it, then take the glass plate and the roller ring out and wash both. Most of this fault is under those two parts.

2. 2

   Look at the coupler in the middle of the cavity floor. Turn it with your fingers. It should engage and rotate the spindle rather than spinning loosely on its own.

3. 3

   Check the roller ring wheels. All of them should roll freely, and the ring should sit flat with no wobble.

4. 4

   Put it back together deliberately: ring in first, then the plate lowered squarely onto the coupler until it drops and seats. Then turn the plate by hand — it should move smoothly.

5. 5

   If the plate now turns, you are done. If the coupler spins without driving anything, or nothing moves at all with everything clean and seated, the motor or the shaft below the floor is the next suspect and that is a service job.

   The motor is under the cavity, behind the outer cover. That is not somewhere to go looking, on this appliance, for a part this cheap.