" simple?" microwave question

Hi, 
I've had enough of the original daewoo microwave and its squeaky door, rattles and self opening door.
I've made a better job than AS of fixing the lower microwave shelf so now is the time to ask the question.
daewoo against Russell Hobbs " fight off" as they say.
does the Russell Hobbs microwave ( model number required) rattle a lot less than the original daewoo ??
is it worth the extra effort / cost to fit one?
newer Warwick XL owners I believe  have their original fitment microwave as a Russell Hobbs ? does it rattle , self destruct , self open and talk to you as you drive along, telling you " I'm still here you know" ??
any advice would be great about direct replacement models.
thanks

Hi , having fixed the woefully inadequately secured shelf I think apart from a bit of padding you just have to live with it . Im sure the Daewoo /Russell hobbs are picked for their compact size and lowest cost per unit. They do not appear to be in any way engineered to survive being bounced around in a van daily. Perhaps some vans are better than others in this respect ie where the microwave is situated in relation to axles etc In the Kemerton the microwave was almost over the rear axle but was silent after initially   securing the shelf. We always take the glass shelf out as instructed.
      With the Warwick it was hard to tell above the general clatter of poorly fixed blinds etc if the microwave was noisy until after 200 odd miles and a mile from home when a stretch of rough road let us know that we had forgotten to remove the glass turntable in our haste to leave!  Point is even with this , the door did not fly open at any point so maybe worth having a closer look at the door catch to see if you can tighten it up somehow..  As you say interested to hear view of newer van owners with R/Hobbs combo.

I thought the latest vans had Dometic microwave which are designed for being bounced around on the road.

Ours is a Daewoo, and it rattles. 

Not so much since Sian made a felt bag for the glass turntable, which helps a lot.

I've also stuck a couple of small bits of firm(ish) foam in the door jamb (on the opening side) so it is compressed when the door is latched shut. That has stopped the rattling door - mostly!

I don't think there's much else that can be done, and I wouldn't go to the trouble (and expense) of replacing it with a different model in case the new one was no better. It's far easier to take out the hearing aids!! 

I've not noticed ours rattle in the Symbol, and the door usually stays shut unless I'm using to store things in and go round a tight corner (which would be my fault).  Usually it's the cutlery draw that comes flying out and rattles.

Maybe like Kaspian says, the position in relation to the axles makes a difference.

Maybe the answer is to get a caravan as a microwave can rattle to it's heart's content in one of those and nobody hears it.

Having a Kemerton, our experience bears out what Kaspian reports. Once the shelf and the microwave fixings into it were re-engineered, and the door hinges had some lithium grease applied, it's been silent ever since.

Tim

In my Sussex Duo the Daewoo microwave never rattles and the door has never opened unexpectedly.  Which suggests it may be the van layout and design.  So another microwave may do the same sadly.
Sally

Neither Daewoo nor Russell Hobbs make microwaves that are specifically designed for use in leisure vehicles, they're all standard domestic models. Presumably this means they are designed for standing on a kitchen worktop in a relatively warm house. They aren't built to be jiggled about, not tested for silence when jiggled and aren't specifically specced to cope with being frozen and subjected to van interior summer temperatures and/or damp condensation on critical electric components. Whether one branded by a leisure vehicle equipment manufacturer is any better is doubtful given the comparatively small potential market involved.

steamdrivenandy wrote:Maybe the answer is to get a caravan as a microwave can rattle to it's heart's content in one of those and nobody hears it.

Nice idea SDA....but this thread would then be replaced by one about the awful grinding from the ALKO hitch.
Trust me, I’ve been there and you would dream of those days of the microwave rattling a bit!!

Had one that 'ground' a bit, first time out. Shone up the tow ball with wire wool, cleaned the hitch pads with aerosol brake cleaner and it was silent thereafter.

steamdrivenandy wrote:Had one that 'ground' a bit, first time out. Shone up the tow ball with wire wool, cleaned the hitch pads with aerosol brake cleaner and it was silent thereafter.

Tried all that and more, absolutely nothing worked, my eventual conclusion was that not every hitch/towball combination are the same.
It got to the point where I would stop outside the campsite and disengage the stabilisation device (which is what emphasised the noise), the noise was embarrassing as I pulled on site.

Greyhound wrote:I've not noticed ours rattle in the Symbol, and the door usually stays shut unless I'm using to store things in and go round a tight corner (which would be my fault).  Usually it's the cutlery draw that comes flying out and rattles.

Maybe like Kaspian says, the position in relation to the axles makes a difference.

I also hadn’t noticed my microwave rattling too much Greyhound, until I removed it and fitted a Tambour door in its place
(we never used the microwave so storage was a better option).
I couldn’t believe how many rattles I thought were coming from elsewhere were actually eliminated when I removed the Daewoo microwave.

The Dometic designed for campervans doesn't have a turntable, so that's one problem resolved....

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and I thought using the word " simple" too the subject title would get me a quick answer. ha ha.
caravans..!? who mentioned caravans and rattles?
we always remove the turntable glass and store it else ware. we use the microwave quite a lot when on sites.
we also now have another contender Domestic ( thanks for the link)
will try the lithium grease on hinges and see how it goes.
having got rid of blind rattles, draw rattles, etc etc it's just the " talking" microwave that's the pain now.
the other half says " it's me that rattles the most" and she just ups the radio volume.

Our Daewoo microwave kept overheating, so replaced with a basic Russell Hobbs microwave from Robert Dyas, which was not quite (as sophisticated) or as tall as the original. This height reduction allowed a 6mm ply base to be screwed to the underside of the new microwave . The microwave and ply base were then fixed into the original housing by screwing up into the ply base.
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Result was a microwave that works, one that is secure and one that does not rattle. (Three for the price of one! ) 

Martin.

Our Daewoo does rattle and we have established that it is the microwave itself. We NEVER travel with the glass turntable in place but do have some plastic microwave pots inside in a cloth bag - the rattles are metallic. The door has never opened in transit but I am sure that it could with disastrous consequences if we did leave that heavy glass plate inside. There is a prominent sticker on our door warning of the danger

I have occasionally taken our kitchen microwave with us in the van. What seems a smallish microwave at home seems to become a largish one on board. It stows away easily under the extended offside rear seat but is a lump to extricate and lift onto the worktop. Once there it dominates the space.

However it's main purpose is to allow Mrs SDA  to warm up her cherry stone pillow and as she gets crabby if cold, it's worth the hassle at times.

Our microwave (Russell Hobbs) was making rather a lot of rattling on the move, despite nothing inside, no shelf or glass plate. I read on here how others had beefing up the mounting screws etc. All I did was to jam a short length of silicone tubing (from eBay) between the top of the microwave and the roof of the surround, it prevents any up and down movement of the microwave within it's housing and should stop the mounting screws coming loose.

We might eventually use our microwave more, but currently I wouldn't say it was an essential.

Incidentally on our Kemerton XL I used another short length of silicone tubing on the toilet roll holder to stop the toilet roll coming off in transit, because the tube is flexible it allows a new roll to be slid into position.

Similar to the tubing mentioned above, I’ve used pipe insulation (different sizes available) with great success around the van to stop various rattles. It was particularly good at stopping rattles around the windows, wedging perfectly out of sight behind window surrounds.
It also completely cured the problem of my washing machine vibrating in the kitchen by simply wedging a bit between the washing machine and worktop.
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or you could change the way its mounted, 98% rattle free and a lot lot safer. This was a replacement Hotpoint after coming off the screws 3 times(see below), I insisted to AS that I fit it (at the bottom)

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Our Daewoo died and we replaced it with an Asda own brand. Cheap and simple. We don’t like electronic type controls so bought a simple, turn-the-knob type. The black Asda model looks much better. Sort of coordinates with the cooker. We have never noticed any particular rattles from either microwave. Perhaps the rattle was drowned out by all the others. 
I installed a vapour barrier to the back of the microwave cabinet. As fitted by AS the microwave blows lots of water vapour directly into uninsulated body cavities - a really bad design error.

Dbvwt wrote:

Greyhound wrote:I've not noticed ours rattle in the Symbol, and the door usually stays shut unless I'm using to store things in and go round a tight corner (which would be my fault).  Usually it's the cutlery draw that comes flying out and rattles.

Maybe like Kaspian says, the position in relation to the axles makes a difference.

I also hadn’t noticed my microwave rattling too much Greyhound, until I removed it and fitted a Tambour door in its place
(we never used the microwave so storage was a better option).
I couldn’t believe how many rattles I thought were coming from elsewhere were actually eliminated when I removed the Daewoo microwave.

You've got me wondering now - we do have rattles etc but I'd always assumed it was the cooker top with the heat shields rattling against the lid.

They stopped fitting those heat shields so that’s one less rattle I’ve had to deal with!
If you have a spare 30 minutes It’s not a difficult job to remove the microwave Greyhound and go for a test drive. It may be a good project anyway as the way A/S had fitted mine was a right bodge, an improvement like GP1069 above may be worth doing.

I do like a little project ;)