Microwave smokes and smells like burning plastic

Unplug. Remove the top/side panel. The fuse will be obvious near the power cord it is a special non glass fuse used in microwaves. (i save many fuses from microwaves others placed at the curb so mine are always free)

Unplug remove cover the fuse is near the power cord replace with card-board type non-glass fuse as original.

You probably fried the magnetron(it actually makes the microwaves that do the cooking). I bet you will find the magnet is broken(from excessive heat). There should be a diagnostic guide sheet somewhere inside the housing(due to running production changes,this is a guide for the pros to test the power supply,magnetron,etc with an ohmmeter to determine which is defective.

I would first be sure the inside is clean of grease and food debris. That's always critical.

Next I'd suggest removing and checking / cleaning the stirrer cover, stirrer, and the area under the cover and around the stirrer.

That's covered on page 33 of the service manual here.

That too should be clean.

If it still smokes, you may have a failing high voltage transformer.

You can order Maytag parts here.

We're happy to help you with free advice and we'd appreciate your thoughtful rating of our answer.

Is the smell ionized (the outside smell of a cold winter morning air) or more of an electronic component burning??? if it's more of an ionized smell it could be normal, (if the smell is strong) it could be a leaking high voltage cable (electric arching) bad insulator, if it's more of an electronic component burning smell, it could be a overheating component, in both cases you should have it checked by a professional technician...

Cheers!

Hi,

Here is a tip that will help you to figure out what is wrong with your Microwave Oven....

Microwave Oven Basic Troubleshooting Tips

heatman101

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Hi,

Here is a tip that will help you to figure out what is wrong with your Microwave Oven....

Basic Microwave Oven Troubleshooting Tips

heatman101

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Just had my Kitchen Aid Microwave KHMS155LSS burn up and bellow smoke.

Thankfully, I was close by, stopped the microwave, vented the smoke, turned off the circuit breaker and unplugged it. Still the smell of burned motor, burned plastic has me concerned. Did it get hot enough to cause problems behind the drywall? So far, I am keeping a "fire watch" to make sure nothing is smoldering.

More common then you think, i have gone through a couple microwaves in the last ten years, they both failed very similar to what you describe. One popped the breaker one day, reset the breaker and it worked again but had an odd smell to it. I took it apart and couldn't find anything burnt or melted so i tossed it and got a new one, i didn't want a microwave burning the house down! I would suggest unless your really tied to that microwave that you just replace it for safety sake. Four years or forty years old don't matter anymore, i had one microwave, LG brand, that died two months after the warranty expired and it would cost more to repair it then replace the thing!