Found out you can bypass a blown fuse on a microwave board with a resistor if you know the load draw

Had a Panasonic microwave come in last Tuesday that wouldn't run, traced it to a blown PCB fuse, tossed in a 10 ohm resistor on the test bench and it fired right up, but has anyone else tried this on a production repair or is it just a bench trick?

3 comments

3 Comments

reeseperez27d ago

Honestly man I really gotta push back on this one. Putting a resistor in place of a fuse on a microwave board sounds way too risky for a customer repair. A resistor isn't designed to blow fast like a fuse does if something shorts out. That's a big deal with a microwave because they pull a lot of current and a small mistake could start a fire. I get it for a bench test to quickly check if the rest of the board works but I would never send that out the door. The whole point of that fuse is to protect the board and the person using it. You gotta find and fix whatever caused the fuse to blow in the first place or just swap the whole board.

sethhernandez27d ago

Yeah, totally agree with you on that. I've tried the resistor trick once for testing on a dead microwave and it worked okay, but I felt sketchy the whole time. Honestly, just swapping the whole board is way safer and you know it's done right.

bennett.mason20d ago

Yeah, you're right. That actually changed my mind on this one.