Can My Microwave be Saved ?

The paint inside my microwave started to peel off.  I’m embarrassed to say that I cleaned it too hard.   Moisture must have built up in the bottom of my microwave after cooking potatoes.

While cooking breakfast I noticed a small clump of build up under the tray of the microwave.  I had a minute, while I was waiting for the toast to pop, so I tried to clean it.

That was a mistake!  I rubbed it too hard and paint came off.   I quickly called my husband and asked him, if it was still safe to use.  We knew that you can not put metal into the microwave, but this was different.  Different internet sources gave us different opinions of saving it and tossing it.  I searched for appliance paint on our local hardware website, and found this stuff by Selleys.

Read the instructions, Simple!  Paint it, let it dry for one hour.

First coat of paint went on, no problem.  Wait an hour.  This looks worse.  The moisture of the paint must have caused the surround paint to lift up and away from the surface.

Maybe I should have sanded the area? Lots of questions were going through my head.  So I tryed sanding the crusted mess of peeling paint.

Bigger Problem Now

Sanding did not work, it was not the problem.

After cleaning the area, I  reapplying the paint. I had the same result.  More paint lifted and peeled away again.  It looked fine at first, paint coverage was good.  About 30 minutes into drying time the paint begins to lift up and peel away again.

Still peeling

I was worried.  It felt like an endless cycle making backward progress.  After the third time of reapplying and peeling, I changed tactics.  The next time I painted, I watched to carefully.  When it started to lift away, I pushed it back down with the back of my fingernail.   IT WORKED!!! It stayed down.  It was not perfect, but it had stopped peeling away with the help of some applied pressure.  I continued to watch for bubbles in the surrounding paint & pushed them down.

Each coat of paint was given a full hour to dry, to make sure they did not peel away.  I wasted my day, watching paint dry, but my microwave was fixed.  I did not have to replace it.  There where no sparks inside when we turned it on for it’s test run.

It might not have needed the extra coats of paint but I wanted to make sure that in was fully sealed.

In hind sight,  I clean the outside of the microwave and the tray a lot.  I usually do not lift the tray and clean under.  Moisture is created in the microwave when I cook potatoes and stream other veggies.  Now I know to look closer under the tray for condensation build up.

I hope this helps you.  It was a first for me in our new apartment with a microwave that was barely a year old.