I recently read an article on the web where a lady had told her children never to stare into the microwave whilst it was cooking. It prompted me to offer this advice. Initially of course, I have to assure everyone that it is quite safe to watch your food cooking in the microwave. If you look at the microwave door, whether it is on or off you will notice what looks like a metal mesh in the door. This is actually part of the door frame and is in fact lots of tiny holes. They are by design, too small to allow microwaves to escape. It is this metal mesh within the door that stops microwaves leaking through the door. Depending on the design of your oven there is usually either glass or plastic screens on either side of this door screen. They serve various functions such as keeping heat in the oven if it is a combination oven, but essentially are decorative. They don’t provide any safety benefits. A very common fault we come across is that some cookware being used in the oven has touched the inner door screen and made a hole in that plastic door screen. It is in fact quite safe to use still as long as the metal mesh behind remains intact. We would recommend that he oven is repaired if this happens, because we find that if left unattended, condensation can get inside the door and over a long period of time go rusty, shortening the life of the oven. We do sell sheets of this ‘sticky backed plastic’ on our website
We also have ovens come into the shop which have had the outer door damaged. Either the outer door glass or the plastic outer door trim have cracked or been damaged in some way. As before these parts are decorative and won’t affect safety but should be repaired simply to prolong oven life.
You may have noticed when you open the oven door that there is some kind of latching mechanism. This is to indicate to the oven that the door is closed correctly. If you try to operate the oven with the door open you will find that you cannot. This is a key safety aspect of any microwave and you will get the same response if part of the latching - usually one of the door hooks gets broken off. Again, depending on the make and model these door hooks may be replaceable, but this is usually a job for an expert as the door may need adjusting after the repair and certainly it would be a good precaution to check for microwave leakage after such a repair.