Microwave Works Better From One Outlet As Opposed To The Other

[SFLman]

Everything was fine until "Eta" blew over Palm Beach County. We were on the outskirts of the storm, but we did get lots of power outages here.

The power to my house was never completely out, but I did notice the lights fluctuating. Also, I have two APC battery backup and surge protectors. They kept beeping 4 times every 45 seconds, indicating that they had switched to battery. I believe they were doing this because the electricity coming into the house was fluctuating.

After the storm I went to cook something in the microwave, and I saw that it was turning slowly and the light bulb inside dimming and then brightening. Also, the LED light buttons in the cook top range next to the microwave began lighting up and pulsing.




I don't understand how running the microwave could affect the power going to the cook top, because the circuit for the cook top is not in the same circuit box as the circuit for the microwave and oven. In the GE Box below, switches 2 & 4 on the upper right hand corner are for the microwave and electric oven. In the Guardian box, 14 & 16 in the bottom right are for the cook top range.



Anyway, to check and see if the microwave was dying, I plugged it into another outlet and it ran as it should, turning at the right speed and the light inside the light from the bulb was steady.



I just plugged the microwave back into the old outlet and ran it. The microwave is slow and the light dims, but it does not cause the LED lights in the cook top range to light up and pulse like it did yesterday.

I would appreciate any advice anyone has. What am I up against?

 

[Jeff Handy]

Sounds like one of the 120 volt legs coming into your house is having a brown out.

Call your local power utility to report a partial lack of power.

I have had that exact same problem several times, after a nearby transformer blew up, either from a storm or from wet trees touching it, squirrels climbing onto it, etc.

Check the volts on the receptacle where the microwave runs slow, it should be low.

Also, running any appliance with not enough voltage will burn it out, sometimes very quickly.

 

[JoeD]

Sounds like an open or loose neutral problem.

 

[SFLman]

Thanks for the advice. I'm being careful about what's plugged in and I've set un an appointment with FPL. The APC units continue to sound off whenever they are turned on.

 

[SFLman]

Well, a guy with FPL showed up and he detected a 10% drop in the voltage. The problem is where the wire goes underground near the house he believes. A crew should be out tomorrow.

No expected cost to me! : o)