The short answer
On the Black Decker ES microwave an electrical complaint is usually something overheating rather than something arcing. The ES table lists one model, so the checks below hold across the model list — and all of them stay outside the cabinet.
What you observe
- Sparking or a flickering blue glow inside the cavity — Arcing.
- The breaker or a protective device trips when the oven runs — A load fault or a shared circuit.
- A hot plug or a warm cord — Resistance at a connection, and the one symptom on this page that is about the outlet rather than the appliance.
- A burning or fishy smell during or after use — Something is overheating.
- NEAR MISS — a loud hum with normal heating — Many ovens are simply loud under load.
Causes, most likely first on the ES family
- Ventilation blocked at the cabinet — First on this family — the ES table lists one model — and an oven pushed back against a wall or boxed into a cupboard cannot shed heat: it runs hotter every minute, the cooling fan works against itself, and the smell arrives before anything trips.
- A soiled cavity, cover and grease in the vents — Second: grease that has collected in the ventilation path bakes and smells, and it is both the cause and the fuel. Cleaning is the whole remedy.
- The outlet, plug and cord — Third: a warm plug is a resistance fault and it is the version of overheating that has nothing to do with the cavity at all.
- Internal components and the cooling fan — Last and off-limits. A fan that has stopped or a component on its way out produces smell and heat with no visible cause, and there is nothing an owner can safely do about it.
Check in this order, and why
- Stop using it until the smell is explained — First: running an appliance to reproduce a burning smell is the one experiment not worth doing.
- Check the clearance around the cabinet and the vents — Second — a blocked vent is free to fix and is the most common cause of heat with no other symptom.
- Clean the cavity, the cover and every vent you can reach — Third: grease in the ventilation path smells exactly like a failing component.
- Feel the plug and listen for the cooling fan — Last of the owner checks, and the two findings that send this to a technician.
Before you open anything
Safety
Unplug the oven before touching anything beyond the cavity and the door — and then still do not open the cabinet: the high-voltage capacitor inside can hold a lethal charge long after the oven is disconnected, which makes this the one kitchen appliance that can injure you after it is switched off. Never tape, wedge or otherwise defeat a door interlock, never run the oven empty, and stop using it altogether if the door, its inner panel or its mesh is bent, cracked or burned.
Models in the ES family
Reference| Model number | Family key |
|---|---|
| ES9P03-S00A00 | black-decker:microwave:es |
When to call a technician
Call, or replace the oven, if it trips a breaker on a circuit with nothing else on it, if there is a burning smell with a clean cavity and clear vents, or if sparking repeats in the same place with nothing metallic in the load. Call an electrician rather than an appliance technician if the plug or outlet is hot — that fault is in the wall, not the oven.
Other faults covered for the ES family
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