Use of Microwave turns off power in 1/2 apartment?

Question

I've lived in my apartment for about 6 months. The building is old, but the apartment is rehabbed. The microwave, oven and refrigerator are brand-new. 

Recently, when I turned on the microwave (reheat), the power went off in half the apartment. Power remained in the front part of the apartment, and off in the back - with some overlap in the kitchen. I flipped the breaker and all was well. But it happens continually now if the microwave is on longer than 20 seconds. 

I've not had any problems with any of the appliances before now. Interestingly enough, when the power goes off the refrigerator remains on. Though the oven does lose power, when it's on and in use, I experience no problems. 

It seems that the microwave is the trigger of the power loss. 

I've read that perhaps the microwave could be using too many watts and overloading the circuits. If that's the issue, why didn't this problem occur earlier, and not a 1/2 year later?

I contacted my landlord when the problem first occurred, and will contact him again if it's not anything I can do personally about it.

Any help's appreciated.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

yeap, it's probably like a 1600 watt microwave and simply drawing too many amps. you are simply drawing to many amps for the circuit. if it's a 15 amp breaker and you have multiple lights with high wattage bulbs and the 1600 watt monster, the breaker is doing it's job.

i would trace how many outlets, appliances, etc, are on that circuit and eliminate as many as possible. in fact, i would give the MW a dedicated circuit.

always remember, watts, or power, = current X voltage.

you know the voltage is 110-120 and you know the wattage from the light bulb or the sticker on the MW, so figure the current or amps. if that number is bigger than the amp rating of the circuit breaker, it will flip, just like it's supposed to. so now you know. GL with it. jim

rickyd75901 · Answer

Microwaves certainly draw lots of power, and it sounds to me as though the breaker is too loaded from items on other circuits. ie.  The microwave is plugged into one receptacle and the wires come out of that receptacle and go to additional receptacles in other locations.  Perhaps something on one of the other circuits is running when the microwave is turned on and thus drawing too much power for the breaker to handle.  Or the breaker is weak.  Identify the items that go off when the breaker trips and try relocating them to other receptacles.

robert S · Answer

The problem lies in the circuit breakers add up the watts between the appliences that are on when the circuit breaker trips, after unplug different ones to find out the maximum amout of wattage it takes to trigger the circuit breaker

? · Answer

I am a master electrician and you have an overloaded circuit. your stove is on one circuit, half apt on a circuit and other half on another. sounds like 3 circuits for what should be a circuit just for fridge,one for stove, two seperate circuits for just kitchen plugs. circuit per bedroom or living or dining. and also one for bath. make sense, wires get old and if it was just rehabed they did new walls mre than likely but cut corners. sorry

yippyyippyyayawho · Answer

we had a microwave that was like that before. It was a really good one.(being that it was super quick)

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Use of Microwave turns off power in 1/2 apartment?

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