Noise and now burning from GE JE1860SB 003 microwave

[dietz]

Over the past few weeks we’ve been noticing and occasional humming/crackling when heating milk products in our GE JE1860SB microwave. Generally we stopped and restarted or covered the bowl and noises went away. It wasn’t constant.

Today we heard more of the same but also came with a burning plastic smell. We stopped heating immediately and looked in the microwave to find the top of the microwave had a small melted plastic cover. (Picture attached).

I’ve got two questions here... first, any ideas on what could have been causing the noise? Second, any ideas what this burnt part is called? Based on service manuals I found, it number is GE 53550S: https://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/content/pdfs/126484-8.pdf

What would you do here? Try and repair or just replace the microwave? It’s a countertop unit that’s 18 years young so finding parts may be difficult compared to ease of replacement. As far as replacement.. do they even make 1.5kW+ models anymore?

TIA!

[dietz]

Looks like this is the link for the part:

https://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/search/part/334784/126484/