Radarange only by Amana

[cadman]

Do you suppose this is the RR-1?

I went back to where I had seen the half demolished early Radar and it turns out it was an RR-3.

The controls are like Jon's but there's a chrome slide switch above the top dial that's labeled 'Locked' and physically jams a metal bar into the side of the door (and this one has plastic over the metal screen). Both of these were probably to assuage psychological fears about these evil 'cancer-inducing' radio waves!

Because of the placement of that lock, the Radarange script is moved and decorated with asterisks. There's a hidden switch below the bottom-most chrome edge labeled Buzzer On/Off. Jon, does yours have this? What's your buzzer sound like.

And finally, theres a red oval superimposed at the bottom of the dial backgrounds that says "Cooking" when the dials are lit up. Those are the differences I can spot.

If you can't tell by now, I liberated the control panel- damaged knob, worn-off paint, cracked start button and all.

 

[jetcone]

RR 2 Controls

Hi Cadman: My RR 2 has the buzzer button located under the multi-time dial. When you slide it to the right the Range buzzes until you open the door BUT when you close the door again it starts buzzing so you have to manually stop it before you are done.
My Buzzer is a LOUD electrical buzzer like a bad solenoid I was hoping it would have been a huge silver bell that went DING!
There is no lock bar along the top of my machine nor is there a Cooking label anywhere.
But my door does not have the later style interlock it has a button on the frame that the door frame hits to start cooking and after so many years you have to gently push hard to seal the door to get the unit to start up.

And my glass tray was not like the later molded type it really is just a flat plate of bubble glass cut to fit the inside. I thought this must have been a replacement but John tells me that the first units all had these flat glass trays.
He said that he had once seen an RR 1 but that the unit was free standing , wouldn't ever fit on a counter, and was only 220V. So the RR 2 was the first 120V model for home use he tells me. I would like to find the service literature on these does anybody have that avaiable to copy?

jon

 

[kenmore1978]

microwave controls

I remember when I purchased my 1978 Wards (made by Sharp) microwave in 1978, there were 3 types of controls available

manual dial

mechanical digital

electronic digital

I, of course, went for the TOL electronic digital model with the browning element and temperature probe (both options you don't see anymore), since I worked for Wards at the time and unlike some companies, Wards would let you use your employee discount even on sale items. That microwave is still serving 6 people today, though the glass tray broke and the door latch is getting sort of flaky, but I think I've found a palce to get a new glass tray, and I'm sure the door latch can be fixed (it just has gotten so that it takes 2 hands to open the door, one to push down on the latch while other hand pulls on the handle, whereas as just pushing the latch used to "pop" the door open). It is a little "slow" speed-wise compared to today's ovens (only 600 watts, powerful for the time, but no match for new 1,000 watt ovens). Only thing that's ever gone wrong with it all these years is blowing an internal fuse.

 

[coldspot66]

I had a Monkey Wards microwave oven back in mid '80s that was made by Sharp. I think that is why I bought it. Also it had the "browning element" that wasn't worth crap. It was a tol model with the touch controls. I'd probably still have it if we didn't do the kitchen over. I had it about 12 yrs anyway. Gave it away in '97; for all I know it could be still working!

 

[foraloysius]

Prelinger Archives

There is a movie about microwaves in the Prelinger Archives.

http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=preparation_of_foods

 

[kenmore1978]

browning element

I used my browning element a few times, usually to brown the crust on pies I'd microwaved. I used the temp probe more.