Door latch repair--GE Profile Microwave/Convection Oven

docj · January 5, 2016

I know that some of you have GE Profile Microwave/Convection ovens either as OEM or as one you used to replace the OEM one with. We've had ours for ~5 years and use it a lot and that's probably why we had a problem with it a few months ago. The purpose of this post is to inform you how to fix the same problem if it happens to you.

The problem manifests itself by the fact that the door will not stay latched; it opens on its own and, as a result, the oven will not operate. It you're at all mechanical, it won't take you long to figure out that the latching "fingers" on the door are supposed to be under spring tension so that they pull against the mechanism they are inserted into in the oven body.

After a bit of research I determined that if I could get a repairman out to work on it, the most likely "solution" would be replacement of the door at a price of >$150 plus labor. What made that even more problematical was that we were in Canada at the time and the models of GE ovens there don't correspond exactly to those in the US so parts availability would be an issue.

So, I did what everyone should do when faced with this sort of a problem--I Googled it! Sure enough, it's a common problem, not just with GE ovens and is something that you can fix yourself, even without much mechanical ability. There's a really good YouTube "how to" video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0VizKQg6pw

Once you've taken the door apart to make the fix you'll understand why I'm so confident that some of you will have the same problem some day. The latch hooks are held under the tension of fairly stiff spring which, on one end is attached to a slender piece of plastic!! :huh: Not only is the attachment point rather small and weak looking, remember that it is inside the door of an oven that can easily achieve 450 degree temperatures. The attachment point on mine looked as if the plastic had simply melted away. Quite honestly, it is a stupid design for an convection oven; it might have been Ok for microwave purposes, but not at oven cooking temperatures.

Fortunately, the "repair" involves relocating the spring so that one end catches on a metal tab in the door frame. The other end is still in plastic but it's been relocated to a much more robust piece. Total time for the repair <30 minutes; cost = zero!

I suspect that RVers probably use their convection ovens more than most other owners do. For people with s&b homes this is probably a "second" oven and not a primary cooking tool. As a result few customers probably encounter this failure mode and, those that do probably by that time have ovens that are due for replacement, anyway.

Anyway, I now have ~6 months on our repaired oven and I hope to get lots more use out of it. File this away if you run into the same problem some day.

mohamer · January 7, 2016

Interesting, Thanx.

Ray,IN · January 8, 2016

Good to know, now all I must do is remember your thread.

TXiceman · January 8, 2016

Our Dometic convection microwave has the same issue. I pulled the door apart and modified the spring attachment. It should hold up for another year or so and I'll have to make another repair. It is a pretty poor design for the part and the spring attachment.

Ken