Why cant I hear anyone on my cordless phone while my microwave is running?

Question

The voices sound garbled on the phone (not a cellphone, its my cordless home phone) while my microwave is operating. I just got the microwave, and have never had this problem before. If I go to the other end of the house, I can improve the phone enough to understand the other person, unless I turn the microwave off.

It is a 2.4g phone. And, I have had previous microwaves, and I have never encountered this problem before. Wondering if the microwave might be leaking unhealthy levels of radiation or something, or if this can be a "normal" thing.

Answer 1

Sandy, Cmass Stan is right. It's the 2.4ghz phone that is conflicting with the new microwave. I've never experienced this problem myself, so this question got me researching, also.

To completely alleviate the problem, you MAY have to get a phone that's either 900mhz or 5.8ghz. I checked my own cordless phone and it's, indeed, 5.8ghz.

Is the phone base plugged near the microwave, or maybe even into the same electrical outlet as the microwave? If it is, moving it to another jack and electric outlet may greatly help with your problem. Look at this:

http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/support/faq.cfm?faqid=8

Do you have another jack in the house where you can move it to see if it improves the signal? Ideally, an outlet that is on a completely different circuit than the one the microwave runs on?

If not, it seems the only solution is to consider a new phone, in one of the other recommended bands. Here's another article for you to look at:

http://www.cyberwalker.com/features/hub/interference.html

Good luck!

Polly

Answer 2

I'm guessing you have a 2.4 GHz cordless phone, because your typical microwave oven operates around that frequency band. You didn't say if you had a microwave before, so you probably never encountered this phenomenon until now.

This interference problem will also happen if you have a wireless router that uses 802.11(b) or (g).

Theoretically, your new microwave should meet the minimum standards for RF transmission leakage, so I don't think there's something wrong w/ the new one, per se. On the other hand, it does make you wonder...

Answer 3

As others have said, a 2.4 ghz phone will sometimes interfere. I have an old 900 mhz phone that works without interference whereas my 2.4 has static problems. Not sure how the newer higher ghz phones fare.

Answer 4

take it out the microwave and put you ear by the speaker

Answer 5

because the radiation is ruining the receiver and intercepting the signal