> My flatmate does this with kitchen cupboard doors, and, most annoyingly, the microwave. She'll open the microwave to stop it, takes her food out and, just ... leaves it open. Then when I close it later it will start up again with nothing inside. Arrrgh!

So? Hit the cancel button when you close it - you have to be right there to close it after all.

TBH, I do this too, because I hate putting in some milk to warm for cereal and getting out warm milk flavoured with and smelling of the curry we warmed last night.

Anytime the microwave oven is used for aromatic food or any meal with flavouring, leave the door open.

I’m learning so much from this thread.

The idea of warming milk for cereal has never crossed my mind.

Oh, here's another one: I eat my oats with hot water, not milk ! Kids cereals I still use (cold) milk though.

As a kid I loved hot milk on my Weet-Bix/Weetabix, but it's not something I crave as an adult!

IMO a good thing, lets them ventilate better. Not cancelling the timer is the wrong thing there.

Not sure about that. It's normal to open a microwave periodically to inspect, stir the food etc to ensure it is heating evenly. Automatically cancelling the timer each time you open it would be very annoying.

I meant, leaving the microwave open would be fine if they also cancelled the timer after being done with it.

Interesting, I think all microwaves I've had require you to press start to restart them after opening and closing the door.

Mine doesn't.

Mine doesn't even have a start button. It starts whenever the door is closed and there is at least one second left on the timer.

I learned this behaviour for a while when living with a microwave that made an annoyingly loud beep when it finished or was stopped.

Workaround: slightly ajar as default idle state for silent operation and intercept immediately before completion.

Every microwave I’ve ever owned has had a button to turn off the beeps. Usually, a long-press on 8 or 5.

The first time I heard the annoying beeping of my microwave I opened it and cut off the piezo beeper. Have been living in blissful silence ever since.

We do this to ventilate it so that it doesn't steam up the inside of the microwave. Seems pretty sensible.

Exactly! If there is any moisture left and it can't dry, it could start to mold.

That's actually a problem with my dishwasher, which can't be left slightly open (it always closes shut), and me being a single, so it takes time to get a full machine. If I want to prevent mold I either have to start the dishwasher half empty (which is counterintuitive) or to collect the dirty dishes outside the dishwasher until enough have accumulated to fill it. But then you have all the dirty dishes lying around. Argh!

Can you pull open the top rack and use that to stop the door from automatically closing?