Gas Oven Not Heating Up? Diagnose and Fix the Issue

When your gas oven refuses to heat up, understanding the troubleshooting process can empower you to tackle the issue yourself or provide valuable insight when seeking professional help. Follow these troubleshooting steps and diagnostic techniques to identify and potentially fix the underlying problem causing your gas oven to stay cold.

First of all, if you’re nervous about working on your gas oven (or not completely confident in your DIY appliance repair abilities) then you’ll need to oven repair service to have a Sears Home Services technician diagnose and repair your oven when it won’t heat. Safety should always be your highest priority when fixing appliances—even if you need to have someone repair your oven for you.

Even if you're sure that you'll have an appliance technician complete the oven repair, it doesn’t hurt to understand the troubleshooting and repair process involved in fixing a gas oven that won’t heat. There's a chance that you can follow some of the troubleshooting steps described below and safely fix the oven yourself.

If you want some practical troubleshooting advice to see if you can fix a non-heating gas oven yourself, you're in the right place. Carefully follow the troubleshooting and diagnostic advice described below to repair a gas oven that isn't heating.

Basic Troubleshooting Steps To Fix a Gas Oven That Won’t Heat

When troubleshooting any appliance failure, start with the basics. Sometimes a simple fix does the trick.

Check the Gas Supply

Just about anyone can follow these basic tips to check the gas supply going to the range or wall oven:

• If you’re troubleshooting the oven on a gas range, turn on a surface burner to see if it’s getting gas. If a surface burner works, then you know that your oven should be getting gas as well.
• If the surface burner doesn’t work, check the gas supply cut-off valve for your stove to make sure that it's open.
• If you’re troubleshooting a wall oven, check to see if the broil burner gets gas and heats up (if your wall oven has a separate broil burner). If you have a double oven, you can check to see if the 2nd oven is heating. If other burners in a wall oven are heating, then you know that the inoperative oven burner should be getting gas as well.
• If no burners in your wall oven are heating, check the gas supply cut-off valve for the oven to make sure that it’s open.
• If gas supply valve for your stove or wall oven is open and you’re not getting gas to the appliance, check other gas appliances in your home such as the gas dryer. If your entire home is without gas, check the main gas cut-off valve for your house. Open the main cut-off valve if it’s shut. This may restore gas to your oven and other appliances so they work properly.

If the main gas cut-off valve for your home is open and no appliances are getting gas, then you need to contact your gas supplier to figure out what’s wrong.

If other appliances are getting gas but you suspect that your wall oven or stove isn’t getting gas, then you’ll likely need to have a plumber or gas technician from your gas supplier fix the gas supply going to your stove or wall oven.

Check the Service Cut-Off Valve

Many gas ranges have a service cut-off valve on their pressure regulator at the back of the stove. It shuts off the gas supply to the oven but not the surface burners.

If the surface burners on your gas stove work but the oven burners aren’t getting gas, make sure that the lever on the service cut-off valve is in the open position.

Advanced Troubleshooting For a Gas Oven That Won’t Heat

When the basic troubleshooting steps don’t do the trick, you’ll need to conduct some advanced troubleshooting to fix a gas oven that isn’t heating. Nothing’s better than a YouTube video to describe advanced troubleshooting for a non-heating gas oven. Follow the steps in this Sears PartsDirect YouTube video to fix your gas oven:

After the video goes through some of the basic troubleshooting steps described above, the following diagnostic techniques are used to figure out what’s wrong with a gas oven that won’t heat.

Test the Oven Igniter

Most gas ovens use a glow bar ignition system that uses this ignition process:

1. The control sends electrical current through the igniter and safety gas valve to light the oven burner and heat the oven.
2. The igniter heats up but the safety gas valve won't open to ignite the burner until the igniter reaches a safe ignition temperature.
3. As the igniter heats up, the resistance of the igniter element decreases and more current flows through the circuit to the safety gas valve.
4. When the igniter reaches ignition temperature, its resistance is low enough to allow enough current to flow through the circuit and open the safety gas valve.
5. Gas flows through the open valve and to the burner and ignites.

The number 1 failure preventing a gas oven from heating is a weak igniter. The igniter won’t get hot enough to allow adequate current to flow to the safety valve so the valve won’t open to let gas flow to the burner for ignition.

That’s why we recommend testing the oven igniter first.

Pull the bottom panel out of your cold oven. Start the oven and see if the igniter glows.

If the igniter glows but the burner doesn’t ignite because the gas valve doesn’t open, then you’ll likely need to replace the igniter. As noted in the video, if you're uncertain whether your glowing igniter has failed, you can schedule service for your oven and have a Sears service technician check the amp draw through the igniter circuit.

If you’re convinced that the oven igniter is bad, then you can order a new igniter and replace the igniter. Replacing a gas oven igniter is a relatively safe repair that most DIY’ers can accomplish on their own because it doesn’t involve disconnecting any gas lines in the oven. Follow the steps in this YouTube video to replace the oven igniter:

Now, if the igniter doesn’t glow, then the igniter element may be broken. You’ll need a multimeter to check resistance through the igniter so see if the element is bad.

Unplug the range. For safety, always disconnect power before checking resistance. To check the resistance of the igniter, put the meter leads on the igniter terminals. If you measure between 10 and 2,500 ohms, then you know your igniter is okay.

If the igniter measures no continuity, then you need to replace the igniter.

Test the Safety Gas Valve

Next, check resistance through the safety gas valve. The meter should measure less than 5 ohms of resistance through the terminals on the safety gas valve.

If the safety gas valve measures no continuity, you can have a Sears technician replace that part. Replacing the safety gas valve involve disconnection of gas lines inside the oven.

Check the Wiring and Control Board

When you find that the igniter and safety gas valve appear to be okay, you’ll need to check wiring in the ignition circuit and the electronic oven control board.

With electrical power still disconnected from the oven, access the back of the electronic oven control board and check resistance through the ignition circuit wires connected to the electronic control board.

If you measure the same resistance through the ignition circuit as you measured through the igniter (between 10 and 2,500 ohms), then replace the electronic control board because you know that the wiring through the ignition circuit is okay.

If you measure infinite resistance (also called an open load) through the ignition circuit wiring, then you'll need to trace the wires through the ignition circuit and repair the broken wire (with the oven still disconnected from electrical power).

These DIY troubleshooting steps should help you fix a gas oven that isn’t heating in most situations. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong and fix the oven on your own, don’t hesitate to schedule oven repair service and we’ll send a Sears Tech right out to your home to fix the oven.