Troubleshooting Common Oven Problems

Sears provides safe and practical DIY troubleshooting tips to fix common oven problems.

Who has time for an oven that’s not holding up its end of the food-prep bargain?

While ovens may seem pretty indestructible, there are a few things that can and do fail. Fortunately, there’s more DIY troubleshooting advice available in 2023 that can help you safely fix common oven problems yourself.

Often, the most challenging aspect of DIY repair is accurate diagnosis of oven problems. Unless you can clearly see a broken part, safely figuring out which oven component to replace typically involves testing components using a multimeter. If you don’t have a multimeter, you can order a basic meter on Sears.com or get one at your local hardware or department store.

Common DIY repairs differ for gas and electric ovens. We’ll cover troubleshooting for these types of ovens separately.

Gas Oven Won’t Heat

The first thing you’ll want to do when your gas oven won’t heat is to check the gas supply. If the oven is part of a stove with gas surface burners, check to see if the surface burner work. If your surface burners are working, then you know your oven should be getting gas as well. If the burners aren’t working, check your gas supply cut-off valve to make sure that it’s open. If it is open and you’re not getting gas, then you need to contact your gas supplier to figure out what’s wrong.

If you’re troubleshooting a built-in wall oven, check other gas appliances to see whether they have gas. If they do, check the gas supply cut-off valve for your wall oven to make sure that it’s open.

When these troubleshooting tips don’t help you fix the oven, you can view this DIY troubleshooting video to get more advice on fixing your gas oven.

Because the igniter glows constantly while you’re using your gas oven, that component is the # 1 part that needs replacing when a gas oven won’t heat. You’ll need to replace it meticulously in the right place on your oven burner so the oven will work safely. If you aren’t completely confident that you can replace the igniter yourself, schedule oven repair and have a Sears Technician replace the oven igniter for your. Safe oven repair is one of our many specialties.

Oven Gas Leaks

Although we provide DIY advice on safe oven repairs, when you smell gas leaking from your oven, we recommend that you exit your home and call your gas supplier immediately to fix the problem. Finding and fixing a gas leak is extremely dangerous and should be left to professionals to resolve. Don’t risk your household’s safety when you smell a gas leak.

Electric Oven Won’t Heat

An inadequate power supply, a break in wires, a bad bake element or faulty electronic control board all could prevent your oven from heating. Watch this DIY video to see how to troubleshoot the problem.

Broken heating elements in electric ovens often cause heating problems. Here’s more information about replacing these electric oven components.

Install a New Bake Element

Bake elements can fail for a variety of reasons including normal wear, damage from spills, faulty wiring or a control failure that causes overheating. The bake mode won’t work when the bake element breaks but the broil mode may still work. When the bake element isn’t working, you may see a crack or break in the element. Have a service technician replace a broken bake element. The technician will be able to examine wiring and other components such as the electronic oven control board or fuses that may have been damaged when the bake element failed.

Replace the Broil Element

The broil element in the top of the oven cavity can wear out or break at any time. Splatters from items being broiled can sometimes hasten broil element failure. A wiring or control problem can also cause the broil element to break. When the broil element won’t heat, have a service technician replace it. The technician will check for damaged wiring and components and make sure that your range or oven will operate safely after the repair.

How to Keep Your Oven Operating Safely and Efficiently All Year Long

Yearly professional maintenance by a Sears Technician will keep your oven operating smoothly and safely all year long. Avoid unexpected breakdowns and unsafe conditions by scheduling Clean & Maintain Service for your oven regularly.

During the Clean & Maintain Service, the tech will:

• Check control operation. Range controls are checked for accurate temperature control of the oven and stovetop burners. Faulty controls can cause the range to waste energy when overheating occurs.
• Examine oven door alignment and clean the oven door gasket. A loose door gasket or bent door hinges can prevent the oven door from sealing, allowing heat to escape during baking. You’ll wind up paying higher energy bills because the burner ignites more often and stays burning longer to heat the oven. The technician adjusts and cleans the oven door gasket to make sure it seals the oven door properly.
• Test oven self-cleaning operation. On ranges that have self-cleaning ovens, the service technician checks the control and oven door lock to make sure it stays closed during the self-cleaning cycle. During the self-cleaning operation, oven heats to extremely high temperatures to burn spills and residue inside the oven to ash. To prevent fires, the oven door must remain closed and locked during self-cleaning. If you were to open the door during self-cleaning, a sudden rush of air into the extremely hot oven can cause a serious fire.
• Check and clean the stovetop burners. The technician cleans and checks electric elements to make sure they’re operating properly and safely. A short circuit in an electric stovetop burner can cause a serious electrocution risk. An element on a glass-top range that overheats can damage the glass top. On a gas range, the technician cleans checks and adjusts the surface burners. A dirty surface burner can fail to ignite – posing a serious safety risk.
• Check oven burners or elements. The technician examines and adjusts oven burners in a gas range or electric elements in an electric range. Gas oven burners that aren’t adjusted correctly can fail to heat the oven properly and may emit excessive carbon monoxide. Electric elements that aren’t heating correctly will fail to heat the oven properly. A shorted electric element also can pose a serious electrocution risk.
• Inspect readily accessible electrical wiring. The technician will check the wiring on gas and electric ranges, for insulation damage, proper grounding and secure connections. Damaged wiring or wiring that’s not secure can cause an electrocution risk. The ground connection dissipates an electrical short to prevent you from getting an electric shock if a loose wire touches metal in the range.
• Level the range and check the anti-tip device. The technician levels the range to reduce the risk that a pot or pan will accidently slide off a gas surface burner. Leveling also helps items bake properly in the oven. The anti-tip device is an essential bracket that prevents the range from tipping forward when you open the oven door and extend an oven rack out of the range with a dish on the rack.

The technician will discuss any problems or failures found in your range so you can correct them.

Know When It’s Time To Upgrade Your Range

When you experience frequent range or oven failures and your range is over 10 years old, it’s time to consider upgrading your range.

Sears can help you seamlessly upgrade your range with no hassles. Visit our Sears.com Upgrade page to select a new range or oven and get help with financing.

We’ve consolidated all help, financing offers and savings into one location on our Upgrade page to make it easy for you to replace your range now. Get your new range or oven today.