It’s that time of year again! Thanksgiving is coming up and with that comes a plethora of food being cooked on your range and in your oven. The worst possible thing that could happen is your oven failing before or on the big day. So, what can you do to prevent that? You can always purchase a home warranty plan to protect your systems and appliances when they fail from normal wear and tear. You can also use this troubleshooting guide to understand what’s going on with your electric oven, and what needs to be repaired or replaced.
Do you have a gas oven? Click here for our guide on troubleshooting gas oven problems.
How does an electronic oven work?
It’s always helpful to understand how your electric oven works before trying to understand why it may be having problems. You can use the following animations to understand how your electric oven operates.
How an Electronic Stovetop Works
Whether you have radiant coils or conventional coils, each heating element is operated by its own switch. When the switch is turned to the desired temperature, an electric current travels to the heating element, which begins to warm up. Once the correct temperature has been reached, the switch turns off the electric current. The switch turns on and off the electric current to keep the heating element at the correct temperature.
If you have a radiant coil, it has a built-in monitor. This will cause the heating element to turn on and off more frequently to keep the right temperature.
Troubleshooting your Electric Stovetop
Nothing is Operating
Check to see if a fuse has tripped, or if your oven is plugged in. This is a common cause for oven problems.
If just one coil isn’t heating up, the problem may be located in the coil itself. Make sure the other coils on your electric oven are operating correctly to make sure there’s just one coil that has failed. If you have a home warranty, call your company to open a service request. They can test to see if the coil has failed, or if it has continuity. If you don’t have a home warranty, you can do this yourself by purchasing a multimeter tool.
If the coil has failed, you will need to replace it — there’s not much you can do to fix it. If you have a home warranty, this will be covered. Otherwise, look at your oven manual to find parts online, or call your oven manufacturer for a replacement part. Then, simply remove the original coil and plug in the new coil.
If the coil itself hasn’t failed, the problem is most likely the switch has failed. It will also need to be replaced, which is also covered under a home warranty.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
If all of your coils aren’t heating, check first to make sure that the oven is plugged in, and is receiving electricity. If your oven is plugged in, it may not be an oven issue at all. It may be that your electrical outlet isn’t giving the oven enough voltage for the oven to operate. You can call your home warranty company and ask for an electrician to come out to your home and look at the outlet to see if it needs to be replaced. If you have a home warranty plan, this will be a $60 service call fee.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
Are you burning your food consistently when you use one specific burner? It’s probably because the switch isn’t regulating the temperature properly. In this case, the switch will need to be replaced. If you have a home warranty, you can call your company and pay a $60 service call fee for diagnosis and repair for an overheating coil if it failed from normal wear and tear.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
If your heating coils work on and off, sometimes heating up and sometimes not, it could be caused by rust or corrosion. This generally happens only on conventional coils. Cooking spills that aren’t cleaned up cause rust and corrosion. You can visually inspect to see if you see any signs of this by removing the heating element. If you do see rust or corrosion, you will need to replace the element.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
How an Electronic Oven Works
There are four main parts of an electronic oven:
- Bake element
- Broil element
- Oven Control
- Thermostat/ Temperature Sensor
When you turn on the bake or broil element, and select the temperature, the dial (or switch) sends an electric current to the heating element which begins to warm up. The thermostat or oven sensor will shut off the electric current when the oven has reached the correct temperature. The heating element will turn on and off to keep the temperature consistent throughout the oven.
Troubleshooting your Electronic Oven
If you see sparking coming from your heating element, turn off the power to your oven as soon as possible, and replace the heating element. Do not use your oven until it is replaced, as it could cause a fire. If you see pitting or burn marks on the heating element, you should replace it as well because it could easily begin sparking.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
If your broil or burner heating element doesn’t glow and get warm when the oven is turned on, it most likely needs to be replaced. Call a registered technician or your home warranty company to test and see if your heating element has continuity is able to create an electric current. If it doesn’t, it needs to be replaced.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
There is a very small chance that both heating elements would be broken at the same time. Instead, this probably means that there is a faulty plug on your oven and it’s not receiving enough electricity. Call your home warranty company or a registered electrician to diagnose the problem.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
If your oven is sporadically heating, or the temperature is off by more than 40 degrees (so you keep undercooking or burning food), it could be your thermostat oven sensor. You can test to see if the actual temperature and the temperature the oven sensor is registering are different, by using your oven controls following the instructions in your user manual. You can call your home warranty company and open a service request to get the sensor repaired.
(Click here to go back to the top.)
For more information about home warranties and your oven, you can see what Landmark covers by downloading a copy of our contract. You can also compare our home warranty plans and prices.