Repair guide · Oven repairs

Oven not heating? What to check before you call

An oven that won't heat is usually down to one failed part, but there are a few simple things to rule out first. None of them involve taking anything apart.

By the Pink Ideas technical team

An electric oven heats with elements: usually one at the top for the grill, one under the floor of the oven for conventional baking, and a round one around the fan at the back on fan ovens. A thermostat switches them on and off to hold the temperature you set, and a selector switch decides which elements each function uses.

That's useful to know, because which functions still work tells you a lot. If the grill heats but fan bake doesn't, the fan element or fan is the suspect. If nothing heats at all, the fault is more likely the supply, the thermostat, the selector switch or a safety cut-out.

Checks you can do at home

1. Set the clock

   On many ovens with an electronic timer, the oven won't heat until the clock is set after a power cut, or until the timer is put back into manual mode. Check the manual for your model: it's often a long press on one or two buttons.

2. Check the isolator and the breaker

   Make sure the isolator switch on the wall is on and that the oven's breaker in the distribution board hasn't tripped. If the breaker trips again as soon as the oven heats, leave it off and book a technician.

3. Try every function

   Turn the oven to grill, then to conventional bake, then to fan bake, a few minutes each. Hold your hand near the door (not on it) and look through the glass. Note which ones warm up and which don't.

4. Look at the elements

   With the oven off and cold, look at the grill element and, if it's visible, the bottom element. Blisters, a split, a bulge or a burnt spot mean that element has failed.

5. Listen for the fan

   On a fan oven, the fan should turn when you select a fan function. If it's silent, or grinds and stops, the fan motor needs replacing, and the oven will heat poorly without it.

6. Check the temperature

   If the oven heats but food takes far longer than it used to, put an oven thermometer in the middle shelf at 180 °C for twenty minutes. A big difference points to the thermostat or sensor.

What usually goes wrong

Once the simple things are ruled out, the fault is usually one of these:

• A failed element: the most visible fault, and a standard repair.
• The thermostat: the oven heats a little, then stops, or runs far too hot or too cold.
• The selector switch: some or all functions do nothing, even though the elements are fine.
• A safety cut-out: a thermal fuse that has tripped because the oven overheated, often after a fan failure.
• The control board or timer: on electronic ovens, the board may not be switching the elements on.

When to call a technician

If the clock is set, the supply is on and one or more functions still won't heat, a part has failed. Replacing elements, thermostats, fans and switches means working with mains power behind hot panels, so let a technician do it.

When you book, tell us which functions work and which don't, and send a photo of the model sticker on the door frame if you can. See oven repairs for more about how we work.

No call-out fee when we repair it.If no repair is done, a R500 call-out applies. The technician finds the fault and explains the repair before any work starts, so you decide whether to go ahead.

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