Repair guide
Oven Not Heating Up: What to Check First
Updated 10/11/2026
When the stove top works and the oven does not, the oven's own igniter, heating element or temperature sensor is the usual cause. Those are repairs, but a few things are worth ruling out first.
This guide covers gas and electric ovens: what to check, what usually fails, and when to stop. Mend My Appliance repairs ovens and ranges at home across the Portland metro area.
Before you check anything
- If you smell gas, do not light anything and do not touch a switch. Leave the home and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.
- Let the oven cool completely before you look inside or touch an element.
- Switch off the breaker before you look closely at an electric element.
- Do not remove panels, and do not try to light a gas oven by hand.
What you can check yourself
The breaker
An electric range uses a double breaker. With half of it tripped, the clock and the light can work while the oven barely heats. Switch it fully off, then on.
The clock and the modes
Some ovens will not heat until the clock is set after a power cut, or while a delayed start, a Sabbath mode, a showroom mode or a control lock is on. The manual says how to leave each one.
The gas supply, on a gas oven
Check that the burners on top light. If they do not either, the gas supply or the range's own shut-off valve is closed.
The igniter, on a gas oven
Start the oven and watch through the window or the openings in the oven floor. The igniter should glow bright orange and the flame should appear within a minute or so. If it glows for a couple of minutes and no flame appears, turn the oven off. A weak igniter is the most common fault of a gas oven, and it is a repair.
The elements, on an electric oven
With the oven off and cool, look at the bake element at the bottom and the broil element at the top. A blistered, cracked or broken element needs replacing. On many newer ovens the bake element is hidden under the oven floor and cannot be seen.
The temperature, when it is only a little off
Put an oven thermometer in the center of the oven and let the oven cycle for twenty minutes. Many ovens let you adjust the calibration in the settings; the manual says how.
The door
A door that does not close fully, or a torn door gasket, lets the heat out and makes preheating slow.
Gas oven won't ignite
The igniter does two jobs: it lights the gas, and it lets the safety valve open by drawing enough current. A tired igniter still glows, but too weakly to open the valve, so there is a glow and no flame. No glow at all means the igniter is broken or is not getting power. In both cases the igniter is replaced; the valve itself rarely fails.
Electric oven element not heating
If the broil element at the top works and the bake element does not, the bake element has failed, or the wire to it has burned off. If neither heats and the breaker is fine, the fault is further back: the temperature sensor, the thermal fuse or the control board.
Oven takes too long to preheat, or never reaches temperature
An oven that gets warm but not hot is running on part of its heat: one element out of two on an electric oven, a weak igniter on a gas oven that lets the burner light late, or half a breaker. A temperature sensor that reads wrong makes the oven stop short of the set temperature, or run past it.
Not heating after a self-clean cycle
Self-clean runs the oven far hotter than cooking does, and that is when thermal fuses, door locks and control boards most often fail. If the oven is dead, or the door stays locked after it has cooled, that is a repair.
What usually fails
- Igniter, on a gas oven: it glows without lighting the burner.
- Bake or broil element, on an electric oven: burned through.
- Temperature sensor: the oven heats to the wrong temperature.
- Thermal fuse: blown, often after a self-clean cycle.
- Control board or relay: the heat is never switched on.
- Wiring burned at the terminals of an element.
- Gas safety valve: rare, and checked after the igniter.
When to call for a repair
- There is no heat after a reset of the breaker and the clock.
- The igniter glows and the burner does not light.
- Preheating takes far longer than it used to.
- The oven trips the breaker.
- The door will not unlock after a self-clean cycle.
- An error code keeps coming back.
What a repair visit involves
- Book online: choose the appliance, describe the problem and pick up to three times that suit you.
- We confirm one of your times by phone or text. You are not booked until we do.
- We come to your home, test the oven and find the cause.
- You get the price before any repair begins. We repair it with your approval; if a part has to be ordered, we come back to fit it.
The diagnostic visit costs $90. If you go ahead with the repair, the $90 is applied toward it; if you decide not to repair, the $90 covers the diagnosis.
Our work and the parts we install carry a 90-day warranty. The terms are printed on your invoice.
Repair the oven or replace it?
It depends on the age of the oven, the cost of the part and what a comparable new one costs. A diagnosis gives you the numbers for your machine, and the decision stays yours.
Where we work
We come to homes across the Portland metro area in Oregon, among them Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Tualatin and Lake Oswego. Enter your ZIP code when you book and the form checks it right away.