Cooker Error and Problem Diagnosis
If your electric oven is not heating properly, one of the heating elements in your oven may need to be replaced. It is easy to check for a faulty heating element by following these oven appliance repair tips.
What Is A Heating Element?
When you look inside of your oven, you will see coils on the top and bottom of your oven. These coils are called heating elements. They are responsible for providing your oven with the heat it needs to cook your food.
Diagnosing the Upper Heating Element
Set your oven to broil, and wait a few minutes. Open up your oven and look at the upper heating element.
The upper heating element should be bright orange if it is working correctly. If the upper heating element is not bright orange, it needs replaced. If parts of the heating elements are turning orange and other parts are not, the heating element is damaged and needs to be replaced. After you are done with your diagnosis, turn the oven off.
Diagnosing the Lower Heating Element
To diagnose the lower heating element, set your oven to 350 degrees and wait ten minutes. After about ten minutes, your oven should be hot.
Open the oven door and inspect the lower heating element. It should be bright orange. If it is not orange, or if parts of it are not orange, you need to replace the lower heating element. After you finish testing the lower heating element, turn your oven off.
Replacing the Heating Element
If either of the heating elements are damaged, you will want to replace the damaged heating element as soon as possible. Write down the make and model of your oven, and take that information to your local appliance store and purchase a new heating element. You can also search online for a new heating element.
Understanding your Cooker or oven problem and Finding the faults:
The oven will not turn on
The first thing you need to check is that the oven timer is not on auto if it is turn it on to manual.
No Heat in Oven
If the fan is running and the thermostat light comes on but you get no heat (or just the thermostat light on in non-fan ovens and cookers) then the probability is that the fan element or oven elements have failed. Find repair guides
The oven is totally dead
First things first, check the electricity supply and make sure it is okay. Find repair guides
The oven overheats and burns everything
Normally this is a simple thermostat failure which would manifest itself as this symptom. Find repair guides
The oven door isn’t closing properly
Normally this will be faulty hinges or the hinge runners. Find repair guides
The oven door fell off!
Normally this will be faulty hinges or the hinge runners. Find repair guides
The oven or cooker cuts out after it’s been on for a while
This is an overheating problem which can be caused by the main oven thermostat or a faulty safety thermostat that will be causing the problem. It can also be caused by a failure of the cooling fan, where fitted, but usually these go noisy before failing, Safety thermostats are used to prevent the oven or cooker overheating and will shut the oven down. Find repair guides
The oven or cooker is noisy
The fan motor and cooling fan motor are the most obvious causes where fitted. Find repair guides
Fan runs after I switch the oven off?
This is a cool down period and can vary massively from appliance to appliance but if it stays running then you normally have thermostat fault or sensor fault. See video above
The light inside the oven is faulty
Normally this is simply a case of replacing the bulb. Find repair guides
The grill element in my oven or cooker doesn’t work
This would usually indicate that the grill element is faulty. Check these Grill element Oven changeover switch Overheat thermostat Main oven thermostat, if used to regulate the grill temperature. Find repair guides
There’s smoke from the oven.
Invariably spillage except on a new installation or when a new element is fitted or oven may be overheating. Find repair guides
The oven does not come on, But Hob works but I can’t get the oven to come on.
The timer has been activated, possibly when the controls were cleaned. There are so many types of timers used that it would not be possible to go through every one, but if you have the instruction booklet, that will tell you how to turn it off. Normally it is just a case of pressing a button or turning a control knob. Find repair guides
Electricity trips (Rcd) when I turn the oven on or element
This is normally an element that has gone to earth, Well known fault with electric ovens, the insulation breaks down in the elements and trips the RCD , best way is to stick a meter on each element and check they not got earth leaks on them. But can also be a wiring fault. Find repair guides