Wondering if an electrician can fix your electric oven? Learn when to call an electrician vs. an appliance technician, common causes of oven failure, and how to avoid costly mistakes.
Oven Not Working? Common Causes and How to Fix It
When your oven not working, a household appliance that heats food using electric or gas elements, it doesn’t just ruin dinner—it throws your whole day off. Whether it’s a gas oven that won’t ignite or an electric one that stays cold, the problem is usually one of a few things. Most people assume it’s time to replace the whole unit, but often, it’s just a broken oven element, the heating coil inside the oven that glows red when powered or a faulty oven control board, the electronic brain that tells the oven when and how to heat. These parts wear out, get damaged, or lose connection—and they’re usually cheap to replace.
Before you call a technician, check the basics. Is the oven plugged in? Is the circuit breaker tripped? Did you accidentally turn on the child lock? These sound simple, but they’re the top reasons people think their oven is dead when it’s just asleep. If the oven lights up but doesn’t heat, the oven element is the usual suspect. Look for visible cracks, blisters, or spots that didn’t glow red when last used. If the oven doesn’t even turn on, the oven control board might be fried. It’s not always visible, but you’ll know if the display is blank, error codes show up, or the buttons don’t respond. For gas ovens, a broken igniter or blocked gas valve can stop the flame from lighting—even if the oven thinks it’s trying to heat.
Replacing a broken element is something many homeowners can do themselves with a screwdriver and a multimeter. Control boards are trickier—they need matching part numbers and sometimes programming. If you’re not sure, it’s better to get a pro in. A bad repair job can turn a $50 fix into a $500 mess. And if your oven is over 10 years old, it’s worth asking: is this repair worth it? Sometimes, the cost of fixing an old unit adds up faster than buying a new one with better energy ratings and smarter features.
What you’ll find below are real fixes from people who’ve been there—step-by-step checks for oven elements, how to tell if the control board is the issue, why gas ovens fail silently, and when it’s smarter to walk away. No fluff. No sales pitches. Just what actually works.