How To Diagnose Faulty Heating Elements In Your Oven

Fred's Appliance
November 6, 2014
General Appliance Repair

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.

If you have any questions about how to figure out if the heating element in your electric oven needs replaced, be sure to contact us.

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