How to Troubleshoot a Non-Heating Whirlpool Oven

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Fred's Appliance
October 22, 2018
Oven Repair
If it wasn’t for your Whirlpool oven model WFG320M0BW, your family wouldn’t enjoy all those delicious meals you make for them. Unfortunately, the more use your oven gets the more wear and tear its components withstand. One of the most common malfunctions an oven experience is the no heat syndrome. While this issue is beyond frustrating, especially if you’re in the middle of cooking dinner, it doesn’t mean your oven is headed to the nearest junkyard. Diagnosing and fixing an oven that is producing little to no heat is actually a repair you can probably handle on your own. To help you troubleshoot a non-heating oven, we’ve created a list of components known for hindering an oven’s ability to heat up.
Safety Reminder: Always unplug an appliance before starting a repair, and if you are working with a gas oven, turn off the gas supply valve. Work gloves and safety goggles should be worn when fixing a malfunctioning appliance.

Check Your Gas Supply

Before inspecting any other components in your oven, test the appliance’s gas supply. If your oven isn’t receiving gas it won’t be able to heat up. To check the gas supply, simply turn on a cooktop burner. If the burner ignites, gas is entering your appliance. On the other hand, if the burner stays unlit, you’ll need to pull your range away from the wall to ensure the gas cutoff valve is open. Once you confirm the valve is in the open position, you’ll need to contact your gas supplier to find out why there is no gas coming out of the supply valve.

The Oven Igniter

Your oven igniter should produce enough heat to open the gas valve and ignite the gas entering your appliance. Over time, the igniter can weaken, meaning it will take a longer period of time to heat up. If your igniter glows for over a minute without a flame igniting, the component is no longer functioning properly.

How to Replace the Oven Igniter in Your Whirlpool Oven

  1. Start your repair by removing the lower access panel from the back of your range. Once the panel is off, pull apart the igniter and gas safety valve’s wire harnesses.
  2. Head to the front of your range, and open the oven door. Take out the oven racks. Remove the oven’s lower access panel by lifting the back up first, and then sliding the panel towards the front of the oven.
  3. The oven igniter is located on the side of the burner tube, which runs through the middle of the oven cavity. To remove the faulty oven igniter, you’ll need to detach the burner tube and take it out of your appliance. To do so, simply unthread the mounting screws securing it to the inside of the oven. Once the burner tube is free, pull it and the oven igniter out of the oven cavity.
  4. Put the burner tube on a flat solid surface, and remove the screws securing the defective oven igniter to the burner tube.
  5. Align the new oven igniter with the mounting bracket on the burner tube. Secure the igniter with screws.
  6. Go back to your range and reinstall the burner tube. Push the igniter wires through the opening on the oven’s rear wall. Reinsert the oven’s lower access panel, and put the oven racks back in your appliance.
  7. Head to the back of your appliance and reconnect the igniter’s wire harness with the gas safety valve’s harness. Replace the lower access panel and secure it with the four screws you removed earlier.
  8. Plug your appliance back in, and turn on the gas supply valve. Set your oven to preheat and wait for it to warm up to determine if the new oven igniter solved your appliance’s heating problem.

The Oven Sensor Assembly

The oven sensor and the oven control board work as a team to measure and regulate the temperature of the oven. As its name implies, the sensor detects the temperature inside the oven cavity. If the sensor is defective the oven will not heat at all or the accuracy of the sensor will be off by 50 degrees or more.

How to Replace the Oven Sensor in Your Whirlpool Oven

  1. Move to the back of your appliance and disconnect the sensor’s wire harness. Unthread the two screws securing the oven sensor to the range’s rear panel.
  2. Once the screws are removed, simply slide the sensor out of the opening in the back of the oven.
  3. Grab your new oven sensor, and insert it into the hole in the rear panel. Replace the mounting screws to hold the sensor in place. Finally, reconnect the wire harness.
  4. Plug-in your range, and turn the gas back on. Test the new sensor by turning your oven on and measuring the temperature inside the oven cavity with an oven thermometer.

Other Components That Cause a Non-Heating Oven

The Oven Control Board, as mentioned above, works in conjunction with the oven sensor. While the sensor is more likely to malfunction, the control board can also end up failing. If this happens, the component may read the temperature sent from the oven sensor wrong, which can lead to the oven not heating at all or the temperature in the oven cavity being significantly inaccurate. Replacing the defective control board is your best option.
The Gas Safety Valve regulates when gas is and isn’t released into your oven. If the component is working properly, the safety valve will open when the oven igniter begins to glow white-hot. A malfunctioning gas safety valve won’t allow gas into the oven, even after the igniter is hot enough to ignite the gas. While a defective safety valve can happen, it is a rare occurrence, meaning you should rule out more common malfunctions first. However, if you do discover the gas safety valve is behind you non-heating oven, replacing the component is the only way to fix the problem.
An oven that won’t heat can turn your dinner plans into a complete disaster, especially when the malfunction hits right before a dinner party. If you’re dealing with a non-heating oven and you can’t figure out which component is causing the issue, please contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of our appliance repair technicians.
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