Oven repair · Tulsa, OK
Cookies burned at the time the recipe gives, or a roast that never gets there. An oven thermometer from the grocery store tells you how far off it is.
Before you call
Smell gas? Don’t touch any switches. Leave the house and call your gas company from outside. Let the oven cool fully before you check the door seal or lift out foil.
What usually causes it
The thin probe on the back wall reads the heat for the control. As it ages its reading drifts, so the oven aims for the wrong temperature without knowing it.
Colby measures the sensor’s resistance and replaces it if it has drifted out of range.
Many ovens use both the bake and broil elements to preheat. If one has failed, preheating drags on, and food browns only on the top or only on the bottom.
He tests both elements and replaces the one that has quit.
The burner cycles on and off to hold the heat, and the igniter must light it every time. A tired igniter lights it late on each cycle, so the oven sags below the setting and takes ages to preheat.
He times the ignition and tests the igniter against its rating.
Heat escapes wherever the door doesn’t seal: a torn gasket, a bent hinge, a door that sits crooked. The oven runs longer, and food near the door cooks slower.
He replaces the gasket or the hinges so the door shuts tight again.
Most ovens today use an electronic control; older ones use a mechanical thermostat with a sensing bulb. Either can lose accuracy, and an oven that keeps heating well past the setting can have a stuck relay on the board.
He checks whether the control switches the heat off when it should.
Questions
AEvery oven cycles a little above and below the setting. If the average on your thermometer is off by more than about 25 degrees, or the swings are wide, it’s worth having Colby look.
AThat usually means it can’t make enough heat: one electric element has failed, or a gas oven’s igniter is too weak to keep the burner going. A bad sensor can cause it too.
ADark pans, foil on the floor and a rack set too low all do it. If those aren’t it, a broil element that has quit leaves the bottom element doing all the work.
AYes. There’s a diagnostic fee for the visit, and if you have Colby do the repair, the diagnostic fee is waived.
AMost appointments are within 48 hours, many within 24, and often the same day. Call or text and Colby will give you the soonest time he has.
Rather type it out?
Tell us what's wrong and how to reach you. Colby will call or text you back.
