Oven and stove troubleshooting
An oven and a cooktop share a kitchen, not a circuit. A cold oven beside working burners is a clue, and the smell of gas is a reason to leave.
An electric range, from the control panel down. A gas smell is a reason to leave the kitchen, not a part to remove.
- Control panel. The switches or the touch panel at the back.
- Cooktop. The top surface. On a glass top, it is the black glass.
- Oven door. The front door. Leave it on the oven.
- Rack. A shelf inside the cavity.
- Oven cavity. The box where the food bakes.
An oven that will not heat and a cooktop that still boils water are different circuits. That split is the most useful first observation on an electric range. On a gas range it is also a safety split: the oven burner and the cooktop burners do not share one igniter, and neither of them is something to take apart if you smell gas.
If you smell gas, leave the house, do not flip switches, and call the gas utility or emergency services. Do not spray soapy water on a fitting as a casual test while the smell is strong, and do not adjust an orifice or a gas valve. Those parts are for a qualified technician.
Electric ranges you can look at
Confirm the oven is set to Bake, not a warm or proof mode, and that Control Lock or Sabbath is not showing on the display. The button sequence is printed in the manual for that model. There is no single key combination for every brand.
With the breaker off, you can look through the oven window or the open door for a bake element that is visibly split or blistered. Replacing that element means the range is disconnected and you have confirmed the power is off. If you are not set up to do that, stop at the visual check. A broil element that glows while bake stays cold points at the bake circuit, not at the whole range being dead.
The full symptom guide is oven not heating up. Samsung-specific stalls, including ovens that seem stuck at a low temperature, are in Samsung oven not heating. A cavity that heats and is only dirty is how to clean an oven, not a heating repair. A black glass cooktop is how to clean a glass stove top.
What this page will not walk you through
Use an oven thermometer if the oven claims it is hot and the food says otherwise. A display and a cavity can disagree when a sensor is failing. The sensor test is model-specific and belongs in the tech sheet, not in a universal resistance number copied between brands.
Related heat problems that are not ovens: dryer not heating and microwave not heating. Microwave high voltage is a separate hazard. Do not open a microwave cabinet because an oven repair went well.
Guides in this section
How to clean an oven
How to clean an oven is a cool, empty cavity, racks removed, and only the method your manual allows: a labeled oven cleaner, a baking-soda paste when the man…
How to clean a glass stove top
How to clean a glass stove top, including how to clean an electric stove top, is a cool glass-ceramic surface, a soft cloth, and the cooktop cleaner the manu…
Oven not heating up: mode, lock, and heat checks by fuel
An oven not heating up needs a display check and a thermometer before any parts talk.
Samsung oven not heating: Control Lock, Sabbath, and a 175 stall
A Samsung oven not heating needs the icon on the display read against that model's manual before any heat part is blamed.