How to fix an oven that is not heating up

The number one reason for an oven not heating up is:

• Faulty fan oven element

It is one of the most common oven problems that oven repair engineers are called out to.  It's a simple DIY task to replace and will save you up to £100 by doing the repair yourself!

1. How to inspect your oven element

In order to confirm that it is the oven element that is causing your oven not to get hot you will need to remove it from your oven and inspect it.  Take a look at our in depth guide on which will also show you how to remove it.

We have demonstrations on 2 different makes of oven, however the process is similar no matter which make or model you have:

How to remove and replace your Hotpoint oven element

How to replace the fan element in an Indesit oven

2. Will it be obvious that my oven element has failed?

There are several different ways that a faulty oven element will present itself.

• Often, but not always, the RCD in your consumer unit will trip during cooking and the power to your oven will be lost.   When you re-set the RCD and turn your oven back on everything will appear to be working fine; the fan will be working, the thermostat light (if you have one) will be lit, but there will be no heat. Or,
• When you come to remove your food from the oven ready to serve it you’ll notice that it hasn’t cooked properly and the oven is either cold or just warm.

3. Can I tell just by looking at my element that it has failed?

Sometimes visual inspection of an oven element will be enough to know that it is the cause of your oven not heating up.  Any burning or bulging will be enough to confirm that a replacement oven element will need to be fitted.  See the 2 example images below; both oven elements have failed, however one is more obvious than the other.

Obvious buring of the oven element

This is an example of a very obvious burnt out oven element, a sure indication that it is the element causing the oven not to get hot.

Less Obvious Bulging of the oven element

Whilst it is clear that the oven element in the image below has blown, it is not as obvious as the burnt element above.

4. No visual sign that the element is faulty

If there are no visual signs that your element is faulty and your oven isn't getting hot you can test your element using a test meter.  Check out our guide on:

how to use a multimeter to test an oven element