You set your oven to 350, give it twenty minutes to preheat, and open the door to find it barely warm. Or completely cold. The display says it's heating. The element or burner might even glow for a second. But the oven never actually reaches temperature. An oven not heating is one of our most common repair calls in Orlando, and it always seems to happen right when you need it.
An oven not heating in Orlando is something we fix multiple times a week at QLAMA Appliance Repair. The cause is almost always one of a few predictable failures, and most are easy to diagnose once you know what to look for.
Electric ovens: the bake element is usually the culprit
Most homes in the Orlando area have electric ovens. If yours won't heat, the first suspect is the bake element, the coil at the bottom of the oven cavity. When it's working, it glows bright red-orange. When it fails, you'll often see a visible crack or blister in the element, or it just won't glow at all.
I see this all the time: the bake element works intermittently before it fully dies. Your oven takes longer to preheat, or it cooks unevenly for weeks before the element finally gives out. People think the oven is "getting old" when really the element is failing in slow motion. By the time they call us, it's been underperforming for months.
The broil element at the top of the oven can fail too, though it's less common since it gets used less. If your oven heats on broil but not on bake, that confirms the bake element is your problem.
Other electric oven failures that prevent heating:
- A bad oven temperature sensor. It's a thin metal probe, usually in the back wall of the oven cavity. It tells the control board what temperature the oven has reached. When it fails or reads incorrectly, the board might never turn on the element, or it might cycle the element off too early.
- A fried control board. The board that regulates oven temperature can die after power surges. Orlando's summer storm season takes these out regularly.
- A blown thermal fuse. Some ovens have a thermal fuse that cuts power to the heating circuit if the oven overheats. Once it blows, no heat until you replace it.
Gas ovens: when the igniter is the problem (and it usually is)
If you have a gas oven that won't heat, I'd put money on the bake igniter about 80% of the time. Gas ovens don't use a pilot light anymore. They use a flat silicon carbide igniter that heats up to open the gas safety valve. When the igniter gets weak, it still glows (you can see it turn orange through the bottom of the oven) but it doesn't get hot enough to open the valve. So you get a glowing igniter, no gas flow, and no heat.
This trips people up constantly. They look inside, see the igniter glowing, and assume it's fine. It's not. A weak igniter is the single most common gas oven repair I do. The igniter glows for two or three minutes, shuts off without ever lighting the burner, then tries again. That cycling is the telltale sign.
Gas ovens can also fail to heat because of a faulty gas safety valve, though this is much less common. The valve itself rarely fails. What happens more often is people smell gas or hear clicking and assume the valve is the issue when the igniter is actually the weak link.
If you smell gas when your oven is trying to heat, turn it off and open some windows. A faint gas odor during the ignition sequence can be normal, but if the smell is strong or it lingers, shut off the gas supply and call a technician. Don't mess around with gas leaks.
Things you can check yourself before calling anyone
You don't need to be a technician to rule out some of the simpler causes. Check out our guide on DIY vs pro decision.
Is the oven actually set to bake? I know that sounds patronizing, but I've been on service calls where the oven was set to "warm" or the timer was set instead of the temperature. No shame in it. These controls aren't always intuitive.
Look at the bake element while the oven is set to heat. In an electric oven, the element should glow red within a couple of minutes. If it doesn't glow at all, it's probably burned out. If only part of it glows, there's a break in the element and it needs replacement. Turn the oven off and let it cool before you get close to inspect it.
Check your circuit breaker. Electric ovens run on a 40 or 50 amp double-pole breaker. If one leg of the breaker trips, you get partial power. The clock and controls work, but the heating elements don't get the 240 volts they need. Flip the breaker fully off and back on.
For gas ovens, make sure the gas supply is on. The shutoff valve is usually behind the oven or on the gas line nearby. Verify your other gas appliances work too. If your stovetop burners light but the oven doesn't heat, the problem is in the oven itself, not the gas supply.
If you recently had a power outage or a lightning storm (both common in Orlando from May through October), a surge may have damaged the control board or blown a fuse inside the oven. Check out our guide on spotting power surge damage. You can't fix those yourself, but knowing the timing helps a technician zero in on the problem faster.
When to stop troubleshooting and call a pro
If the element looks fine, the breaker hasn't tripped, and the oven still won't heat, you're past the point of DIY checks. Testing temperature sensors, control boards, and gas valve circuits takes a multimeter and someone who knows what the readings should look like.
I'd also say call a technician if your oven heats but won't reach the set temperature. A temperature sensor that reads 50 degrees high will make the oven shut off the element early. The oven technically heats but never hits 350. That kind of problem is nearly impossible to catch without testing equipment.
Most oven heating problems fall into the cooking-repair category, which Yale Appliance's 2025 service-call data puts in the $180-$600 range across thousands of jobs. Where your specific repair lands depends on the brand, the failed component, and how accessible it is. Bake elements and igniters are on the simpler end. Control boards on premium brands sit at the top of the range. We quote a flat-rate price for the actual repair before we start any work. Check out our guide on what appliance repair typically costs in Orlando.
If your oven is over 15 years old and the control board is shot, it might not make financial sense to fix it. A new basic oven starts around $500. We'll be straight with you about whether repair or replacement is the better call.
Get your oven heating again
QLAMA Appliance Repair fixes ovens across Orlando, Winter Park, Kissimmee, and the surrounding area. We figure out what's actually wrong, tell you what it'll cost, and fix it.
Book an appointment online or call us at 561-320-7695.