Your oven or range is one of the most important appliances in your home. Without it, there's no way to cook for your family or bake a variety of foods. And like every appliance you use on a daily basis, your stove will break down over time. You don't always have to just buy a new range or oven if something's broken. Some parts do tend to wear out over time – the oven light bulbs, for instance – and are easy to change, even for a lay person. Other defects are more difficult to deal with and you'll need a little technical know-how to change out the defective part. In any case, however, it always makes sense to take a close look at the problem before replacing the whole appliance. Not all ovens are the same width and depth. They typically come with large baking dishes or pans and grills, however, which will be the right size to fit the oven's interior dimensions. You should be able to find almost exactly the same product from another brand, even if it will have a different name.

It's a good idea to compare the prices of the various brands, since baking dishes do tend to be interchangeable. Bosch and Siemens, for example, offer some models of oven that are practically identical except for the price. If you don't absolutely have to have an original piece, you can simply measure the defective baking surface or grill and look for a replacement of the same size. There are also baking surfaces of adjustable width. They are less stable, however, and can warp at high heat. Ranges and ovens typically have interior lighting to illuminate the cooking chamber. If your lights go out, it's most likely because you have a defective bulb. These are easy to replace. You should be able to find instructions for how to do so in the owner's manual for your oven. The bulb will be behind a glass cover which you'll need to remove first. Usually you just twist it to remove it. Then you can simply remove the bulb and replace it with a working light. You can find replacement bulbs for oven lighting under Parts & Accessories for ranges and ovens.

You will need to buy a heat-resistant bulb for this purpose; common light bulbs won't stand up to the temperatures inside your oven for long and will break again quickly. A defective oven door or door gasket can cause your oven to heat up slowly, since you can lose a large amount of heat if your door isn't well sealed. This not only costs a lot of energy, it also affects the results you'll get when you're trying to cook or roast food. Mud Tires For Suzuki SamuraiThat's why you need to replace defective seals as quickly as possible. Delta Touch Kitchen Faucet CanadaOften, door gaskets will only be glued on, meaning you won't need any special tools to replace them. Best Alternative Down Comforter Consumer Reports

If you can take your oven's door off its hinges easily for cleaning, make sure you reinstall it correctly to ensure you'll get the best temperature inside your oven. The following repair tips should only be employed by a trained electrician, since working on your oven's electrical components brings certain risks with it. If you install parts incorrectly, you run the risk of shock or starting a fire with an electrical short or a similar problem. You also need to be sure you switch off the fuse to cut off power to the oven before beginning work on it. You should know that many ranges, especially ranges with a cooktop, have a three-phase current connection and are connected to three fuses in your fuse box. Before you begin to disassemble the oven, you need to take some time and check your power cord, fuses, and oven timer. Little things like this can often be the reason your oven isn't working correctly. If you have a defective mechanism for overheating protection, your stove won't heat up.

It should be easy to locate the surge protector on the wiring diagram for your stove. The overheating protection mechanism has two connector contacts and is usually plugged into a socket, so it's relatively easy to remove. It shape will differ depending on the manufacturer. The overheating protector is generally located in a small metal housing. If you measure it after removing it, it should have a resistance close to 0 Ohm. If not, it's probably defective and needs to be replaced. Your oven also won't heat up if you have a defective thermostat. It's also relatively easy to check the thermostat with a multimeter and a heat source like a lighter or a hair dryer. To do so, remove the thermostat. When it's switched off, there will be no contact between the two switching contacts and the resistance is infinite. After switching it on, the resistance is close to 0 ohm. There is a temperature sensor on the thermostat. When it is heated up, the resistance between the two contacts increases.

When it reaches the set temperature, the resistance will again be infinite, as it is when it's switched off. If the thermostat doesn't perform as expected, it's defective. You will notice a defective heating element in one of two ways. First, a problem in your insulation could lead to a short, which will cause the fuse to blow out. You can use a multimeter to check whether one of the two connection contacts is shorted out to the ground. You will need to remove the heating element. Then you can measure the contact against the mass surface on which it is mounted. If there is 0 ohm between the contact and the mass, the insulation around the heating element is defective. The heating element itself has a total resistance between 20 and 60 ohm, which you can check using both connection contacts. If the resistance is approaching infinite the heating element is burned out and needs to be replaced. Every oven has more than one heating element which can go out. Ovens and mini ovens use the same technology and can be checked and repaired if needed in the same way.

You might want to make sure this kind of repair makes financial sense, however, since miniature ovens can be inexpensive to replace. If the fuse is tripped, you're probably looking at a short. As we've already described, this can be caused by a defective heating element. If you have a range with both oven and stove top, the problem could also be caused by the cook top. To check it, you can remove the cook top from the range by disconnecting the correct cable. If the cook top is where the defect is, the oven itself should begin to work. You should also check all the cables and wires for damage. You may not be able to repair a defective cook top, especially if it's a glass ceramic one. In conventional ranges, of course, you could also check the heating element and thermostat. There are many more electrical components in modern cook tops, which aren't easy to repair without the right professional training. There may be nothing else you can do with a defective cooktop besides call a repairman or replace the whole piece.