Five Reasons Why Your Oven Isn’t Heating Evenly

Whatever is on the menu, its extremely frustrating when you’ve followed the cooking instructions, yet for some reason, your dinner hasn’t cooked evenly.

Not only is this problem going to ruin your dinner, it could also be a health hazard if food such as chicken isn’t cooking thoroughly.

There are a number of reasons this could be happening, and the good news is that most of them are easily identified. Read on to find out six reasons why you’re having oven problems.

The oven isn’t calibrated properly

If you’re popping in a pizza, following the instructions to the letter, but your end product is burnt around the edges while the middle seems raw, you might be facing an oven calibration problem.

Although you’ve chosen the correct temperature setting, it could be that the internal temperature isn’t matching. Over time, a lot of heating and cooling can put stress on an oven, and so the accuracy of temperature can wear out over time.

You can easily test this theory using an oven thermometer. Place the thermometer in your oven and preheat to a desired temperature – lets says 200 degrees. Ensure you leave the thermometer in the oven for at least 15 minutes to ensure its preheated, then take a temperature reading. Continue to do this for the next two hours or so. Once you’ve done this, find the average of your readings, which should be the original set temperature.

If it seems as though you have a poor oven calibration, you’re going to need expert help to reset this. Speak to one of our oven repair experts, who can help you in resetting your calibration.

You need to adjust your oven racks

Your oven problems could be down to something as simple as the placement of your racks.

If you have a brand-new oven, you’ll need to learn how it cooks. Take note of the placement of your racks, and how your food is cooking. For example, if your food is burnt on top but undercooked on the bottom, your rack may need lowering. You may even need to rotate your food as it cooks to ensure its heated evenly.

The temperature sensor is faulty

Much like the poor oven calibration, a fault temperature sensor could be to blame for your oven not baking evenly.

You might think you’re setting your oven to 200 degrees, but due to a fault in your temperature sensor, your oven could be heating above or below this. You can check your temperature sensor inside your oven by preheating and checking that the temperature sensor is rising with the heat.

If this isn’t the case, the temperature sensor will need replacing. It’s a good idea to have a cooker repairs expert look at this for you.

The elements are broken

There are two elements in your oven – the bake element and the broil element. If either of these are broken or faulty, your oven isn’t going to cook evenly.

The bake element is located at the bottom of your oven, with the broil element at the top. You can visually check these by preheating the oven and looking for the elements glowing red. If they’re not, or they look visually defected, you know to call a repair specialist to have these replaced.

The oven fan is broken

If you’re the owner of a fan oven, the fan is the most important part of your appliance. This is because the fan distributes the heat evenly around the oven, helping your food to cook evenly.

When your oven is on, check to see if your fan sounds louder than usual, or if it seems to be working slower than usual. If this is the case, wait until your oven is completely cool and turn the fan by hand. If you’re met with any resistance, its time to call a professional to replace the fan!