Oven overheating: what our engineers find
These figures come from NAC's own repair records: 79 oven jobs our engineers attended for this fault. Here is what they found, what fixed it and what it typically cost.
When an oven keeps getting hotter than the temperature you have set, burning food or leaving the temperature light glowing, the cause is most often a faulty thermostat. This is the part that tells the oven when to stop heating, and when it fails the oven simply carries on heating long after it should have switched off. Now and then engineers also find a worn or failed heating element at the same time, which is replaced alongside the thermostat.
To find the cause, an engineer sets the oven to a low temperature and measures how hot it actually gets, watching whether it rises well past the setting without cutting out. They also check the thermostat itself to see whether it is staying switched on when it should be off, and test the heating elements so that nothing else is missed.
The thermostat usually has to be ordered to suit your oven, so the new one is often fitted at a second visit. Once it is in, the engineer runs the oven again and checks that it heats to the right temperature, switches off and on as it should and holds steady, so you can cook without burning food.
Written by our engineers from these jobs.
- Jobs attended
- 79
- Confirmed repairs
- 46
- This is not a success rate. Jobs inside their 60-day window, jobs still being classified, jobs held for review and visits that didn't end in a repair aren't counted.
- Fixed at the first appointment
- 0%
- fewer than 1 in 100 of our repairs
- Typical total paid by customers
- £160 to £333
- including parts and VAT, from 42 repairs
What's usually behind it
The causes our engineers found and fixed, as a share of our 46 confirmed repairs for this fault.
-
Faulty thermostat: about 7 in 10 of our repairs, from 33 jobs.
72%
We only list causes with enough repairs behind them, so the shares won't add up to 100%.
About the price. £160 to £333 is the typical total paid by customers, including parts and VAT: the middle half of what customers paid on 42 of these repairs. Repairs paid for by manufacturers and insurers aren't counted, because that work is charged at contract rates. It's a guide, not a quote. Your engineer confirms a fixed price before any work starts.
Before you check anything yourself
- Switch the oven off and unplug it, or turn it off at the isolator switch, before you touch anything. Our guide to safely isolating an appliance walks you through it.
- If it involves the mains supply, sealed parts, or you're not confident at any point, stop and book a qualified engineer rather than risk injury or further damage.
- If it's a gas appliance and you can smell gas, don't use it. Open the windows and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.
Rather leave it to us?
- Fixed-price quote before any work starts
- Same or next-day visits where available
- UK-wide engineer coverage