I can't wait on two hours for a pizza to bake

May 22, 2009 5:06 PM

I'm having trouble with my oven and think it's the door gasket/seal. Specifically, I see that the gasket is only going 3/4 of the way around the door, and isn't on the bottom. Is that normal? I think the answer is probably no, so...... how easy is this to fix?
posted by saffry to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Some gaskets only go part of the way around. An easy way to tell if this is the way it's supposed to be is if the edges are ragged. If the edge is a clean 90 degree angle cut, then it is probably supposed to be this way. I'm not sure why they make some of them this way, but when I worked for a property management company I cleaned many ovens. Some of them only had a seal on the sides and top.
posted by jefeweiss at 5:24 PM on May 22, 2009

Totally normal, most ovens without self cleaning don't have gaskets all the way around. It is because the lower gasket doesn't really do anything, because heat rises, besides get really dirty.
posted by Mitheral at 5:30 PM on May 22, 2009

Response by poster: Okay. So why isn't my oven heating? If I set it at 350, it warms a little, but not all the way. If I set it to 450, it heats up perfectly. But then it doesn't hold the temperature if I turn it back down to 350. Any thoughts?
posted by saffry at 5:50 PM on May 22, 2009

The one time this happened to me (oven not heating like it should, the top element was disconnected or just broken (I don't remember exactly). Does your "broil" setting still work?
posted by ddaavviidd at 6:01 PM on May 22, 2009

Bad thermostat, perhaps?
posted by hattifattener at 6:15 PM on May 22, 2009

I think it's much more likely that one of the elements is shot, probably the bottom one.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:56 PM on May 22, 2009

When we went shopping for an oven years ago every oven we looked at ( many) had only 3/4 gasket, and sometimes less. That part is very normal.

Seconding the thought from hattifattener about your thermostat. Its not cycling through. If the oven is heating up, its not likely the oven element.

I think the reason the gasket doesn't go all the way around the door is because when the hot air rises out through one of the back burners to keep the temperature has to stay constant. The replacement air has to enter through somewhere. You guessed it, the front door where the seal isn't.

BTW your broiler element is a separate unit. It doesn't come on at the same time your "oven" element does.
posted by Taurid at 9:57 PM on May 22, 2009

saffry writes "If I set it at 350, it warms a little, but not all the way. If I set it to 450, it heats up perfectly. But then it doesn't hold the temperature if I turn it back down to 350. Any thoughts?"

99% this is either an element or your oven control. The element can burn out such that only part of it is working and that only at 110V instead of 220V so it half works at half voltage giving you a 25% or less heating. It's impossible to say which (unless you can see physical damage to the element) without testing with a meter.

Taurid writes "your broiler element is a separate unit. It doesn't come on at the same time your 'oven' element does."

This actually varies quite a bit between units. About 80% of ovens only ever use one element at a time depending on where you set your knob (top element for broil and bottom element for bake). Others will use both elements until the set point is first reached and then cycle on just the bottom element. Convection ovens will often use both elements when convection baking. And some ovens have two set points and will power both elements whenever the lower set point is reached which can happen for example when the door is opened or a higher temperature is selected.
posted by Mitheral at 11:41 PM on May 22, 2009