My husband and I are facing a frugal dilemma that I would love reader’s input on. For the last couple of years our gas oven (also a gas range) has struggled to hold a steady temperature.It does not seem old but I’ve only lived in this house for three years. It’s a GE “TrueTemp” oven (oh the irony).I know gas ovens should expect to have temperature fluctuations but this goes much beyond that. I thought it might be a thermostat issue because it “thinks” it is still at the temperature I set but the reality is that the temperature has dropped 100-150 degrees.However, the last time I tried to use the oven, it would not heat up a first. (After about an hour of switching in on and off it finally got up to temperature.)My husband and I have been advised to just buy new and not bother with repairs. We have been told that between to price of the service call, parts and install we will pay a LOT of money and in the end it might not be fixable. We really hate to just throw out the oven for environmental concerns but we do want to be frugal and wise.
My goodness, that sounds SO frustrating! It would not be the end of the world for something like a pot roast, but if you were trying to bake a cake or a crusty loaf of bread, that amount of temperature fluctuation would be a bit of a disaster.
So, I completely understand why you want to get this fixed or replaced.
When I make a decision like this, I try to consider things like:
- the age of the appliance (if it’s very old, other things might go wrong soon too, and replacement parts might be hard to get)
- the cost of replacement (if the service call is going to add up to half the cost of a replacement, then that’s an argument for not fixing the old one)
Remember when I cracked the glass top of the stove at my old house?
In that case, the new stovetop didn’t make a lot of sense, especially given how old my oven was. You can read through my thinking on that in this post.
Luckily, I knew precisely what was wrong with my stove (ha!), so it was easy to figure out how much a replacement would cost.
In your case, there are more unknowns, so that makes it harder.
If we were chatting I’d ask you:
- Who advised you? If they’re experienced and knowledgeable about repairing gas ovens, I’d take their advice seriously. When I cracked my stovetop, I called my trusty appliance repair guy to ask his opinion!
- How much is a service call in your area?
- Are parts readily available for your oven?
- How much would a new gas stove/oven be?
- Would the new gas stove have some better features that would be valuable to you?
Also, you’ve probably already done this, but I’d definitely google my oven’s symptoms to see if I could get a vague idea of what the problem might be, because that might help me get a ballpark idea of what a repair would involve.
I am not at ALL a gas oven expert, though, so I’m gonna stop typing here and open the floor up for reader input.
Miss Merry
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
My oven doesn't hold temperature either. Parts are outrageous and there is no guarantee it will work. I wasn't ready to buy a new stove so I watched sales and bought a Ninja 12 in 1 countertop oven for $189. I can basically cook whole meals in it. When I'm ready to replace, I'm looking at a stripped down, no frills, no MOTHERBOARD generic stove.
Liz
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
My husband and I recently had the same problem with our gas oven. My husband 'YouTubed' the issue and thought it was probably the ignitor in the bottom on the oven. Sometimes it would work fine, other times it couldn't maintain or get up to temperature, and sometimes it wouldn't heat up at all. This got more and more frequent. We felt confident that if the ignitor was the issue we could replace it ourselves. The part was only about $20, so if it didn't work it wasn't a big investment. Our backup plan was to just replace the whole oven, but thankfully it worked! It wasn't difficult to replace, but it did take a little over an hour (maybe closer to two- I honestly don't remember) to just make sure everything was taken apart and put back together correctly. I'd say try and troubleshoot and try to DIY the repair. If you can't then you just have to determine whether you're willing to shell out a couple hundred to a repair person or just put that towards a new one. Thankfully our stovetop worked the whole time, so it was still pretty easy to cook at home when our oven was broken.
ElbowGrease
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
I had run into a similar experience as @Liz. My gas stove was slow coming up to temperature and wouldn't at time, so I replaced my ignitor. I debated if the work was worth it versus just buying a new stove, and for around $25 and a little bit of work, it is working as new.
I agree with another commentator if you are considering going to an electric oven, induction seems to be the way to go, and if I ever switched from gas that would be my choice.
Ruby
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
Gas stoves do need to be recalibrated every now and then. Ours is a Kenmore and is a bit more than ten years old. A few years ago I noticed that baked goods were not turning out quite right and the cooking time had to be extended. We bought an oven thermometer at the hardware store and found it was 30 degrees too low.
The appliance repair guy was sure we did not know what we were talking about and was dismissive of our cheap thermometer, until he checked it with his gizmo and we were right. My husband said watching the guy eat crow was very satisfying. :-D However, repair guy did fix it and it's worked like a champ ever since.
I am dedicated to repair over replace because new stoves are not as good and reckless consumption is killing the planet. We have run across some repair people who just want to collect the money from service calls to tell us to get rid of an appliance with a minor problem, without doing any work. Those folks go on our "never call again" list. If you like the stove and feel it does the job when working well, then a second opinion on the repair is a good spend.
Queen of Fifty Cents
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
If you opt to replace, you might consider an induction stove instead of gas. I always swore I'd never switch from gas because it's so much better to cook on, but I've gotten concerned about the pollution issue (which another commenter mentioned below). I bought a single burner induction cooktop to try out (an as-new return at Amazon) and I love it. I still use my gas oven when I bake but have basically decommissioned the burners. Yes, it does mean making sure your pans will hold a magnet, but I keep a small magnet in my change purse and have found great pans for next to nothing at yard sales.
Sharon
Wednesday 16th of October 2024
I wouldn't try to repair and would instead purchase a new electric stove. We have a gas stove that I'm saving up to replace due to the health concerns about the emissions.