I Replaced a Bulb in the Oven and Now the Oven Will Not Work

Shutting Off the Electricity

Before replacing a bulb in your oven, you should always turn the power to the oven off. You can do this by pulling the electrical plug or by turning off the power to the kitchen by flipping the breaker in your home’s breaker box. Although you can sometimes change an oven light bulb while the power is on without incident, there is a possibility that the bulb will short out the circuit, which may cause the light socket, or the entire oven, to stop working.

Check the Breaker

If you replaced a bulb in an oven while the oven was still plugged in and the oven stops working, you should first check the breaker box. When you replace a bulb in an oven that still has power, it may cause an electrical surge, which can flip the breaker. Since an oven often has its own breaker in the breaker box, it is possible that the breaker has been flipped even if the electricity in the kitchen remains on.

Change the Fuse

If your home has a fuse box instead of a breaker box, the oven almost definitely has its own fuse. Unlike a breaker, which can simply be switched back on to restart the electricity to the oven, a blown fuse must be replaced. Like in a breaker box, the fuse that goes to the oven is generally labeled. You can tell if the oven fuse in the fuse box has blown by looking at the color of the fuse. A good fuse looks transparent, while a blown fuse has a dark tint.

Other Issues

It is possible that it's a coincidence that the oven stops working after you replace the bulb; the oven may have some other problem. The heating elements in an oven can burn out, which will prevent the oven from heating. If the stove comes on but the oven doesn’t, a broken heating element is a likely culprit. If you have a self-cleaning oven, this can cause a number of issues as well. The oven won’t turn on while the cleaning is in progress, and the oven can get stuck in the cleaning mode. If that happens, a technician will have to repair the oven.