A Simple Guide to Oven Hot Spots

No matter what type of oven you own, from a top-of-the-line convection oven to a gas-powered range at the end of its lifespan, you’re going to encounter some uneven heating. Most ovens will be hotter around the walls, floor, and ceiling, which is why some recipes get specific about where to position your racks and how to place that roast or cookie sheet when it comes time to cook.

These sorts of hot and cold spots aren’t problems, necessarily, but rather quirks of oven cooking that can even be helpful if you know what you’re doing. With the holiday season fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to get to know your range a bit better. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to test your oven for hot and cold spots, and give you some tips on how to work around (and with!) them.

Ready? Let’s get started.

How to test for hot and cold spots in your oven

Not knowing where your oven’s hot spots are or how to deal with them can make roasting and baking more stressful than they need to be. Luckily, we can help you with that first problem on the cheap and in less than an hour. We’ve got two different methods you can try for finding your oven’s hot and cold spots. Each one should only take between thirty minutes to an hour to complete – and that’s including oven preheating times!

Why go looking at all? Knowing where your oven runs hotter or cooler can help you to cook baked goods more evenly and more consistently roast meats and veggies, getting them to a safe internal temperature without burning. It can also potentially clue you in to more serious issues with your range — problems you can probably fix yourself with AppliancePartsPros.com on your side!

Before you start…

Practice proper cooking safety! For both of these tests, you should have good quality oven mitts on hand (pun intended). These tests require a heated oven and moving racks (and in the latter test’s case, a pan) around while they are hot. Don’t burn yourself. Protect those hands!

If, after completing one of these tests, you notice your test materials are more well done around the sides and back, that’s the oven working as intended. For gas-powered and electrical ovens, you can generally expect the center of the oven cavity to be cooler than the walls, floor, and ceiling. This difference will be more dramatic in gas-powered appliances. Convection ovens will generally heat more evenly, but can still have warmer and cooler spots. If the differences in doneness are particularly dramatic, it could be a sign of bigger issues for your oven. We’ll address that at the bottom of this guide!

Method One: Test with toast

No need to get pricey with your tools here. All you need to complete this test is a large loaf of cheap white bread. If you have a big oven, grab two loaves. Optionally, a cheap oven thermometer can also help to make things more precise. Just follow these steps:

• Starting with a cool oven, slide your oven racks into place if they aren’t there already. If you have a baking stone or aluminum foil in there, remove it now.
• If you have an oven thermometer, set it up in the center of the middle rack now.
• Preheat your oven to 350° F (176.6° C). Depending on your oven, this should take around 30 minutes to reach. You can use an oven thermometer to verify that the internal temperature is correct.
  • If it’s taking much longer than 35 minutes to reach 350° F, learn how to recalibrate your oven here.
• Now, line the racks with slices of bread, evenly spaced. How many you use will depend on the size of your oven (and the bread), but about six slices per rack should be sufficient.
• Leave the bread to toast for around 7 to 10 minutes, then check out your results. You’ll probably have some bread pieces that are toasted well (hot spots) and some that are still pale (cold spots). If you have noticed a particularly dramatic difference, such as burning, one or more of your oven’s components may be failing.
• You can now fully toast that leftover bread and have a snack or crush it up in a freezer bag once cooled to make breadcrumbs. Add some herbs, spices, or parmesan to give your next round of stuffing, fried chicken, or eggplant parm a bit of an extra kick. 

Method Two: Make a map of hot and cold spots with a pan of sugar

This test can potentially give you a slightly more precise look at where the hot and cold spots are in your oven. To complete it, gather the following items:

• A large baking pan – preferably one with raised edges to avoid spills
• Parchment paper
• One cup of granulated sugar – again, no need to get fancy here!
• Optionally, an oven thermometer

Once you’ve got what you need, here’s what to do:

• Move one oven rack to the middle of your oven, and, if you have one, set up your oven thermometer on the rack now.
• Preheat your oven to 400° F (204.4° C). Depending on your oven, this should take at least thirty minutes, possibly upwards of forty. You can verify the temperature with that oven thermometer once the range says it’s preheated.
• While you wait, line your baking pan with parchment paper – don’t skip on this part, because melted and burnt-on sugar are a pain to clean up.
• Then, pour your sugar in an even layer on top, spreading it out across the pan and leaving a few inches on each side for spill protection.
• Put the baking pan in your preheated oven and let it cook for ten minutes.
• Once your ten minutes are up, remove the pan. At exactly 400° F for 10 minutes, sugar should melt. So, any areas of burnt sugar are hotter spots, and anywhere the sugar hasn’t melted are cold spots.

What causes hot spots in an oven?

All ovens – gas, electric, or convection, and even high end commercial ovens – will experience hot and cold spots without anything being broken at all. This is most common in gas ovens, which take longer to heat up overall, and less common (but still possible) in convection ovens.

Remember, in most standard ovens, the ceiling, walls, and floor are going to be hotter than the center when the appliance is at temperature. For the most part, the key is to learn where your hotspots are and be prepared to work around them, but sometimes, significant differences in temperature can be a sign of something failing in the oven.

If you’re experiencing particularly severe heating issues, it may be caused by one of the following issues:

• The oven’s ignitor (for gas ovens) or heating element (for electrical ovens) is failing.
• There may be a damaged fan in the oven, slowing or preventing the movement of warm air.
• The oven door gasket may be worn out or damaged. This problem is usually pretty obvious – you may notice excessive heat from the oven even with the door closed, and you may be able to see or feel the damage on the gasket itself.
• The temperature sensor or control board might be failing, causing the oven to heat incorrectly.
• The oven itself may not be receiving adequate power from its outlet. Electric ranges need 240V to function properly.

We have a variety of troubleshooting guides that address how to test for these issues and replace components as needed on our blog. And if you find you need a replacement part, we almost certainly have what you need at our online store. Order your genuine OEM parts through AppliancePartsPros.com and they’ll be shipped right to your door in as little as two days!

What to do about hot and cold spots in an oven

There’s no way to completely eliminate hot and cold spots from your oven. If everything is otherwise in working order and no components need to be replaced, you can work with your oven’s hot and cold spots. Here’s what you can do to contend with standard hot and cold areas of your oven:

• Use the knowledge you’ve earned from testing your oven out to plan where you place pans and sheets. For example, if you’re noticing breads, cookies, and cakes being underdone on the bottom, cook them with the bottom closer to your oven’s hot spot.
• You’ll generally get the most even bake in the center of your oven. Position your pans and sheets there.
• You can cook directly on a baking stone or pizza stone to more evenly transfer heat when baking, or move the baking stone to the bottom rack and cook on the middle rack for a similar effect when roasting or baking on a pan.
• Make sure your oven preheats completely before you load it up with anything. At a minimum, let your oven heat up for 30 minutes. Higher temperatures may require more time.
• Don’t keep aluminum foil in your oven. We know you’d like to prevent spills, but not only can it seriously disrupt how heat is distributed, but it’s also a fire hazard.
• Keep your oven clean with a regular cleaning schedule, and don’t overuse the self-cleaning function.
• When baking and roasting, ensure more even heating by rotating the things you are cooking from front to back and top to bottom. This is especially important if you’re baking two things at once, like two pizzas or two sheets of cookies.
• If you’re big on roasting, invest in a meat thermometer, and familiarize yourself with the temperatures at which certain meats are considered “done.” If you track the temperature of your roast, you’ll know when to turn the pan.

Wrapping Up

That’s it for the ins and outs of hot and cold spots in your oven. We hope our guide has taken a bit of stress out of preparing your next big meal. If you want to learn more about the inner workings of your kitchen appliances, don’t forget to check out our blog and our YouTube channel for more great guides. The next time you need tips, tutorials, or genuine OEM replacement appliance parts, keep AppliancePartsPros.com in mind. We’re happy to help you with all your DIY maintenance and repair needs!