The short answer
This code means the oven got hotter than the control allows. The circuit it names - the thermal sensor, the gas sensor, the appliance control board, or the wiring between them - covers the sensing and the switching that should have prevented it. Treat it as out of service, and treat a burning smell or a tripped breaker as a reason to cut power at the breaker rather than investigate.
This code and its neighbours on this appliance
Reference| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| E24 | The oven reached an overheat condition of 500F (260C). There may a problem with the Thermal Sensor, the Gas Sensor, the Appliance Control Board, or the associated wiring. |
| E5 | The product is in Energy Save mode. |
| E23 | The oven did not reach Pre-Heat Temperature within 30 (thirty) minutes. There may a problem with the Heater, the Appliance Control Board, or the associated wiring. |
What you see alongside the code
- The cooling fan runs continuously — It is responding to a cabinet temperature the cavity should not be producing.
- The oven got noticeably hotter than the setting — Food burning at normal times and settings is the version owners notice first.
- NEAR MISS - the oven will not heat at all — A cavity that never heats is a different fault, even though the display may be refusing heat in both cases.
What triggers it, most likely first
- A temperature sensor reading low — First because it is the most common: the control believes the cavity is cooler than it is and keeps calling for heat, so the cavity climbs past the limit with every component behaving as instructed.
- A relay or switching device stuck closed — Second, and the one that matters most. A contact that has welded keeps the element powered whatever the control commands, and that condition does not improve with waiting.
- A control fault holding the heat on — The board commands the element, so a failure on that side produces the same runaway with a healthy relay and a healthy sensor.
Check in this order, and why
- Switch the oven off at the breaker — This is the first step rather than a later one: if the heat is not being switched off, the control cannot stop it and the breaker can.
- Check whether the element was still glowing when the code appeared — It separates a sensing fault from a switching fault, and it is the single most useful thing to report.
- Let the cavity cool completely before anything else — Nothing can be judged, and nothing should be touched, until it has.
The owner-safe procedure
- Switch the oven off at the breaker and leave it off — Not at the control. If a switching device has failed, the control is no longer able to stop the heat.
About 3 min
- Let the cavity cool completely with the door shut — Opening it releases the heat into the room and into the trim above it.
About 60 min
- Write down whether the element was glowing when the code appeared — Glowing points at switching; not glowing points at sensing.
About 3 min
Before you open anything
Safety
Treat this as the one code here where leaving the appliance energised is itself the risk. Cut power at the breaker. Unplug the appliance or switch off its breaker before any panel comes off - a capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. Keep anything combustible away from the front and top of the oven while it cools, and do not restore power to see whether it repeats.
When this is a service call
This is a service call from the first appearance, and an urgent one if the heat continued after the control was switched off. Measuring the sensor, the relay and the control means working on a circuit carrying full element current, and none of it can be done with the appliance in use. Leave the breaker off while you wait.
Neighbouring codes on this appliance
What this page does not cover
This page is generalized information about the code rather than about one appliance. It is written for E24 as the KitchenAid oven code list documents it across the brand rather than for one family or model line. Where a family- or model-specific page exists for your unit it is the more specific answer and is linked from the code index for this appliance. The codes listed beside it in the table above are documented differently, so read the characters on your display carefully rather than working from a code that merely looks similar.
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