The short answer
Start from a drifting oven sensor or lost calibration: on a Summit oven that is the likeliest explanation for what you are looking at, and a failed thermostat, relay or control board is the least likely. Most of this you can settle before anyone is called.
What the symptom looks like
- The oven lights and the display works but it stays cold — Control is fine and the heating circuit is not.
- It heats but takes far longer than it used to, and food bakes unevenly — A partly working element, or a calibration and door problem.
- NEAR MISS: the display is dead too — That is a supply fault and a different page.
Causes ranked for this brand, likeliest first
- A drifting oven sensor or lost calibration — The oven is holding a temperature accurately; it is simply the wrong one, so everything bakes slowly or unevenly. First on Summit because the machine only knows what its sensors tell it, so drift gives correct behaviour on a wrong picture.
- A mode, lock or timer set without anyone noticing — A delay timer, a sabbath mode or a demo mode will light the panel and run no heat at all. Second here: a board decides the behaviour rather than a switch, so a control fault reads as a machine declining to act.
- A failed bake element or igniter — An electric element blisters and breaks at one point. A gas igniter glows and never gets hot enough to open the valve. Third, once the two above are clean: heat is made by one circuit and protected by another, and either can stop it.
- A failed thermostat, relay or control board — The element never gets switched on, and nothing upstream of the control explains it. Bottom of the list on purpose: this generation puts the logic in a board, so the control outranks the mechanical causes that lead on older units.
Check in this order, and why
- Check with an oven thermometer on the middle shelf — It turns a subjective complaint into a measurement.
- Look for a timer, lock or mode indicator, and cancel everything — Free to check and genuinely common.
- Look at the element while it is cold for a blister or a break — Visible damage settles it without a meter.
What an owner can safely check
- Put an oven thermometer on the middle shelf, preheat fully and compare with the set point — Most ovens have an owner calibration offset in the menu for exactly this.
Tools: an oven thermometerAbout 45 min
- Cancel every timer and mode, clear any lock, then set a plain bake and watch — A new oven that has never heated is very often this.
About 10 min
- With the oven cold and the breaker off, look along the bake element for blistering or a break — On a gas oven, watch whether the igniter glows and how long before the burner lights.
Tools: a torchAbout 15 min
- STOP HERE: testing an element, a relay or a thermostat means a meter on live terminals — A service call, not an owner check.
Safety first, and it is not a formality
Safety
Switch the oven off at its breaker before removing any panel, and let the cavity cool completely first. A capacitor can hold a charge after the power is off. If you smell gas: do not switch anything on or off, leave the building, and call the gas utility or 911 from outside. Do not look for the leak yourself. Never defeat a door lock to open a cavity mid-clean, and never line the floor of an oven with foil.
When this stops being a do-it-yourself job
Call when the breaker is fully on, no mode or timer is set, the element shows no visible damage and the oven still will not reach temperature. On a gas oven, call for anything beyond checking the supply is on. If you smell gas: do not switch anything on or off, leave the building and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
Where to go next in this class
What this page leaves to a more specific one
This page covers the Summit oven as a class, not one family or model line. Where a family-specific page exists it is linked below and it is the better answer. Not here: element ratings, sensor part numbers and family-specific calibration sequences.
Lead Appliance Repair Technician · 12 years experience
Experienced technician with 12 years specializing in washing machine and dryer repairs across all major brands.
