Nobody measures a slow oven; they blame the recipe until the biscuits take twenty-five minutes. When the numbers on the dial stop matching the numbers on the timer, that is the once-over’s starting point.
An electric oven gets a lab thermometer in the middle of the cavity across three heat cycles and a comparison with what the display thinks; the elements and the temperature sensor are then measured against the service sheet, and the control board falls under suspicion only when the cavity thermometer and the sensor tell different stories. A gas range gets igniter current, the valve and orifice, and a look at the flame at each burner. An induction cooktop gets its coils and its power board read zone by zone. Nothing on this van is jumped out — a bypassed thermal switch is no repair, and the ledger will never record one.

Carolina Park, Point Hope and the newest Daniel Island streets went in with induction cooktops, and induction fails in ways that look expensive and often are not: a single dead zone is a coil or a relay, a cooktop that will not recognize a pan is a sensor, a unit that trips its own breaker is frequently a power board. Wes reads the zones and the board before anything is priced, and the slip separates the cheap fault from the dear one.
Natural gas reaches the Highway 17 corridor, Park West, Belle Hall and the newer Daniel Island neighborhoods, and gas ranges there fail at the igniter, the spark module and the valve in that order. The islands and the acreage streets run propane; a range that left the showroom jetted for natural gas gives a yellow flame and soots pans there until it is converted, which is a single visit with every burner’s flame checked afterward.
The Old Village, I’On and the Daniel Island park streets carry the professional names — Wolf, Viking, Thermador, Miele — and their faults are nearly always electronic on machines whose burners and cavities are sound: a sensor gone out of true, a relay stuck closed, a control deaf to one button. Those are good repairs, because the pricey half of the range works and the slip covers just the half that does not. Independent, no factory authorizations, said in plain words.
The cheap, likely cause gets a meter before the dear, unlikely one gets a mention.
| What you notice | What Wes reads first |
|---|---|
| Everything takes longer | Thermometer in the cavity, sensor ohms, board relay |
| Bake works, broil does not | Element continuity, relay output |
| A burner that ticks forever | Spark module, igniter switch, damp, orifice |
| One induction zone dead | Zone coil, zone relay, power board |
| Door locked after self-clean | Latch motor first, then thermal switch, then board |
| Yellow flame, sooty pans | Jetting versus fuel — propane conversion |
Yes — usually the sensor, sometimes the control’s calibration, now and then the board. The repair is proved with a thermometer in the cavity, not by turning the dial up.
A coil or a relay on that zone, most likely, and the rest of the cooktop is fine. The zones and the power board are read before anything is priced.
Turn the range’s breaker off today. A relay or switch welded closed is not safe to cook beside, and the fix is easy once the power is dead.
Induction in the new builds, gas along 17, cottage circuits on Sullivan’s — your area page says which applies to you.
Gas along 17, pro ranges in the Old Village, builder packages on the rows.
Induction in Carolina Park, gas through Park West, propane on the 41 edge.
Premium ranges on the park streets; induction in Point Hope.
Rental ranges that do a summer’s cooking in a month.
Cottage circuits read under load before a control is blamed.
Pro ranges on hundred-amp panels; original ovens in original openings.
Ranch-era ovens still cooking; Tanner’s builder ranges.
Bring what the recipe told you; Wes arrives with the thermometer and the jets.