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The light in your Kenmore oven is crucial to illuminate the space when loading and unloading food into the appliance. However, it should turn off when you shut the oven door. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll have to troubleshoot for what is likely an electrical problem.
Your Kenmore oven light stays on if something obstructs the door and prevents it from closing fully. Besides that, a faulty door switch will mistakenly think the door is still open and keep the light on. Also, damaged wiring or a defective relay can continue to send power to the light even when it shouldn’t.
As you read this guide, you’ll discover why your Kenmore oven light stays on and the solutions you can use to fix the problem.
Why Does My Kenmore Oven Light Stay On All The Time?
The light in your Kenmore oven should go off as soon as you shut the door. If that doesn’t happen, there could be a problem that requires your attention.
Here’s why that happens and what solutions you can use to fix the problem:
1. Oven Door Isn’t Closed Properly
As you’ll later find out in this article, plenty of technical problems could cause your Kenmore oven light to stay on even when it shouldn’t. First, you should start the troubleshooting process by looking for signs of human error that are quicker to fix or rule out.
For example, your oven light might stay on simply because the door doesn’t close properly. When that happens, the door switch never gets activated, so the light stays on.
Your Kenmore oven door won’t close properly if the shelves inside are sticking out. Besides that, the same problem can happen if you’ve loaded the appliance in such a way that your dish is preventing the door from shutting completely.
Lastly, you can also look for obstructions on the door’s inside, particularly around its hinges. Items such as cutlery or food pieces could have fallen into the oven door’s gap, preventing it from closing correctly, even when you push the door shut.
The Solution: You can solve this problem by first opening the oven door fully. Then, check that you’ve fully pushed the racks into the oven and that no food dishes are blocking the door.
Lastly, inspect the door’s gap and remove any obstructions that prevent it from closing.
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Read: KENMORE Oven Is Not Heating? How To Fix It?
2. Door Switch Is Faulty
After you rule out any obstructions in the oven door, the next thing to consider is whether or not the door switch is faulty.
That switch has a straightforward function: it senses when the oven door is open or closed. Shutting the door will trigger the switch to shut the oven light off while opening the door causes the light to turn off.
So, when the oven light stays on even when it shouldn’t, there’s a strong possibility that the door switch has become faulty.
Essentially, the switch can’t tell when the oven door is closed, so it continues sending electrical power to the oven light.
The Solution: Firstly, you’ll want to test the oven door switch for electrical continuity. You can do that with a standard
If there is no continuity, that means the switch is faulty and must be replaced. You’ll have to disconnect the wiring and remove any screws mounting it on the oven’s frame. Then, you can install an identical replacement in its place.
Read: Kenmore Oven Shows F10 Error Code And Beeps. How To Fix?
3. Damaged Wiring To The Light
Suppose you’ve ruled out the door switch. In that case, the next thing you’ll want to troubleshoot is the light’s wiring, which carries electrical power to it.
Your Kenmore oven light will stay on if the wiring is pinched or burnt out. When that happens, electrical power continues flowing to the light despite the oven door being closed, keeping it turned on.
Aside from it being physically pinched, the wire can also suffer damage from electrical faults like short circuits and voltage surges. Those faults will cause the wires to overheat and burn from within, leading to this problem.
As you can imagine, troubleshooting electrical wiring is incredibly dangerous. So, you should only do it yourself if you are confident about working with electricity. This kind of troubleshooting and repair is best done by a qualified technician.
The Solution: Firstly, this problem requires thoroughly inspecting the oven’s entire electrical system. That’s because plenty of wires are concealed inside the oven’s frame away from sight, not just the ones that connect to the oven light.
The affected wires might need to be completely replaced depending on the damage. Alternatively, only the affected section of that wire can be cut out and spliced with a new section of wiring to replace it.
Again, electrical work of this kind can be pretty dangerous, so remember to disconnect the oven from its power source if you decide to do it yourself.
Read: Why Oven Not Cooking Evenly?
4. Problematic Electrical Relay (oven light stays on)
After you rule out all the other possibilities above, you must switch your focus to the oven’s electrical relays.
A relay is an electrically-controlled switch. When the oven’s control board triggers the relay, it’ll close the oven light’s electrical circuit. Doing so allows electricity to flow to the light and turn it on.
Unfortunately, electrical relays like that can become problematic. In this case, the relay sends power to the oven light even when it should open the circuit to shut it off instead.
In other words, the ‘switch’ for that light stays on even when the oven’s control board tells it to turn off.
The electrical relay you’re looking for is attached to the oven’s control board, concealed behind the oven’s rear panel. That control board also has several other relays which control the power supply to the oven’s other components.
The electrical relays appear identical, so it can be challenging to know which one works with the oven light. That’s why you can look for the technical sheet typically kept near the control board.
That sheet acts as a technical reference to help you identify and locate the different components on the control board. That includes the problematic relay supplying power to the oven light.
Once you find the relay, check it for burn marks or smells. Those are tell-tale signs that the relay is damaged and must be replaced.
The Solution: A damaged electrical relay cannot be repaired or serviced. So, once it goes bad, your only option is to replace it with a new one. Then, with the oven disconnected from its power source, you can detach the faulty relay and attach the new one in its place.
Read: Oven Cooling Fan Noise. What Causes And How To Fix It?
Final Thoughts
When the light in your Kenmore oven doesn’t turn off, check that the door has no obstructions. Even a small object stuck in the door gap is enough to prevent it from closing correctly.
Once you rule that out, you’re looking for a problem that sends power to the light even when it shouldn’t. That could be a faulty door switch, damaged electrical wiring, or a problematic relay on the oven’s control board. Remember that you’re dealing with electricity when troubleshooting these things, so disconnect the oven from the wall socket before you begin. As always, hire a qualified technician if you’re unsure about fixing the problem yourself.
Read: Why Frigidaire Oven Not Heating – Common Causes And Solutions
