CooktopRepair.center (844) 252-4077Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm Book a visit
A gas cooktop burner with a lazy, ragged flame, its tips clearly yellow and orange and lifting unevenly on one side, under an empty pan.

Start with the symptom

Cooktop
problems,
symptom first.

Every symptom we are called out for, traced to the causes that actually explain it — cheapest first. Start from what you are seeing rather than from what you think is broken.

(844) 252-4077

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • 17 symptoms
  • 5 need a visit now
  • Causes in cost order

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Needs a visit now

A cooktop that gives off a gas smell, sends up smoke or a hot-plastic smell from under the counter, keeps a burner or zone heating after the control says off, has a crack running through its glass, or drops the breaker the moment a zone comes on is a hazard set right into the counter, so these problems come first — each with its usual causes, the cheapest first. With an electric or induction top, switch its breaker off and keep hands and pans away from broken glass. With gas in the air, leave every switch, lighter and phone alone inside: get everyone out, then phone the gas utility from the street.

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Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Cooktop Gas Smell

A rotten-egg or sulfur odor rises from the cooktop, from the seam where it meets the counter, or from the cabinet doors underneath, whether a burner is lit or not.

Causes, cheapest first

  1. Seeping joint at the regulator or connector under the countervaries
  2. Knob valve that no longer sealsmoderate
  3. Flame snuffed out while the knob stayed onlow
All 5 causes and what to check
Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Cooktop Burning Smell

A hot, electrical, plastic or scorched odor comes from the cooking surface, the knobs, the downdraft grille or the cabinet under the counter.

Causes, cheapest first

  1. Spill charring under a cap, in a drip bowl or on the glassno repair
  2. Browned wire in the junction box under the countermoderate
  3. Coil receptacle overheatinglow
All 6 causes and what to check
Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Cooktop Burner or Element Won't Turn Off

A gas flame keeps burning, a coil or radiant ring stays red, or an induction zone keeps heating after its knob or key has been set to off.

Causes, cheapest first

  1. Infinite switch contacts welded shutlow to moderate
  2. Knob stripped on its stemlow
  3. Gas valve not seating at offmoderate
All 6 causes and what to check
Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Glass Cooktop Cracked

A line, a star-shaped break or a chipped edge has appeared in the glass-ceramic top of a radiant or induction cooktop.

Causes, cheapest first

  1. Impact from a dropped pot, lid or jarmoderate to highest
  2. Thermal shock from a pan boiled drymoderate to highest
  3. Pressure from a tight counter cutoutvaries
All 6 causes and what to check
Gas, fire, broken glass or live current

Cooktop Tripping Breaker

The circuit breaker for the cooktop trips as a burner or zone switches on, at one particular setting, or a few minutes into cooking.

Causes, cheapest first

  1. Coil element or receptacle shortinglow
  2. Radiant element shorting beneath the glasslow to moderate
  3. Burned connection in the cabinet junction boxmoderate
All 6 causes and what to check

Everything else we are called out for

Nothing below involves a gas smell, smoke, broken glass or a zone that refuses to switch off, so these can wait for a booked visit. Each page lists the safe checks worth making before a technician arrives.

The repairs behind them

Cooktop Burner Won't Light

The igniter clicks but the gas never catches, the burner lights only after several tries, or nothing happens at all when the knob is turned. 6 causes

Cooktop Igniter Keeps Clicking

The spark keeps ticking after the burner has lit, ticks with every knob off, or every burner clicks together whenever one is turned. 5 causes

Cooktop Flame Yellow or Uneven

Burner flames are yellow or orange, lift off the ports, burn high on one side and low on the other, or leave soot on pan bottoms. 6 causes

Cooktop Element Not Heating

A coil stays black, a radiant ring under the glass never glows, or a zone warms so weakly that a pot of water will not boil. 6 causes

Cooktop Element Only Heats on High

An element works at full power but does nothing at medium or low, or it jumps between full heat and none with nothing in between. 5 causes

Cooktop Simmer Too Hot

The lowest setting still boils sauces, scorches rice, or will not hold a gentle simmer on a gas burner or an electric element. 5 causes

Induction Cooktop Not Detecting Pan

An induction zone flashes a pan symbol, beeps, or switches itself off even though a pot is sitting squarely on it. 6 causes

Induction Cooktop Buzzing or Clicking

An induction cooktop hums, buzzes, whines or clicks while cooking, louder with some pans than with others. 5 causes

Cooktop Controls Unresponsive

Touch keys or a slider do nothing, the display lights but ignores every press, or a knob turns without starting its burner or element. 5 causes

Cooktop Hot Surface Light Stays On

The hot surface light or residual heat indicator stays lit long after the glass has cooled, or it never comes on at all. 5 causes

Cooktop Fan Runs Constantly

The cooling fan under an induction or touch-control cooktop keeps running long after cooking, or a downdraft blower will not shut off or retract. 6 causes

Cooktop Error Code

Characters or a blinking symbol appear on the cooktop display, it beeps, and a zone, or the entire cooking surface, stops working. 6 causes

Not every cooktop
breaks the same way.

A gas cooktop sparks its burners alight, an electric one heats coils or ribbon elements under smooth glass, an induction top warms the pan itself through a magnetic field, and a pro-style rangetop brings heavy gas burners and front knobs to a base cabinet. Find the one in your counter.

All cooktop types
A stainless gas cooktop with five burners and black cast-iron grates is set into a white quartz countertop above a bank of wide drawers in a US home kitchen.

Gas cooktop

A gas cooking surface dropped into a countertop cutout, with its gas line and power cord running down into the cabinet underneath.

 A black smooth-glass electric cooktop with four painted circles sits flush in a gray granite countertop above white cabinet doors in a US home kitchen.

Electric cooktop

A coil or smooth-glass radiant cooking surface built into the countertop and wired to its own circuit in the cabinet or wall behind it.

 A frameless black induction cooktop with a touch slider along its front edge sits flush in a white marble countertop above closed drawers in a US home kitchen.

Induction cooktop

A glass cooktop in the counter that heats the pan itself through magnetic coils, run by power boards and cooled by a fan underneath.

 A stainless pro-style rangetop with black knobs on its front panel and six burners under continuous grates sits in a notch between butcher-block counters, above a base cabinet with two wooden doors, in a US home kitchen.

Rangetop

A pro-style gas cooking top with its knobs across the front, set into a notch above a base cabinet, often with a griddle or char-broiler beside the burners.

 Every kind we service

All cooktops, side by side

The archive puts the 4 types against each other: how to tell which you own, what fails on each, and which manufacturers build them.

How to tell yoursWhat fails on eachWho makes them Open the type archive

Familiar brands. Expert care.

For the brands
in your kitchen.

Independent repair service. Not affiliated with, authorized or endorsed by any manufacturer. Brand names and model numbers are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification only, to describe the appliances we service.

All 29 brands

The repairs behind the symptoms

Most people arrive knowing what they are seeing, not what is wrong. These are the jobs a visit usually turns out to be.

All 10 repairs
diagnostic

Diagnostic visit

A visit that runs every burner or zone on the cooktop, looks under it from the cabinet below and names the failed part before anything is ordered.
low

Burner and igniter repair

Gas cooktop and rangetop burners that will not light, light late or burn with a ragged flame, traced to the electrode, the burner head, the cap or the ports.
low to moderate

Spark module and gas valve repair

The parts deeper in a gas cooktop: the spark module that fires the electrodes, the switches on the valve stems, the valves that meter the flame and the regulator.
low to moderate

Radiant element repair

Zones under a smooth glass cooktop that stay dark, heat weakly or cut out, traced to the ribbon element, its limiter or the relay that feeds it.
moderate to highest

Glass top replacement

A new glass-ceramic surface for a radiant, induction or gas-on-glass cooktop that has cracked, chipped at the edge or been pitted beyond cleaning.
lowest

Coil element and receptacle repair

Coil elements on an electric cooktop that stay cold, spark at the plug or heat unevenly, along with the receptacles, drip bowls and wiring they plug into.
moderate to highest

Induction board and coil repair

Induction zones that stop sensing pans, cut out, buzz or show codes, traced to the power boards, the coils, their sensors and the links to the controls.
moderate

Touch control repair

Glass touch keys and sliders that ignore a finger, start zones by themselves or stay locked, traced to the keys, the control board or the lock setting.
low

Infinite switch and knob repair

Knob-controlled cooktop zones that heat only on high, will not simmer or will not switch off, and the worn knobs and switches behind them.
low to moderate

Cooling fan and downdraft repair

The fan that cools an induction or touch-control cooktop's boards, and the downdraft vent that rises behind the cooking surface or pulls air down between the burners.
A parent and a teenager stirring a pan together over a gas cooktop set into a kitchen island
For the heart of your home.

Questions about
the problems.

My cooktop has a problem that is not listed. Will you still come?
Yes. Only the most frequent cooktop complaints have pages; many rarer ones reach us too. Describe the flame, the glow, the sound or the smell in the booking notes, and that becomes the starting point on site.
The cooktop shows two of these problems. Which should I read first?
Begin with whichever appeared first, since the second often follows from it: an igniter that keeps ticking after a spill is often the one that later will not light at all. Each problem page links to the problems it tends to arrive with.
Which cooktop problems are emergencies?
A smell of gas, smoke or a hot-plastic smell, a burner or zone that will not switch off, a crack or chip in the glass, and a breaker that drops when a zone comes on. Each page states how urgent its problem is. A slow boil, a knob that feels loose or a hot-surface light that lingers can wait for a booked visit.
Can I keep cooking on the working burners until the visit?
Only on burners or zones that still behave normally, with no gas or burning smell and a control that still shuts them off. Never cook on cracked glass. If you smell gas, get out and call the gas utility from outside; for an electrical problem, switch the cooktop off at its breaker.

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your cooktop working again.

Three short steps online, or one call. Tell us what you are seeing and pick a window that works.

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