Hob faults: what you can fix, who to call, and what it costs

Two hobs, two sets of rules

A hob is either a slab of glass over induction coils and a fan, wired to a cooker circuit you cannot unplug, or a set of gas burners over valves and a flame safety device, on a gas supply that the law says only a registered engineer may work behind. Some are both. The householder checks below are the same for either kind, and the point where they stop is different for each, so the guide names both routes rather than assuming which you own.

What is yours to do

The pan. On induction, more "faults" are pans than anything else. A fridge magnet that will not grip the base, a pan too small for the zone, a base that has warped so that only the rim touches the glass — all of these produce a flashing letter and a cold pan, and none of them is a fault. Try a pan you know works on the same zone, and the same pan on a different zone, and you have separated the cookware from the hob in two moves.

The panel. Wipe it and dry it. Water bridging the sensors reads as a touch; so does a pan pushed too far forward, a lid, a cloth, or steam from a hard boil. Beko's FF and Neff's F5 are both this, and the cure is where you put things.

The lock. L, a key symbol or a padlock is a lock, and the exit is a hold on the lock key — four seconds on an AEG, with a zero on the display as confirmation. AEG's child lock re-arms every time the hob is switched off, which is not a fault either.

The space underneath. Open the drawer or cupboard below the hob and take out anything packed against the underside. Air has to move through that cavity, and a drawer that looks fine when open is tight against the hob when closed. This is AEG's own first instruction for E7 and their answer for a repeating E4, and it is on Rangemaster's published checks for E1 and E5 as well. Check that the ventilation gaps the fitting instructions call for are actually there — this is the thing that changes when a kitchen is altered.

The switch, once. A built-in hob has no plug. Where a manufacturer publishes a reset it is thirty seconds off at the cooker switch on the wall or the breaker in the consumer unit, and one attempt. A code that comes back after that is telling you something a switch cannot change.

On a gas hob, the burner. AEG give two causes for a flame that dies when you let go of the knob, and one is yours: a dirty or misplaced burner cap. Lift the cap and crown off, clean them with a moist soft cloth or sponge only, dry them completely — water in the crown will keep this happening — and refit them so they sit level and square on the base. Light the burner with the knob pushed in and turned to maximum, keep it pushed in for at least ten seconds after it lights, then release slowly; that hold is longer than most people manage and it is the step that makes the difference. On an electronic-ignition hob showing F or E6, clean the metal part of the flame safety device the same way, then run AEG's reset with its three-second window and look for a zero.

Where you stop: induction and ceramic

The line is the glass. Everything behind it is mains powered, and the induction electronics hold charge after the hob is switched off. The glass is bonded into the appliance rather than sitting loose, which is why Rangemaster's instruction on E1 is not to remove the hob to look at the fan, and why nobody publishes an owner procedure for anything under it. The parts that fail — the cooling fan, the power unit that drives the coils, the control board, the sensors that read the glass temperature — are all work for a qualified appliance engineer, who will isolate at the cooker switch and the consumer unit before lifting anything.

What you can do before they arrive is observe. Listen while the hob runs: on a cooling fan code, a fan you can hear points at sensing or wiring, silence points at the fan itself. Note whether zones have been cutting out mid-cook, which confirms the hob is running hot. Note the exact code and, on a Rangemaster, the guide number printed on the user guide — Rangemaster publish two meanings for E5 and for EA in two different guides, and the number tells the engineer which table applies. Note roughly how old the hob is, because AEG split E7 at 2010: a cooling fan on a modern hob, a power board before it, and that one sentence lets the engineer bring the right part.

Where you stop: gas

Behind the surface of a gas hob — the thermocouple beside each burner, the valves, the supply pipe, the electronic ignition — is work that is legally restricted to a Gas Safe registered engineer. Do not clean, bend or adjust the probe next to the burner, and do not attempt to hold the valve open by any other means; a burner that still goes out after the cap and crown are clean, dry and seated has a failed thermocouple, and the code page for it brackets the visit and the part at £80 to £180. Do not keep resetting a hob that will not light, because every ignition attempt releases gas. If you can smell gas, do not touch any switch at all — leave the property and ring the gas emergency line, 0800 111 999, from outside.

A dual-fuel range with a gas hob over electric ovens is two trades at once, and the gas side is the restricted one. The site's range cooker pages carry that wording.

Which professional

The wrong call costs a visit, and on a hob the choice is sharper than on most appliances.

• An electrician for any code about the supply: U400, AEG E3, E6 and E8 on a new install, Neff 513, Beko E 42, Rangemaster EC on a recurrence. The hob is reporting on the circuit feeding it — fixed wiring that has to meet BS 7671, and notifiable under Part P where a new circuit is needed — and the manufacturers' own remedies send you to the installer or an electrician rather than to their service line. If the hob was fitted recently, the installer should be putting it right at their cost; AEG state that faults arising from incorrect installation may not be covered under warranty.
• A qualified appliance engineer for anything under the glass on an induction or ceramic hob: fans, boards, power units, sensors, a residual heat letter stuck on a cold hob.
• A Gas Safe registered engineer for anything behind the surface of a gas hob, by law.
• Nobody yet for the pan, the panel, the lock, the drawer and the first reset.

What it costs

These are the brackets the code pages on this site carry for the codes involved. They are ranges, not quotes, and the installer's return visit for their own wiring should sit at nothing.

• Nothing for pans, a wet panel, a lock, a blocked drawer, demo mode and a protective cut-out that clears as the hob cools. This is the outcome on most hob codes in the corpus.
• An electrician to reconnect a hob correctly: typically £80 to £150, and up to about £200 if a 16 amp circuit has to be run to the hob from the consumer unit rather than re-terminated.
• A cooling fan: typically £120 to £220 fitted. AEG E7 on a modern hob and Rangemaster E1 sit here, with Rangemaster's bracket running higher if the control board proves to be the cause.
• A gas thermocouple: a Gas Safe engineer's visit and an inexpensive part with an access cost attached, £80 to £180.
• A control board or power unit: AEG bracket E9 at £140 to £320 and a pre-2010 E7 board at the top of a £110 to £300 range; Rangemaster place a power unit at up to £350, last, after the wiring and supply have been checked. On a mid-range hob this is frequently more than the appliance is worth, so ask for the part price before agreeing to the repair.
• A diagnostic visit on a code the manufacturer publishes nothing about, like Neff 141: typically £90 to £150, usually offset against the repair.

If the hob is showing a letter rather than a code, or you are not sure which family your code is in, Hob showing H, L, F or U400 reads the display first.

Sources

• Rangemaster user guides and UK support: E1, E3, E5, EA and EC, including the warning against removing the hob and the two-table problem.
• AEG UK support: E4, E7 (the 2010 split), E8, E9 and the gas hob articles "Burner will not stay alight" and ignition fault F/E6; AEG warranty position on incorrect installation.
• Beko UK support: E 42 and FF; Neff UK: 513 and 141.
• Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and the Gas Safe Register, on who may work on gas appliances; the National Gas Emergency Service number.
• Building Regulations Approved Document P (England) and the Welsh Government equivalent, on notifiable electrical work.
• Cost brackets are those published on the code pages for AEG E3, E6, E7, E8 and E9, Beko E 42, Neff 141, Rangemaster E1, E3, E5 and EA, U400 and "Burner will not stay alight", each with its own sourcing.