Oven Door Keeps Locking Itself Shut? Try These 6 Tips

Ovens that have a self-locking mechanism can often malfunction, causing your oven to be stuck when you need it for dinner. Usually, there’s a way for you to fix the issue so that you can have your oven ready when it’s time for your next meal.

To fix your locked oven, reset your cleaning cycle, turn off the child safety function, or reset your oven so that any errors can also be reset. Your oven may lock for different reasons, so you will need to eliminate possible solutions one by one.

Ready to unlock your oven so you can use it again? Then let’s dive straight into the solutions.

Oven Is Locked After Self-Cleaning Cycle

Step 1: Unplug the Oven/Reset Your Breakers

When an oven has a self-cleaning cycle it will heat up to 900 degrees in order to burn away any of the food debris that is sticking to the sides of the oven.

This allows you to easily wipe away any mess because it will all turn to ash in extreme heat.

If the oven is interrupted for any reason during the cleaning cycle, the locking mechanism could malfunction and stay locked even after the cycle is finished.

The most common reason your lock would get stuck is that the power went out during the cleaning cycle, and it caused an error in the system.

To fix it, start by unplugging your oven for about 10 seconds and then replugging it back in. If there is a clear or off switch on your oven, you’ll want to press that after plugging your oven back in.

This process can reset the computer inside your oven, giving you the best chance at resetting the lock as well.

Provided that doesn’t work, you can also try turning your kitchen breakers off and back on after 5 minutes. This can reset your oven and might resolve the issue.

Step 2: Turn on Cleaning Cycle and Turn It Back Off

If immediately unplugging and plugging the oven doesn’t work, you can try messing with the cleaning cycle to see if you can’t jog the latch open.

First, turn on your cleaning cycle like you normally would. Except instead of letting the cycle run through, turn off the cycle after about 60 seconds.

What you are hoping for is that your oven will automatically lock itself when you press the cleaning cycle. Then, it will unlock itself after you cancel.

You’ll need to give your oven sufficient time to kick into the cleaning cycle before shutting it off. This will trick the computer into thinking you are actually running a cycle.

Since your oven is already stuck in the lock position it won’t need to lock itself again, but when you cancel you are hoping it will finally unlatch your oven door.

Step 3: Run a Shorter Cleaning Cycle

If all else fails, try to run another cleaning cycle on your oven. It doesn’t have to be the full cycle, but an hour or two should work.

You’ll have to give the oven plenty of time to cool down after the cycle is run because the oven won’t actually unlock unless the temperature is around 200 degrees or cooler.

The process should probably take around an hour to cool down once the cleaning cycle has stopped.

It’s possible the oven is just stuck and needs a full cycle again before opening up.

If the oven doesn’t want to unlock after trying all of the above, it could be that there is a technical issue with the temperature gauge or some other mechanism.

Unless you have a solid background in fixing appliances, it’s probably best to call a professional and see if they can take a look.

Troubleshooting Other Issues

Step 1: Turn Off Child Lock

Some ovens have a child lock safety feature that will automatically lock the door of the oven to prevent any accidents with children.

Many times, this child lock is located on the oven right by the self-cleaning function or other commonly used buttons.

You could accidentally hit the child lock without even realizing it and the oven won’t open no matter what you do.

To fix it, all you need to do is hold down the child lock button until it turns off and you should be able to open up your oven without a problem.

Step 2: Reset Your Oven’s Computer

When the lock is stuck on your oven it’s more likely going to be the cause of a computer issue. Something in the control panel is misfiring and telling your oven to lock the door even when there isn’t an actual reason for it.

An easy solution is to simply reset your oven’s computer altogether. Now, contrary to what you might think, there isn’t an actual set of buttons to press in order to achieve this. Instead, what you can do is unplug the appliance from the wall outlet for 24 hours or so.

Step 3: Turn Off Your Circuit Breaker

When nothing else is working, your last option is to locate your circuit breaker in the home and flip off the one connected to your oven for about 5 minutes.

This will cut off all power to the oven and hopefully reset the computer, which is causing your lock to remain stuck.

If this method doesn’t work then it’s time to call a professional who can come out and take a deeper look at what might be the issue.

How Does the Locking Mechanism Work?

The locking mechanism is pretty simple in the way it works.

There is a hook that remains in an upright position and when it gets a signal from the oven’s computer, it will release and latch onto a small pole.

This will make it so that when you try to open the oven door, the hook prevents it from moving.

If you try to pry the door open when it’s locked, you are bending the small poles on the oven and ruining any chance the oven will lock at a future time.

When your oven is done with a self-cleaning cycle, or the child safety is off, the hook will return to its upright position and unhinge from the pole.

FAQ

Why Does an Oven Lock During Self-Cleaning?

When an oven is in a self-cleaning cycle it turns up to a very high heat temperature. This is to make sure all the extra dirt and food debris burn off.

To prevent any injuries during this period, your oven will automatically lock itself so that no one can open it and get exposed to extreme heat.

As soon as the oven cools down to around 200 degrees it should automatically unlock and allow you to continue to use it like normal. The oven could still cause an injury but it doesn’t pose as much of a threat as it does during the cleaning cycle.

Do All Ovens Have a Self-Locking Mechanism?

Most modern ovens have a self-locking mechanism that is built-in to the machine, but the older models aren’t going to have the same mechanism.

That’s not to say that you can’t lock your oven with an older model. You just have to do it manually instead of relying on a computer to do it for you.

It’s unlikely that an older model oven would get stuck in the locked position since you can change it manually.

Most of these locking mechanisms were added to prevent children from opening the oven and injuring themselves accidentally.

Keeping Your Oven Open

An oven door that is stuck in the locked position is usually the result of some kind of computer malfunction. You can reset your oven, run another cleaning cycle, or check the child safety button to try and fix the issue.

By finding the solution yourself, you can save a little money, as you won’t need to hire a professional to take a look. Thank you for reading and if you didn’t find what you’re looking for, check out the related articles and guides below!