Living in New York City in an apartment, I, like other renters, move into an apartment with a fridge and a stove that is a couple of tenants old or it is a recently redone apartment with the blue tape still on all the appliances. After living in my apartment for 4 years, I discovered that my stove was subtly slanted.

Now, is this really a big deal? YES, it absolutely is. It can ruin a beautiful birthday cake that you decided to bake for someone special or a homemade dinner for the family, especially since most of the oil/liquid will sit only on one side of the pan. In my case, my cake baked on a slant, and to fix the leveling, I would have to cut the uneven parts off or cover it with frosting - both being a no go as one would leave too little cake and the other made it blatantly obvious there was too much frosting on this cake. Whenever I cook or roast vegetables, the oil would pool to one side.

How to test if the oven is slanted?

You can take a baking sheet or anything wide and flat. Put it on top of your stove across all the burners and pour enough water that it comes up along on the sides of the pan. If the pan is perfectly leveled, you will see the amount of water is the same along the side of the pan and at the corners.

If it is not leveled, the water will be pooled to one side and be very noticeable in the corners.

How to fix the slanted stove

Adjust the height of your stove. At the very bottom of my stove, there are two knobs, one on each side.

These knobs can be adjusted using a vice grip or a wrench and some elbow grease. Using the right-hand rule, take your right hand and have the thumb point in the direction you want the object to go. In our case, it was up, so the thumb goes up. Curl the fingers around and that’s the direction to turn the vice grip or the wrench until the desired level. This is a general rule of thumb.

If the stove does not have these knobs, refer to the user manual. These can be found online and may contain the solution you’re looking for.

If nothing can be found, a coaster on the bottom of the stove can also do the trick but this will require lifting the stove.