Keep warm (heat lines)
Holds food that is already cooked at a steady low temperature without cooking it further.
What it is for
Keeping a finished dish ready while the rest of the meal catches up, or when dinner is delayed (AEG). It is not meant for bringing cold leftovers back up to temperature — that is Reheat.
Makes differ, check your oven’s manual: the same drawing can mean different things on different brands, and only your model’s manual says exactly which elements run and how hot.
- What it looks like
- Wavy heat lines rising over a dish (Bosch), three wavy lines on their own (Siemens), or one wavy line over a bottom line (AEG).
- Names makers use
- Keep warm (Bosch, AEG); Keeping warm (Siemens)
Where makes differ
This drawing is reused for three different jobs. Smeg describes its reheat symbol as a dish with three wavy lines — nearly this Bosch drawing — and Siemens draws Preheating ovenware as a dish with rising lines. Neff’s guide says its dish-with-heat “reheating” symbol keeps food warm. The manual decides.
Often confused with
Brings cooked, chilled food back up to eating temperature. On Bosch and Siemens steam ovens it adds steam so the food does not dry out.
Other symbols with the same shapes
Sources
No single published standard defines oven function icons, so this meaning is taken from 3 makers’ own guides, each fetched and checked on the date shown:
- Bosch: Bosch UK — Oven symbols guide — “Keep warm” settings icon (wavy lines over a dish): keep cooked food warm. Checked 2026-09-23.
- Siemens: Siemens Home UK — Oven symbols guide — “Keeping warm” pictogram (three wavy lines): for keeping your cooked food warm. Checked 2026-09-23.
- AEG: AEG UK support — Symbols and functions on your AEG oven or cooker — “Keep Warm” icon: keep cooked food warm and ready to eat without overcooking. Checked 2026-09-23.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.