Top heat only (browning element)
Only the plain heating element in the oven roof is on. The bottom element and the fan stay off, and it is gentler than the grill.
What it is for
Browning the top of a dish that is already cooked and hot: lasagne, cauliflower cheese, shepherd’s pie, pasta bakes and vegetables in sauce. Stoves says to use it towards the end of the cooking cycle; Rangemaster says to switch to it once the dish is already hot, for the finishing and browning of cheese-topped dishes. It is a finishing setting, not a way to cook a dish through.
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
- A square with a single straight line along the top and nothing else: no zigzag, no fan and no line at the bottom.
- Names makers use
- Top Heat (Stoves); Browning element (Rangemaster)
Which ovens show this symbol
2 of the 18 brand pages on this site list this symbol, because a manual or support page from that maker shows it. The middle column is the maker’s own name for the mode, which is what to look for in your manual:
| Brand group | What its manual calls it | Brand page |
|---|---|---|
| Belling, Stoves and New World | Stoves: “Top Heat” | All 13 symbols |
| Rangemaster | “Browning Element”; “The Browning Element” | All 9 symbols |
The documents behind the other 16 brand pages do not show it: Bosch, Neff and Siemens; AEG, Electrolux and Zanussi; Samsung; Hotpoint, Whirlpool and Indesit; Beko; Miele; Smeg; Gorenje; Hoover, Candy and Haier; LG; Lamona; Blomberg; Fisher & Paykel; CDA; Caple; and Montpellier. That does not mean no oven of those makes has it, only that no manual or support page from them cited here shows this drawing; your own manual is the authority.
Where makes differ
The trap is the grill. A zigzag along the top is the grill element, which is fiercer; a straight line along the top is this plain top element, which Stoves calls not as intense as the grilling function. A straight line at the top with a second one at the bottom is conventional top and bottom heat, and a line at the bottom only is bottom heat. On older Rangemaster Classic 110 cookers the browning element is not on a function dial at all: it is a browning position on the left-hand oven’s thermostat knob, and turning to it switches the top and base cooking elements off.
Often confused with
The whole grill element in the oven roof heats, so food is cooked by strong heat from directly above.
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you how hot your top element runs on this setting: neither manual cited gives a temperature range for it, so only your model’s manual can. Nor can it tell you whether a make not named above has this setting: only Stoves and Rangemaster documents showing the drawing were found on 2026-10-16, and a missing make here is a gap in what we checked, not proof the oven lacks it. If your dial shows a zigzag rather than a straight line at the top, it is the grill, not this setting.
Other symbols with the same shapes
Top and bottom heat (conventional)A square with a straight line along the top and another along the…
Fan with top and bottom heat (fan-assisted)A fan with a straight line above it and another below it.
Bottom heatA square with a single straight line along the bottom and nothing…
Fan with bottom heat (pizza setting)A fan with a single straight line below it and nothing above.…
Intensive heat (top heat and stronger bottom heat)One line at the top and two lines at the bottom.
Slow cookDashed lines at the top and bottom (Bosch, Siemens; Neff adds a…Sources
No single published standard defines oven function icons, so this meaning is taken from 2 makers’ own guides, each fetched and checked on the date shown:
- Stoves: Stoves — Built-in 90cm multifunction oven ST BI902MFCT user manual (2019) — “Top Heat” (a single line along the top of the square, p. 7): ideal for browning off the tops of food, as it is not as intense as the grilling function; extra browning for dishes like lasagne or cauliflower cheese, towards the end of the cooking cycle. Checked 2026-10-16.
- Rangemaster: Rangemaster — Classic Deluxe, Professional Deluxe and Elan Deluxe 110 Dual Fuel user guide and installation instructions (U110658-05) — “Browning Element” (a single line along the top of the square, p. 12): uses the element in the top of the oven only, for browning or finishing pasta dishes, vegetables in sauce, shepherd’s pie and lasagne that are already hot; Table 2.1: to brown and crisp cheese-topped dishes. Checked 2026-10-16.
- Rangemaster: Rangemaster — Classic 110 Dual Fuel and Toledo 110 Dual Fuel user guide (U110110-03) — “The Browning Element” (p. 7): in the top of the left-hand oven, used at the end of a normal cooking period for extra browning of au gratin dishes; set by turning the thermostat knob to the browning position, after which only the browning element works and the top and base cooking elements switch off. Checked 2026-10-16.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.