Money — the arithmetic
Is it worth fixing, or is it time to replace it?
Two tables and one sum. The dearest repair band this site publishes is about 21% of the cheapest comparable replacement — so the rest of this page is mostly about where that stops being the whole answer.
01 The rule of thumb
Why the usual rule gives the wrong answer here
The rule people arrive with says replace once the repair passes half the price of a new machine. It is a reasonable rule, and it was written for a freestanding appliance you can wheel out of a gap.
A built-in is not that. It is fitted to a cabinet opening, often behind a custom panel, and replacing it is not one purchase — it is the appliance, the delivery, the fitting, and frequently the joinery around it. The panel and cabinetry line alone runs $2,000–$5,000. So the denominator in that rule is much larger than the one it was designed for, and half of it lands somewhere no repair on our table reaches.
That does not make replacement always wrong. It makes the rule the wrong tool. What follows is the sum itself: the band the fault sits in, the band a replacement sits in, and the three situations where the answer changes.
02 Half one
What does the repair side come to?
The bands a refrigeration fault lands in, parts and labor together, after the diagnostic has been credited. What jobs of this kind have cost before, not a quote.
$80 Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work.
| Repair | Typical total |
|---|---|
| Compressor or sealed-system repair | $930–$2,490 |
| Evaporator or condenser fan motor | $250–$580 |
| Electronic control board | $430–$1,060 |
| Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor | $240–$640 |
03 Half two
And what does buying it again come to?
A comparable built-in refrigerator, appliance only — before delivery, installation, custom panels or cabinetry. Undercounter and wine units sit below this band; replacing a column pair is usually two purchases rather than one. Appliance pricing is national, unlike the labour above.
| Replacing instead | Range |
|---|---|
| Typical 36-42 inch built-in, the usual repair-or-replace comparison | $11,600–$16,800 |
| Custom panels and integrated cabinetry, on top of the appliance | $2,000–$5,000 |
| Replacement wine storage or an undercounter unit, appliance only | $3,500–$5,500 |
04 The judgement
Where does the line actually fall?
Put the two halves beside each other and most of the argument disappears. The dearest band we publish is the $930–$2,490 sealed-system repair; the cheapest comparable replacement is $11,600.
21% the ceiling of our most expensive repair band, as a share of the floor of the replacement band. Every other repair on the table is smaller than that.
When the repair is clearly worth it
One component has failed, the cabinet and its panels are staying where they are, and the fault sits in a named band. That is the ordinary case and it is most of what we are called to — a fan motor, a defrost circuit, an ice maker, a gasket, a sensor. Against $11,600–$16,800 for the appliance alone, none of those is a close decision.
When it is genuinely a judgement call
Three situations move it. The kitchen is being reworked anyway, so the $2,000–$5,000 panel and cabinetry line is being spent whether the appliance stays or goes. The second sealed system in the same cabinet has already been through the same repair. Or the diagnosis finds faults in two or three separate bands at once, and the estimate has to be read as one total rather than three repairs.
When replacing is the right call
Almost never on price, and almost always on the cabinet. A split liner, foam that has taken on water, or corrosion through the condenser bay on a barrier-island unit are not faults a band on this table repairs — no component swap puts a cabinet back. The other one is parts: where the component for that serial number is no longer produced, there is nothing to quote, and we will say so on the visit rather than order and hope.
Built-in equipment is fitted to the millimetre. A refrigerator column comes forward on rails and carries several hundred pounds with the doors on; an integrated dishwasher cannot move until its cabinet panel does. Reaching the back of either is frequently the longest part of a visit, and it is priced in the written estimate before it starts.
05 How you check it
What you get before you decide
The $80 covers the visit and the diagnosis, including pulling and reseating a built-in unit where that is what it takes to reach the fault. If you approve the repair, the $80 comes off the total. You get a written estimate — parts and labor itemised — before any part is ordered.
The estimate is the document this whole page is about. It names the component, the band it falls in and the labor separately, so the sum above stops being an argument and becomes two numbers you can compare. If you decline it, the estimate is yours to take anywhere — to a second opinion, or to a showroom.
90 days on labor, 365 days on parts, and we fit genuine OEM parts rather than pattern equivalents. The full table of bands is on the pricing page, the terms are on the warranty page, and the symptom-by-symptom reading of what has actually failed starts on the refrigeration page.
06 Questions
What gets asked at the moment of deciding?
- Is it worth repairing a twenty-year-old built-in?
- Age on its own decides nothing here. What decides it is which band the fault sits in and whether the cabinet and its panels are staying. An old cabinet with a failed condenser fan is a $250–$580 repair against a $11,600–$16,800 replacement. The same cabinet with a split liner is not a repair at all.
- Is it worth replacing the compressor on a built-in refrigerator?
- On a built-in, usually yes. A $930–$2,490 sealed-system repair is the dearest thing we quote and it still comes to about 21% of the $11,600–$16,800 band for a comparable unit. It is a closer call when the second sealed system in the same cabinet has already been through the same repair.
- Is it ever worth repairing a built-in dishwasher?
- Nearly always, and the reason is the fitting rather than the machine. The work sits in the $220–$710 band. This site publishes no replacement figure for a dishwasher because the honest comparison is not the appliance alone — it is the appliance, the cabinet panel and the hinge springs set to that panel's weight.
- Is it worth repairing a cooktop, or is a new one cheaper?
- An ignition fault is the $210–$530 band and is rarely a reason to replace anything — it is usually an electrode, a burner cap out of seat or a spark module. A cooktop becomes a replacement question when the glass is broken, or when the cutout no longer matches anything currently sold.
- What does the diagnostic cover before any of this is decided?
- The $80 covers the visit and the diagnosis, including pulling and reseating a built-in unit where that is what it takes to reach the fault. If you approve the repair, the $80 comes off the total. You get a written estimate — parts and labor itemised — before any part is ordered.
- When do I find out what the repair will actually cost?
- Before anything is ordered. Written estimate before any work begins. Parts and labor are itemised separately, and if you decline it you have paid $80 for the visit, the diagnosis and an estimate that is yours to take anywhere.
07Customer reviews
Visits where this was the question
Three of the reviews published on this site. None of them quotes a figure — the two tables above are the only place this page prints one.
4.3out of 5 from 90 published reviews
Rated 4 out of 5
Ours iced up behind the rear panel twice in one season. He replaced the defrost thermostat and cleared a drain that had been freezing shut, which he said was the part everybody misses. Clear on the follow-up check.
Casper N.
Rated 5 out of 5
Ice maker filled but never released, so the mould stayed full and the bin stayed empty. He warmed the harvest arm, found the motor had stalled rather than the thermostat, and left the old part on the counter for me to see.
Aldous R.
Rated 5 out of 5
The freezer column ran constantly while the refrigerator column beside it behaved. He proved it was the condenser fan and not the compressor, replaced it, and took the coil back to clean metal before closing up.
Colette M.