The arithmetic
Is it worth repairing?
The question nobody asks on the phone until the estimate arrives, answered first: a finished repair here runs $170 to $1,070, and the appliance it saves is a $5,200 to $16,500 one.
The two figures
Every version of this decision is the same comparison, and most people only ever see one side of it. Here are both, before anything is diagnosed.
- A finished repair
- $170 to $1,070, part and labour fitted, under warranty — 90 days on labour, 365 days on parts, genuine OEM parts only.
- A new appliance
- $5,200 to $16,500. A comparable Wolf range, rangetop or wall oven, appliance only — before delivery, installation, ventilation or cabinetry. National appliance pricing, not Florida labour.
- Half of the cheaper one
- About $2,600 — the line the old fifty-per-cent rule draws, and comfortably above the dearest repair in our book at $1,070.
That last row is the whole answer for most callers. The rule of thumb people reach for was written for appliances that cost a fraction of these, and on this equipment it almost never fires on a single fault.
When it is clearly worth it
One fault, on an appliance that is otherwise sound. Take the top of each band and set it against the cheapest thing that could stand in the same opening:
| Repair | At its worst | Share of a new appliance |
|---|---|---|
| Oven thermostat or temperature sensor | $170–$530 | 10% |
| Igniter or spark module replacement | $190–$540 | 10% |
| Door hinge, glass or seal | $200–$660 | 13% |
| Burner valve or orifice service | $220–$710 | 14% |
| Convection fan or motor | $260–$730 | 14% |
| Control board or touch panel | $420–$1,070 | 21% |
The dearest of them, at its very worst, is 21% of a replacement. A burner that will not catch, an oven that runs cold, a door that has stopped sitting square, a fan that has started to growl — those are repairs, and arguing about them is arguing about 10% to 21% of the alternative.
When it is a judgement call
Faults arrive together more often than people expect, because the thing that caused one has usually been working on the rest. Two expensive parts in one visit — the control board or touch panel and the convection fan or motor — are two bands added together, $1,070 and $730 at their worst. That is 35% of a new appliance and within sight of the $2,600 line.
At that point the honest answer stops being a number and becomes three questions, which we will go through with you on the estimate rather than after it:
- How much of the appliance is still original, and how much has already been through this?
- Is the second fault a consequence of the first — a board that went with a surge, a bearing that went with the salt — or a separate thing wearing out on its own timetable?
- Would the replacement actually drop into the opening? On older coastal kitchens it frequently does not, and the cabinetry work is the part nobody budgets for. There is a note about that.
When we say no
We will tell you to spend the money elsewhere in three situations, and none of them is about the repair being dear on its own.
- The list is longer than the estimate. Three separate faults found in one diagnosis is not three repairs, it is an appliance telling you where it is in its life.
- The part cannot be had. Where a part is out of production the decision is made for you, and no amount of arithmetic changes it. We would rather say that on day one than charge you to wait for it.
- The repair does not fix the complaint. If the real problem is an installation — a range crammed into an opening it was never cut for, an extraction run that cannot clear the kitchen — replacing a part fixes nothing and you would be back.
Saying no on a visit costs us the repair and keeps the $80. That is the whole of what we take from that call, and it is why the answer can be no.
Deciding properly
Flat $80 diagnostic, credited toward the repair when you go ahead with it. What it buys before this decision is measurement instead of a guess: the fault traced at the appliance, the part named, and you get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labour is billed.
If the figure that comes back makes replacing the better spend, you have spent $80 to find that out instead of $5,200 to find it out afterwards. Start with what we repair, or call and describe it.
What people decided
4.6
out of 5, across 67 customer reviews. Each one below is a single visit, written by the person who paid for it.
The simmer was far too fierce to hold a sauce. He adjusted the low-flame screw on each valve to the right setting for our gas and showed me what the flame ought to look like when it is set properly.
Winslow X.
Water pooled under the appliance after every steam cycle. He traced it to a split drain hose behind the cabinetry rather than the seal two other people had blamed, and fitted a fresh length of it.
Xiomara B.
Ours threw a sensor code every time it went into combination mode. He measured the probe resistance cold and again hot, matched both against the curve and replaced it. The code has not come back.
Leopold W.
The book
What does each repair cost?
$80
Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work. Everything under it is a band, not a quote. The figure that counts is written down after the diagnosis, and it covers the part, the labour to fit it, and the warranty — 90 days on labour, 365 days on parts, genuine OEM parts only.
| What was wrong | Typical finished repair |
|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit on its own | $80, credited |
| Igniter or spark module replacement | $190–$540 |
| Burner valve or orifice service | $220–$710 |
| Oven thermostat or temperature sensor | $170–$530 |
| Convection fan or motor | $260–$730 |
| Control board or touch panel | $420–$1,070 |
| Door hinge, glass or seal | $200–$660 |
The top of the book is $1,070. Nothing at all — at that figure or well under it — is billed without a written estimate you have agreed to first.
When is it worth replacing instead?
Against a repair, the comparison is a new appliance at $5,200–$16,500. A comparable Wolf range, rangetop or wall oven, appliance only — before delivery, installation, ventilation or cabinetry. National appliance pricing, not Florida labour.
| Instead of repairing | New, appliance only |
|---|---|
| Wall oven or built-in oven, the usual repair-or-replace comparison | $5,200–$10,500 |
| Dual-fuel or gas range, 36 inch and up | $8,500–$16,500 |
Asked on the phone
What else do people ask?
- When do you tell somebody not to repair it?
- When the faults arrive together rather than singly. One part at $420–$1,070 against $5,200 to $16,500 for a new appliance is easy arithmetic; the same part alongside a tired door and a burner deck that wants stripping is not, and we would rather say so than fit the first one.
- What moves a quote up or down inside a band?
- Three things: which part it turns out to be, whether the appliance has to come out of its opening to reach it, and whether that part is on the shelf or on back order. Access is the one that surprises people — a built-in fitted tight into old cabinetry adds work before any part is touched.
- Why is the oven running cold or taking an age to preheat?
- Either the sensor is reading wrong or the element is not making the heat it claims. A probe on the rack at three settings separates the two inside a quarter of an hour. A sensor or thermostat replacement falls in $170–$530; a calibration trim on a sound oven is part of the visit.
- What does a visit cost?
- Flat $80 diagnostic, credited toward the repair when you go ahead with it. You get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labour is billed. There is no separate travel charge inside the 40-mile radius.