Almanac
The cheap repairs, the dear ones, and what moves a quote
Most repairs here are one component and land in the hundreds. Two do not. This is which is which, and the four things that move a written quote up or down.
Almost every call starts with the same question, and it is a fair one: what is this going to cost. Before the appliance is open the honest answer is a range, and the table at the foot of this page is the whole of what we publish. What a table cannot tell you is why one repair sits at the cheap end of the book and another sits at the top. That part is worth knowing before you decide anything, so here it is in order.
Nobody here bills by the hour
There is no hourly rate on this price list, and the absence is deliberate. An hourly meter pays a technician to work slowly and leaves the total unknowable until the job is finished. What you agree to instead is a flat diagnostic before anyone drives, and then a written figure for the repair — part and labour set out separately — before a component is ordered. The diagnostic comes off that figure when you approve the work.
A quote here is a part plus the labour that part takes, never a clock. Two ovens with the same complaint can carry different numbers because the parts differ, not because one visit ran longer than the other.
The repairs that stay in the hundreds
Most of what we do lives in this group. An igniter or a surface element, an oven sensor, a bake or broil element, a convection fan, a hinge, a door seal: each is a single component, each is ordered against the model and serial on the data plate, and every one of them appears in the table below in the hundreds rather than the thousands.
These are also the jobs where the arithmetic is easiest. Set any one of those bands against the cost of a like-for-like replacement and the repair wins without needing an argument, which is why we do not make one.
The two that climb into four figures
Two repairs behave differently, and both are worth recognising early.
A control board or touch panel is the first. It is an assembly rather than a part, it is specific to the version your serial points at, and on an older product line it is the component most likely to have gone out of production. That combination is what puts it at the top of the cooking half of the table.
The second is the sealed system on a refrigeration column — the compressor, the condenser and the charge that moves between them. It is the most expensive repair on the machine by a wide margin and the only one where the appliance’s age changes the answer rather than merely colouring it. We hold EPA Section 608 and do sealed work in-house, so a confirmed leak does not need a second company and a second appointment. It is still the repair to think hardest about, and the note on repairing or replacing a built-in sets the two halves of that decision side by side.
Four things that move a quote, and none of them is the clock
Which version the serial points at. A product line is a series of running changes. A board or a harness ordered against an older serial can cost more than the same-looking component on a machine built three years later.
Whether the part is on a shelf. A common element or a seal is usually stocked. A version-specific assembly is ordered against your serial, and scarcity shows up in the price as well as in the wait.
Access. A panel-ready installation, or a built-in that has to come out of an opening cut for it when the kitchen was new, adds time before the diagnosis has even started. We look at the route out before anything is unbolted.
Whether it is one fault or two. If a second problem appears once the appliance is open we stop and re-quote rather than carry on, so the second number arrives before you spend it instead of afterwards.
When the money is not the appliance’s fault
The cheapest outcome we deliver is the one where nothing is bought at all. A condenser grille that never had the clear area the manual asks for, a duct that was long and bent from the day it went in, a circuit carrying more than it was drawn for — each produces a fault that reads as a failing appliance, and none of them is cured by a part.
Where that is the finding, it goes to you in writing and there is no repair to quote. You will have paid the flat diagnostic to learn it, which is the whole reason the diagnostic exists.
Before the estimate
What is this likely to cost?
The visit is a flat $80 and it comes off the repair once you approve it. What the repair itself lands at depends on the part, and these are the bands the work below has actually fallen into. A band is not a quote: the firm figure is written down after the appliance has been opened and measured.
| Repair | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit | $80 flat, credited |
| Igniter, spark module or surface element | $210–$530 |
| Oven thermostat or temperature sensor | $170–$560 |
| Bake or broil element | $200–$570 |
| Convection fan or motor | $250–$660 |
| Control board or touch panel | $430–$1,100 |
| Door hinge, glass or seal | $200–$650 |
| Refrigeration column sealed system | $880–$2,300 |
Follow-up questions
What do people ask after reading this?
- Which repair is the most expensive one?
- The sealed system on a refrigeration column — compressor, condenser and charge — at $880–$2,300. The control board or touch panel is next at $430–$1,100. Nothing else in the table below reaches four figures, and most of it stays a long way short of them.
- Why does a control board cost more than an element?
- Because a board is an assembly specific to the version your serial points at rather than a stock part, and on an older product line it may have gone out of production. That is what puts it at $430–$1,100 while a bake or broil element sits at $200–$570.
- Does a hard-to-reach appliance cost more?
- Access adds time before the diagnosis has even started — a panel-ready front, or a built-in that has to come out of an opening cut for it when the kitchen was new. It is accounted for in the written figure you approve, never added to the invoice afterwards.
- What happens if you find a second fault once it is open?
- We stop and re-quote. The second number reaches you before you have spent it rather than after, and you can approve one repair, both, or neither. A figure you have already approved does not move on its own once the work is under way.
The line we work to
Where the work stops
We work on the built-in appliances inside the kitchen and nothing else. The only duct we open is the one above the cooking surface, from the hood to the wall cap outside — the supply and return ducts that heat and cool the house are a different trade altogether and we are not in it. If the call is about a furnace, an air conditioner, an air handler or a vent in the ceiling, we will say so on the phone and send you elsewhere rather than book a visit.
A call from Mandarin about a Thermador appliance is ours. A call from Mandarin about the furnace, the air conditioning or a vent in the ceiling is not, and we would rather tell you that in thirty seconds on (904) 201-3304 than on your doorstep.
We service
- Built-in refrigeration
- Wall ovens and steam ovens
- Ranges and rangetops
- Cooktops and induction
- Ventilation hoods
- Dishwashers
- Warming drawers
- Built-in coffee machines
- Wine columns
We do not service
- Furnaces and central heating
- Air conditioners, air handlers and heat pumps
- Supply and return ducts, ceiling vents and registers
- Thermostats and whole-house humidity control
- Water heaters and house plumbing
