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Start with what you own

Refrigerator types

The word refrigerator covers eight quite different appliances. A built-in is serviced from the front without leaving its opening; a column is two appliances that fail independently; an undercounter unit breathes through one grille and nothing else; a chest freezer in a cold garage may be behaving exactly as designed. Knowing which one you have answers half the question before anybody arrives.

A built-in refrigerator standing flush with the surrounding cabinetry, its ventilation grille running across the top above the doors.

Built-in refrigerator

Flush with the cabinets, serviced from the front, and almost always repaired rather than replaced.

 A pair of full-height refrigerator and freezer columns set side by side in one cabinet run, each behind its own tall door.

Refrigerator column

Separate refrigerator and freezer towers, each with its own sealed system — so a fault stays on one side.

 A French door refrigerator with both upper doors swung open and the lower freezer drawer pulled out.

French door refrigerator

Two fresh-food doors over a freezer drawer — the most common premium layout, and the one with the most to go wrong at the door line.

 A side-by-side refrigerator with a tall freezer door on the left carrying an ice and water dispenser recess.

Side-by-side refrigerator

Full-height freezer beside full-height fresh food, with the ice maker and dispenser built into the freezer door.

 An undercounter refrigerator built into a run of base cabinets below a stone worktop, its ventilation grille at floor level.

Undercounter refrigerator

A single 15 to 24 inch unit under the worktop — front-vented, tightly enclosed, and easily starved of air.

 Not sure which you have?

Start from what it is doing

If the cabinet in your kitchen does not obviously match one of these, work from the symptom instead. It reaches the same answer from the other end.

18 problemsIn order of costWhat to check first Go to the problems

What a repair
usually costs.

A useful rule: weigh the repair against what the appliance would cost to replace in the same opening. On a freestanding unit that is a straightforward comparison. On a built-in or a column it is not, because the replacement has to match the cabinetry, and that is why sealed-system work on those types is still normally worth doing.

Diagnostic visit: OWNER TO CONFIRM the service-call fee and whether it is credited against the repair.
Read the full cost guide
RepairRelative costNotes
Door gasket or alignment lowest Often the cheapest job on the list, and frequently the real cause of a much more expensive-sounding symptom.
Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor low The usual answer when frost has built up and the fresh-food side has drifted warm.
Evaporator or condenser fan low Common, quick, and the reason a freezer can be cold while the refrigerator is not.
Water inlet valve or line low Covers most no-water and no-ice calls once the filter and the shut-off have been ruled out.
Defrost drain clearing low The sheet of ice under the bottom drawer, before it becomes water on the kitchen floor.
Ice maker assembly moderate Replaced as a module rather than rebuilt on nearly every current design.
Control board moderate Priced against the model, and on built-in units the part is the majority of the cost.
Compressor or sealed system highest The one repair where the decision is genuinely open, and where the type of appliance decides it.
Maintenance visit lowest Not a repair. The visit that prevents the largest share of the ones above it.

Not a refrigerator? Each of these is its own appliance, and has a site of its own.

(111) 111-1111 Schedule a repair