Should You Repair or Replace Your Broken Refrigerator?
CR's interactive tool leverages product costs, depreciation rates, and survey data to help you make the right choice. Plus, we offer expert advice on what to do once youāve decided.
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If your refrigerator is giving you troubleāyour water dispenser has slowed to a trickle, your icemaker keeps jamming, or worse, you open the door and get hit by a warm breezeāyouāre probably wondering whether you ought to repair or replace it. Youāve come to the right place. In our latest member survey, we asked thousands of CR members about their refrigerator repair experiences to help you make the right decisionāand put your time and money in the right place.Ā
Based on an analysis of survey responses, we found that refrigerators are fairly fixable, with 62 percent of repairs being successful on the first attempt and another 25 percent being successful after two or more attempts. In fact, our research shows that if your refrigerator is less than 10 years old, itās usually more economical to get it fixed.
As you may find when using the tool, it often makes economic sense to repair a refrigerator, even as far as 10 years into ownership. The only exceptions are budget top-freezers and side-by-sides. For a top-freezer that costs less than $800, youāll want to consider replacing it if itās 8 years old or older. For a side-by-side that costs less than $1,250, consider replacing it if itās 10 years old or older.
If you decide to replace your refrigerator, you can find replacement advice, as well as some top-performing models from our tests, below.
Factors to Consider
Before you completely commit to a repair or replacement, there are some additional considerations you should weigh:
- Your refrigeratorās problem might be covered by a recall. Check the appliance brandās website to see if this is the case. Check social media as well. Even if itās not part of an official recall, a problem thatās brought up in online forums repeatedly might be significant enough that the company will fix it or replace the refrigerator free of charge.
- Check your refrigeratorās warranty. Itās important to read the fine print because there are problems the manufacturer might not cover. If your problem is covered by the warranty, youāll need to go through the manufacturer or retailer to arrange the repair service.
- Check whether the problem is something that is easily and cheaply fixedāor not. There are some repairs that are easy and affordable to do yourself. For example, if your refrigerator isnāt keeping cool due to a ripped door gasket, you can fix it cheaply yourself if youāre comfortable doing so. But if itās not cooling due to a faulty compressor, youāre facing an expensive repair that will require professional help.
Making Greener Choices
ā¢Ā We compiled 45 Ways to Save More and Waste Less.
ā¢ Repair vs. Replace: Ranges, Dishwashers, Washers, Dryers.
ā¢ See our fourth-annual Appliance Brand Reliability Rankings.
For more, see CRās Guide to Sustainable Living.
Should You Fix It Yourself or Call a Pro?
If youāve decided to go the repair route, youāll need to decide whether you want to attempt the repair on your own or hire a professional. As we mentioned above, replacing a door gasket is a relatively straightforward DIY job, as are replacing door shelves, handles, bins, and the optional icemakers found on many top- and bottom-freezers. For things like a faulty compressor, a broken through-the-door icemaker, or an unresponsive control panel, youāll likely want to hire a pro.
If youāre unsure what the exact problem is with your refrigerator and youād like to find out before you commit to hiring a professional, call your manufacturerās customer service. Many refrigerators now feature technology that allows them to run remote diagnostics that can identify your problem. This will either take the form of connecting your refrigerator to your homeās WiFi so that customer service can access it, or transmitting a series of diagnostic codes over the phone that customer service can translate into data on the issue.
If you decide to hire a professional, youāll want to consider the cost of the repair quoted. Excluding broken or faulty compressors, the median refrigerator repair costs for seven specific problems that we track in our surveyāincluding icemakers not making ice, fridges not cooling, and dispensers not workingārange from about $150 to $240. The median repair cost for compressors is much higher, at $562.
Of course, those costs reflect completed repairs. Our data doesnāt factor in the estimated cost of repairs that CR members passed on for being too expensive. Indeed, 27 percent of CR members who discarded their refrigerator instead of repairing it cited expensive repair costs as their reason for doing so.
Keep in mind that some professionals will charge a fee for the initial visit to diagnose the problem and give you an estimate for a repair. If you decide to use them for the job, theyāll typically put the fee toward the total repair cost. This means, however, that it can be costly to shop around for repairs.
Hereās a big-picture look at the data that feeds the tool above.Ā Considering the cost of many refrigerators, it often pays to invest in a repair even when youāve had yours for as long as 10 years.
When the time comes to toss your old refrigerator, make sure you do it responsibly. The EPA has a Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program, which you can use to make sure your fridge is properly recycled. The RAD program has disposed of over 8.2 million refrigerators from 2006 to 2020. For additional help finding appliance recycling programs, check out the Earth911 Recycling Search database or call 800-CLEANUP.
And to avoid future repair hassles with your new refrigerator, consider reading the fine print of its warranty before you buy it. You might also want to consider reading user reviews that mention repair and customer support experiences.
Finally, make sure to do routine maintenance on your refrigerator, such as vacuuming out the condenser coils every six months and cleaning the door gaskets. These simple maintenance tasks will help the fridge not have to work as hard to dissipate heat and keep your food cold, which can help you avoid a breakdown.
If You Decide to Replace Your Refrigerator
For starters, youāll want to get a new refrigerator thatās reliable and less likely to break down than the old one. Thatās why we use our Annual Member Surveys to create predicted reliability ratings for refrigerators. We then factor these ratings into each modelās lab test results when we create its Overall Score. Here are five top-rated refrigerators from our ratings that receive Excellent ratings for predicted reliability based on our latest member survey.