Repair or replace
We're Selling Within a Year. Repair or Leave It?
- Signed
- Dean Halvorsen
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — sealed systems and airflow
- Certification
- EPA Section 608 certified
- Published
Straight answer
Usually repair it. A built-in is fitted into the cabinetry, so it normally goes with the house, and fixing the fault costs less than installing a new unit you will barely use. Leaving it as it is remains an option, but know what you are leaving first. Sub-Zero Repair Edmonds diagnoses it: (206) 210-3547.
To repair it
Quoted once the fault is found, from whichever of the ranges on this site it belongs to.
To replace it
$12,110–$21,200
a like-for-like new built-in, with the fitting and any cabinet work still to pay on top
Three ways to hand it over
Repair it. You pay the range for the fault it actually has, and the kitchen changes hands working. For most faults it is the smaller of the two bills.
Replace it. You pay the replacement figure above, plus fitting and any cabinet work, for a unit you will use for a few months. That makes sense mainly when the old unit would not be worth repairing even if you were staying.
Leave it as it is. Nothing is spent on the unit, and the buyer takes it as it stands. What you must tell a buyer, and how, is a question for your agent or attorney.
Why a diagnosis helps even if you change nothing
“The fridge is warm” could mean a bill of almost any size. A diagnosis turns it into a named fault and a range, and with that in hand the three options can be compared honestly, and the $89 you pay for it is deducted from the repair if you choose one.
When the repair is the wrong spend
A repair buys a working unit, not a newer one. If the liner is cracked, the doors no longer pull shut or the unit has already had one sealed-system repair, fixing today’s fault leaves the next one waiting. Then the real choice is between replacing it and leaving it.
Repair makes sense when
- The fault is a single part, such as a fan, a board or a sensor, or a sealed-system fault on a unit whose system has never been opened.
- You are living in the house until it sells and need the refrigerator working in the meantime.
- The unit is built into joinery or wears custom panels, so any new model would bring cabinet work too.
Replace it when
- The cabinet is failing along with the part, so a repaired unit would still seal and look poorly.
- The quote would be its second sealed-system repair in a short span.
- The kitchen is being redone before the sale in any case, and the opening is changing.
What we check first
- What failed and which range it falls in, so the choice is between known numbers.
- The doors, gaskets and liner, so the repair you pay for is not the first of several.
- On a two-compressor unit, the section that still works, since whoever owns it next has both to live with.
Questions people ask next
Do I have to fix the refrigerator before I sell?
That is a question for your agent or attorney rather than a repair company, because it turns on your contract and on what you tell a buyer. What we can give you is the fault and the range it falls in, for the $89 service call, so whichever way you go you decide with facts. Sub-Zero Repair Edmonds: (206) 210-3547.
Is it cheaper to repair or to replace before a sale?
For nearly every fault, repair. A sealed-system job priced at the very top of its range still costs far less than a new built-in, and that price comes before the new unit is fitted into the cabinetry. Replacing wins only when the cabinet itself is failing, or when this would be the unit's second sealed-system repair.