Finding Low Prices for Appliance Repairs
Last updated June 2026
Once you’ve identified repair services that offer high-quality work, consider price.
Our undercover shoppers contacted appliance repair services in seven major metropolitan areas and asked for their prices for five different repair jobs. As the table below indicates, shop-to-shop price differences can be substantial. For example, we found that the price to replace the bake element on an Amana electric oven (model AER6303MFS2) ranged from $135 to $482, and prices to replace the drive belt and idler pulley on a Whirlpool clothes dryer (model WGD4815EW2) ranged from $132 to $420.
Before scheduling a service call, ask each company for its minimum charge and what it includes. Ideally, that service will cover travel plus enough time to provide you a diagnosis and written price quote to do the work. You can then use that price to contact other repair service to make sure you pay a fair price.
In this industry—as in so many we have studied—we found no evidence of any relationship between price and service quality. In fact, companies with below-average prices tended to score higher on our customer survey than companies with above-average prices.
Even if you’ve been unlucky and have had bad experiences with unreliable appliances, don’t buy an extended warranty when you buy a new machine. Each year consumers waste billions of dollars on extended warranties, also called “protection plans” or “extended service plans.” Retailers increasingly count on the sales of extended warranties for most—or even all—of their profits. These warranties are terrible deals for most consumers.
