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 you’ve decided.
By Daniel Wroclawski
Data visualizations by Andy Bergmann
If your refrigerator is giving you trouble—your water dispenser has slowed to a trickle, your icemaker keeps jamming, or worse, you open the door and get hit by a warm breeze—you’re probably wondering whether you ought to repair or replace it. You’ve 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 decision—and put your time and money in the right place.
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, it’s usually more economical to get it fixed.
It may also be better for the planet. In 2018, 2.1 million tons of major appliances, including refrigerators, ended up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Steel Recycling Institute. And in our most recent member survey, only 10 percent of CR members had their old refrigerator recycled. Many CR members (50 percent) had their old fridge hauled away, while about a third discarded theirs in a somewhat sustainable way by trading it in, giving it away, selling it, or donating it.
As they rot in landfills, refrigerators can release harmful gases and materials that damage the ozone layer and contribute to climate change. The EPA notes that refrigerators manufactured before 1995 contain chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerant, which when released contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer. Refrigerators manufactured after 1995 use an ozone-friendly refrigerant, but it’s still a greenhouse gas that can contribute to climate change. Refrigerators can also contain ozone-depleting foam insulation and harmful materials like mercury, so proper recycling of them is still key.
To help you make the repair vs. replace decision for your refrigerator, we’ve created this handy tool. Use the sliders to enter the age of your refrigerator, the original cost, and any estimate you have for a repair. The color bar on the right will indicate whether you should definitely repair, consider a repair, or replace your refrigerator.
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, you’ll want to consider replacing it if it’s 8 years old or older. For a side-by-side that costs less than $1,250, consider replacing it if it’s 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 refrigerator’s problem might be covered by a recall. Check the appliance brand’s website to see if this is the case. Check social media as well. Even if it’s not part of an official recall, a problem that’s 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 refrigerator’s warranty. It’s important to read the fine print because there are problems the manufacturer might not cover. If your problem is covered by the warranty, you’ll need to go through the manufacturer or retailer to arrange the repair service.
Check whether the problem is something that is easily and cheaply fixed—or not. There are some repairs that are easy and affordable to do yourself. For example, if your refrigerator isn’t keeping cool due to a ripped door gasket, you can fix it cheaply yourself if you’re comfortable doing so. But if it’s not cooling due to a faulty compressor, you’re facing an expensive repair that will require professional help.
Making Greener Choices
• We compiled 45 Ways to Save More and Waste Less.
• Repair vs. Replace: Ranges, Dishwashers, Washers, Dryers.
• See our fourth-annual Appliance Brand Reliability Rankings.
For more, see CR’s Guide to Sustainable Living.
Should You Fix It Yourself or Call a Pro?
If you’ve decided to go the repair route, you’ll 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, you’ll likely want to hire a pro.
If you’re unsure what the exact problem is with your refrigerator and you’d like to find out before you commit to hiring a professional, call your manufacturer’s 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 home’s 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, you’ll 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 survey—including icemakers not making ice, fridges not cooling, and dispensers not working—range 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 doesn’t 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, they’ll typically put the fee toward the total repair cost. This means, however, that it can be costly to shop around for repairs.
Here’s a big-picture look at the data that feeds the tool above. Considering the cost of many refrigerators, it often pays to invest in a repair even when you’ve 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, you’ll want to get a new refrigerator that’s reliable and less likely to break down than the old one. That’s why we use our Annual Member Surveys to create predicted reliability ratings for refrigerators. We then factor these ratings into each model’s 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.
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