Sub-Zero · Boston, MA
Refrigerator Repair
Sub-Zero built-ins, integrated columns and pro-style side-by-sides across the inner metro. Sealed-system diagnosis, control and evaporator faults, and the airflow problems that show up first as an uneven fresh-food compartment.
In your words
What people describe when they call
- Refrigerator section drifting warm overnight
- Interior light works but nothing is cooling
- Condenser fan silent while the compressor stays hot
- Door alarm sounding with the door fully shut
On the visit
What gets measured
- Fresh-food and freezer compartment temperatures, taken over a full cycle rather than at the door
- Evaporator inlet and outlet temperatures — the pair that separates airflow from charge
- Condenser and evaporator fan behaviour, and the condition of the condenser itself
- Defrost heater and thermistor resistance, and whether the drain is clear
Also carried
Money, plainly
What the number is made of.
One figure is fixed: the $95 service call, which covers the visit and the diagnosis and comes off the bill when you approve the repair. The rest depends on which circuit failed.
Nobody quotes a repair down the phone here. A written estimate follows the readings, as one number for parts and labour together, and you can decline any line on it.
- Which circuit failed. A condenser fan motor and an evaporator that has lost its charge are not the same job, and they are not close. Most of the spread in a refrigeration bill sits here.
- Whether the cabinet has to come out. A full-height column in a tight back hall may need the door and the panel off before anything can be reached. Access is labour, and it is quoted as labour.
- Part availability. Control boards and compressors for older platforms are ordered rather than carried. A part on the van and a part on order produce different visits and different totals.
- What else the readings show. A defrost fault found alongside a failed door heater gets quoted as two items, both visible on the estimate, so you can decline either one.
Typical range, parts and labour
- Door gasket or seal replacement $270 – $760
- Evaporator or condenser fan motor $280 – $590
- Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor $290 – $680
- Ice maker, water valve or supply line $290 – $690
- Electronic control board $470 – $940
- Compressor or sealed-system repair $1,000 – $2,080
For scale, a comparable replacement cabinet runs $7,990 – $21,170 for the appliance alone, before delivery, installation or panel work. That is the comparison worth making before a large sealed-system repair.
From the book
On refrigerator repair calls.
4.9 average across 872 reviews
Our column sits behind panelling in the back addition off Salem Street. He drew it out without marking the trim, found a failed damper motor keeping all the cold on the freezer side, and had it back in by lunch.
Paul R.Medford
Column stopped cooling on the third floor of our two-family, every tool carried up the back stairs. The sealed system tested fine. A control board had lost the compressor relay.
Nadia K.Davis Square
Kitchen went into the old pantry and there is barely an inch behind the cabinet. Warm air was recirculating over the coil because the toe kick vent was packed with lint. Cleared out and it has held temperature since.
Colm B.Davis Square
Coverage
Refrigerator Repair across the inner metro.
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Medford
02155
Medford mixes Colonials near the Mystic Lakes with post-war capes and ranches off Salem Street. Rear additions have opened many of these kitchens up, so panelled columns and undercounter units keep turning up in otherwise modest houses.
Coverage in Medford -
Davis Square
02144
The Davis Square end of Somerville is dense two- and three-family housing with rear porches and small yards. Renovations here push refrigeration into former pantries and back halls, where depth rather than width is the constraint.
Coverage in Davis Square -
Arlington Heights
02476
The top of Massachusetts Avenue climbs into Arlington Heights, where 1920s Colonials and shingled two-families sit on sloping lots. Driveways are short and back entrances tight, which matters when a full-height column has to come out.
Coverage in Arlington Heights -
Ashmont
02124
Ashmont and Ashmont Hill hold large Victorians and three-deckers on lots that are generous by city standards. Many have been gut-renovated with the kitchen moved to the back of the house, into what used to be the pantry.
Coverage in Ashmont
Next step
Describe what it is doing. We will tell you what that usually means.
A call costs nothing. A visit is a flat $95, and that comes off the bill the moment you approve the repair.