Every number we can publish honestly: what the service call costs, what a finished repair usually comes to by machine and by failure, which line items get added, and where we say "we can't price that until we see it."
Most appliance repairs we complete in Orange County land between $150 and $600 in parts and labor. Sealed-system work — a compressor or a refrigerant leak — is the expensive tier at $700–$1,500 on a freestanding refrigerator. The diagnostic service call is $59–$95 depending on the appliance (free for air conditioning, and free for commercial refrigeration near Irvine) and it is applied toward the repair when you approve the work. Every completed repair carries a 90-day parts and labor warranty. The ranges below are typical, not quotes — you get a firm written number after the diagnosis and before anything is touched.
There is no flat rate, and anyone who quotes one over the phone is guessing. A finished invoice is built from the same handful of lines every time:
You see all of that in writing on your phone before the technician opens a toolbag. If a part has to be ordered, you get the price and the wait time before we order it.
| What we are looking at | Service call | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator, freezer, dryer | $59 | Includes probe temperature readings, frost-pattern inspection and amperage checks |
| Washer, dishwasher | $75 | Includes a drain and fill test cycle where the machine will run one |
| Microwave, and Speed Queen / Bertazzoni / Liebherr appliances | $95 | Longer diagnosis: high-voltage components, or a dealer-channel parts lookup |
| Oven, range, cooktop, vent hood, everything else | $85 | The default rate for any appliance not listed above |
| Air conditioning (residential) | Free | Full diagnostic including gauges, superheat and subcooling — you pay only if we repair |
| Commercial refrigeration and ice machines | Free near Irvine · $85 elsewhere in OC | Restaurants and markets get scheduling priority — warm product is money leaving the building |
The fee is credited toward the repair. It pays for the trip and a real diagnosis; if you approve the work, it disappears off the total. If you decide not to repair, the service call is the only thing you owe — and we will tell you plainly when a machine is not worth fixing.
Parts and labor for a standard freestanding refrigerator. Built-ins are covered further down.
| Failure / part | Typical cost | What you notice |
|---|---|---|
| Start relay / overload | $150–$300 | Clicking every few minutes, compressor hums then stops |
| Evaporator fan motor | $180–$350 | Freezer cold, fridge side warm; buzzing behind the freezer panel |
| Condenser fan motor | $180–$350 | Compressor hot to the touch, warm at the base of the unit |
| Defrost heater / defrost thermostat | $200–$400 | Thick frost on the freezer back wall, fridge warms over a week |
| Defrost control / timer | $200–$380 | Works for a day after unplugging, then fails again |
| Thermistor / temperature sensor | $150–$300 | Erratic temperatures, over-freezing produce, error code |
| Water inlet valve | $180–$320 | No ice, no dispenser water, or water pooling underneath |
| Ice maker assembly | $220–$450 | Dead ice maker, or a few cubes a day |
| Door gasket (per door) | $150–$350 | Sweating door edge, frost in the freezer, unit runs constantly |
| Drain line cleaning (leak under the unit) | about $149 | Water on the floor or ice sheeting under the crisper drawers |
| Main control board | $300–$600 | Dead unit, or lights on with nothing running |
| Inverter / compressor driver board | $300–$550 | Compressor never starts, or starts and shuts straight down |
A useful shortcut: freezer still freezing but the fresh-food side warm almost always lands in the cheap half of that table. Both compartments warm, with a compressor that is hot or silent, is the expensive half. Our refrigerator not cooling guide walks the checks in order, and the full 2026 refrigerator cost guide explains what drives each number.
Why a finished invoice can sit above the part range. Across our own completed refrigerator jobs the median invoice is about $440, which is higher than most single rows above. That is because a real visit often includes more than the one part: a full defrost service (about $100) on a frosted-up evaporator, or a condenser coil cleaning ($75–$195) on a unit that has never had one. Those are optional lines you approve or decline — they are not padding, and declining them does not change the warranty on the repair itself.
This is the tier where the money is, and the only appliance work that legally requires EPA Section 608 certification to perform. Sealed-system repair means opening the refrigerant circuit — recovery, brazing, nitrogen pressure testing, a deep vacuum, and a weighed refrigerant charge.
Two rules that decide whether this is worth spending: refrigerant is never consumed, so "low on Freon" always means a leak; and a recharge without a leak repair is a bill you pay again. Whether the repair beats replacement is a straight age-and-value calculation — see repair or replace?. On a built-in, repair usually keeps winning for 15–20 years, because the replacement side of that equation runs $8,000–$15,000 installed.
Dryer jobs are the most predictable thing we price, because the same four or five failures account for nearly all of them. These are complete jobs including labor, from our own invoices.
| Repair | Typical total | What you notice |
|---|---|---|
| Drum repair kit — rollers, idler pulley, belt | $245–$350 | Squealing, rumbling, or a drum that will not turn while the motor runs |
| Gas heating repair — igniter, coils, flame sensor, thermal fuse | $289–$400 | Tumbles fine, blows cold; clothes damp after a full cycle |
| Electric heating: thermostat / safety kit, element | $390–$660 | No heat, or heat that cuts out partway through the cycle |
| Control board or timer | $480–$640 | Dead panel, cycle will not start, or it ignores the setting |
| Maintenance service + vent line cleaning | $300–$470 | Two or three cycles to dry one load; hot laundry room; lint smell |
| Stacked unit — extra access labor | add to the job above | The dryer has to come down and go back up to reach the washer behind it |
The median finished dryer invoice across our jobs is about $350. Before you call, it is worth reading dryer not heating — a blocked vent line causes a large share of "no heat" calls and is a cleaning, not a part. Full scope on the dryer repair page.
We are not going to publish a table of invented ranges for these. The spread on a washer or an oven is genuinely wide — a drain pump and a control board are not the same repair, and a slide-in range and a 48-inch dual-fuel are not the same machine — so a made-up "average" would only mislead you. What we can tell you before we arrive is exactly how the number gets built:
In practice that means most washer and dishwasher repairs land in the same $200–$600 band as the refrigerator table above, and we will tell you the exact figure on the phone the moment the technician has diagnosed it — not after the work is done.
Read this part carefully, because our scope here is narrow on purpose. We do minor heating and cooling service and repairs under $1,000. We do not install or replace systems. If your diagnosis comes back as an evaporator coil, a compressor or a full changeout, we tell you, we do not quote it, and we hand you to a specialist contractor — Pioneer Service is who we refer to.
The AC diagnostic is free, so finding out which side of that line you are on costs nothing. Inside our scope:
| Repair | Typical cost | Symptom |
|---|---|---|
| Run capacitor (dual or single) | $180–$350 | Outdoor unit hums or clicks, fan will not spin; blows warm |
| Contactor | $180–$320 | Outdoor unit will not start, or will not shut off; buzzing |
| Condenser fan motor | $350–$700 | Outdoor fan dead or running hot, compressor tripping out |
| Thermostat replacement | $180–$450 | Blank screen, wrong calls, system ignores the setpoint |
| Condensate drain clear / float switch | $120–$250 | AC shuts itself off; water at the air handler |
| Condenser coil cleaning | $120–$250 | Weak cooling after a Santa Ana wind event; high electric bill |
| R-410A recharge, after the leak is repaired | $250–$600 | Ice on the lines, cooling that faded over several weeks |
| Small refrigerant leak detection and repair | $300–$1,000 | Same symptoms; accessible leaks only — coil leaks are out of scope |
Roughly 60% of the summer calls we run are one of the first three rows, or a condenser coil that only needed cleaning. Full detail, including the larger jobs we refer out and what refrigerant costs in 2026, is in the AC repair cost guide; scope and booking on the AC repair and AC maintenance pages.
For restaurants, markets, cafés and bars, the service call is free near our Irvine base and $85 elsewhere in Orange County, credited toward the repair. We deliberately do not publish a price table here: a reach-in door gasket and a walk-in condensing unit on a roof are not comparable jobs, and a range wide enough to cover both would tell you nothing. What you get instead is scheduling priority, a written quote before work starts, and the same 90-day parts and labor warranty. See commercial refrigeration repair and commercial ice machine repair, or read the maintenance guide that keeps these calls from happening in the first place.
These show up on estimates as separate lines. You approve or decline each one before any work begins.
| Line item | Price | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Condenser coil maintenance | $75–$195 | Recommended every 2 years — the cheapest thing that prevents the most expensive failure |
| Full defrost service | about $100 | Evaporator iced solid; includes drain line clearing and airflow verification |
| Dryer maintenance service | $65–$199 | Internal lint removal, belt, rollers and sensor inspection |
| Dryer vent line cleaning | $150–$279 | Long or blocked vent runs — an airflow fix and a fire-risk fix at once |
| Refrigerant and consumables kit | $120–$250 | Any sealed-system job: charge, nitrogen, brazing rod, process valve |
| Filter drier | $53–$85 | Mandatory whenever the sealed system has been opened |
| Sealed system flush | $99–$220 | After a compressor burnout, to clear contaminated oil and acid |
| Second technician | $100–$200 | Built-in pull-outs, stacked units, anything too heavy for one person |
| Parts shipping | $14–$35 | Only on ordered parts; already included in most part lines |
Most repairs land between $150 and $600 in parts and labor. Across our own completed jobs the median finished refrigerator invoice is about $440 and the median dryer invoice about $350. Sealed-system work — a compressor or a refrigerant leak — is the expensive tier at $700–$1,500 on a freestanding refrigerator.
Yes, always. If you approve the repair, the service call comes off the total. If you decide not to repair, the service call is the only thing you pay.
We can tell you the range — which is what this page is for — but not the number. The same symptom has three or four possible causes at three or four different prices, and guessing on the phone is how customers end up with a surprise. Ten minutes with a meter settles it, and the firm quote comes before any work.
Parts for built-ins cost two to four times more and come through a low-volume dealer channel, many models run two compressors and two evaporators, and integrated cabinetry turns a 45-minute job into two or three hours. It still beats the replacement side of the equation, which is why repair stays sensible on those units for 15–20 years.
No. Same-day and next-day visits across Orange County are the normal schedule, not a premium tier, and Saturday and Sunday are regular working days for us. The service call is the same whenever we come out.
No — we do not do installations or system replacements. Our heating and cooling work is limited to minor service and repairs under $1,000. The free AC diagnostic will tell you which side of that line your system is on, at no cost to you either way.
Want a real number for your machine? Call or text (310) 600-8152 with the appliance, brand and model number, Monday–Saturday 8 AM – 8 PM and Sunday 8 AM – 5 PM. We serve Irvine and all of Orange County — and if you would rather try a fix yourself first, our troubleshooting guides and the company facts page are both free.
