- The decision is not the repair price on its own. It is the repair price against how much life the appliance has left, and against what a replacement really costs delivered and installed.
- Ovens last longer than anything else in the kitchen, 13 to 15 years, so an oven fault is usually worth fixing.
- The 50/50 rule you will see everywhere is a rule of thumb, not a standard, and nobody in Australia publishes it.
- If it is not worth fixing, we will say so before you spend another dollar. That answer costs us the job and it is still the right answer.
An appliance repair cost only makes sense next to two other numbers: what the machine is still worth, and what a new one would actually cost you. Get those three in front of you and the decision is usually obvious. This guide sets them out, using Australian figures, starting with ovens.
The short answer
Repair it if the appliance is inside its expected life and the failed part is a wear part. Replace it if it is near the end of its life, or the failed part is a major assembly that costs a serious fraction of a new machine.
Three questions decide almost every case.
- How old is it against its expected life? An appliance halfway through is a different proposition to one at the end.
- Is the broken part a wear part or a major assembly? Elements, pumps, seals, hinges, thermostats and switches are wear parts. Compressors, sealed systems and control boards are not.
- What does an equivalent new one actually cost? Not the sale price of the entry-level model, but the one that would genuinely replace what you have, delivered and installed.
Most of the time the honest answer is repair. Ovens make that clearest, so start there.
How long do ovens last?
Around 13 to 15 years, which is the longest life CHOICE gives any major kitchen appliance. Longer than a fridge, longer than a washing machine, and roughly half as long again as a dishwasher.
That single number answers most oven questions before you get to the price. A seven year old oven is about halfway through its life. Unless the failed part is expensive and the machine already has another fault, the maths is not close.
Ovens are also the friendliest appliance to repair, because of what actually breaks in them. Elements, thermostats, thermal cut-outs, door hinges and seals are all wear parts. They are meant to be replaced, they are not expensive relative to the machine, and none of them means the oven is finished.
The replacement side is where people get caught out. CHOICE has tested wall ovens ranging from $699 to $9,999, and the number that matters is not the bottom of that range. A built-in oven has to fit the cabinet opening the old one came out of, and if it does not, you are paying a cabinetmaker as well.
Set an element replacement against that and you can see why most oven repairs are worth doing.
How long should every other appliance last?
CHOICE’s Australian figures for the appliances we see most:
| Appliance | Expected life |
|---|---|
| Oven | 13 to 15 years |
| Fridge | 10 to 11 years |
| Washing machine | 10 to 11 years |
| Dishwasher | 9 to 10 years |
These are what appliances should reach, not what every machine does reach. A well maintained dishwasher outlives a neglected one by years, and filters, seals and vents are the parts owners can look after themselves.
Where your machine sits against its number changes the answer more than the repair price does. That is as true of washing machine repairs and dishwasher repairs as it is of ovens.
What does an appliance repair cost in Australia?
CHOICE puts the average fridge repair at around $300, with most jobs landing somewhere between $50 and $500. That is the most useful Australian benchmark published, and it is a reasonable guide across appliance types.
Two things move a repair up or down that range.
Parts against labour. A common part costs less than an obscure one, and a premium brand part costs more than a mid-range equivalent. That is straightforward.
Whether the part is already on board. This is the one people do not think about. A repair finished in one visit costs less in total than the same fault diagnosed on one visit, ordered, and fitted on another. Our service van is stocked with parts, which is why most repairs are finished the day we arrive.
We charge a service call fee and we will tell you exactly what it is when you ring, before anyone is booked. No hidden extras. And if the appliance is not worth fixing, we would rather tell you on that call than at your kitchen bench.
What is the 50/50 rule, and does it hold up here?
It is a rule of thumb, not a standard. The usual version says replace the appliance if the repair costs more than half the price of a new one, or if the machine is more than halfway through its life. No Australian consumer body publishes it, and every page that states it with authority is quoting American figures.
That matters more than it sounds. A rule built on American replacement prices means something different in a country where the appliance costs a different amount to buy.
It also falls over in two situations that come up constantly.
On premium appliances. Half the price of a $6,000 oven is $3,000. Almost no repair reaches that, and the machine may have a decade left. The rule would have you replace something built to be repaired.
On nearly new appliances. If a machine fails well before it reasonably should have, the question is not whether to pay for the repair. It is whether you should be paying at all. See the rights section below.
A better Australian answer. CHOICE suggests working out what the appliance is still worth: take what you paid, divide it by its expected lifespan, then multiply by the years it has left. A $1,500 fridge losing $150 a year is worth roughly $750 after five years. Compare the repair to that number rather than to the price of a new machine, and you get a far more honest picture.
Run it on an oven and the answer is stark. A $2,000 oven at seven years old still holds around $1,000 of value against a 14 year life. Very few oven repairs come close.
When is the appliance repair cost more than the machine is worth?
When the failed part is a major assembly, when the machine is already near the end of its life, or when this is not the first fault. Three cases where we will tell you to replace it.
Sealed system failures on fridges. When the compressor or the sealed refrigeration circuit goes, a fridge has usually reached the end of its economic life. CHOICE says the same, suggesting replacement for a fridge over six years old with a major fault like compressor failure, partly because newer models run more efficiently. To be straight with you, sealed system work is outside what we take on, so we will tell you if that is what you are looking at. Plenty of other fridge repairs are well worth doing.
Control boards on entry-level appliances. On an inexpensive machine, a board can approach what the whole appliance is worth. On a premium machine, the same board is a fraction of it. Same part, opposite answer.
Repeat failures. One fault is a fault. Three faults in two years on a machine past its expected life is the machine telling you something.
If you are replacing rather than repairing, the Energy Rating Label lets you compare what a new model will cost to run before you buy it, which is worth doing when the appliance runs every day.
Your rights when an appliance fails early
This is the part most people do not know, and it is worth more than any repair quote.
Consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law are automatic. A business cannot remove them, and they apply whether or not there is a warranty and whether or not the warranty has expired. One of those guarantees is that goods are of acceptable quality, which explicitly includes being durable.
There is no fixed timeline. What counts as durable depends on what the appliance cost, what it is, how it was looked after and how it was used. A $4,000 oven that fails at four years is a very different conversation to a $400 one.
The part people get wrong: the right is held against the retailer you bought it from, not the manufacturer. If the fault is a major one you can ask for a refund or replacement rather than accepting a repair, and NSW Fair Trading handles disputes if the retailer will not play ball. The NSW guidance sets out how that works.
Our own 12 month warranty on parts and labour sits on top of those rights, not in place of them. If the same fault comes back within the year, so do we. That is an extra promise we make, and it takes nothing away from what the law already gives you.
Common questions
Is it worth repairing 20 year old appliances?
Usually not, with one exception. At 20 years almost everything is past its expected life, parts get harder to source, and a repair buys you months rather than years. The exception is a premium appliance built to be serviced, where 20 years is not necessarily the end. Ask what the failed part is before assuming either way.
Should I replace my 20 year old oven?
An oven at 20 has passed even its 15 year upper figure, so it is closer than most. But it depends entirely on the fault. An element or a thermostat on an oven that is otherwise sound is still a cheap fix, and a working 20 year old oven often outlasts the cheap one that would replace it. A control board failure at that age is a different answer.
What is the most common oven problem?
The oven not heating, and the usual cause is a failed element. It is also one of the least expensive faults there is, and normally finished in one visit.
What happens when I ring you?
You get a real conversation about what is likely wrong. We tell you the service call fee on that call, before anyone is booked. Most repairs are finished the day we arrive, because the part is already in the service van. And you get a straight answer at the appliance, including the one that costs us the job. If you want to see how that works on a specific fault, our guide to a dishwasher not draining walks through it.