Twenty years on in Gilbert: repair or replace?
Sub-Zero publishes its own figure: its products are designed to last about twenty years on average. A large share of Gilbert went up in the early 2000s, which means any built-in that came with one of those houses is arriving at that number now. The useful thing to know is that a design life is an average and not an expiration date, and that the fault decides this far more than the year does.
The Figures Behind This Page
| What it is | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Zero design life | about twenty years on average | an average, not an expiration date |
| What moves it | use, ambient temperature, maintenance, repair history | maintenance and room temperature are in the owner’s hands |
| Parts at work every day since | gaskets, fans, controls | none of them inside the sealed circuit |
| Diagnostic visit | $119, waived with the repair | the fault is named and priced before anything is replaced |
| Replacement | $8,000–$19,000 for the machine alone | fitting and cabinetry come on top |
Sources: Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove life expectancy for the design life and what moves it; our pricing page for the visit and the cost of replacement.
What twenty years actually means
It means an average, so a machine at eighteen is not overdue and one at twenty-four is not a miracle. Sub-Zero lists what moves the number in the same sentence it gives it: varying levels of use, ambient temperatures, maintenance, repair history, and the mechanical failure of individual components. An owner has a hand in two of them, the maintenance and the temperature of the room, and Arizona heat makes the second matter more here than in a cooler state.
It also means the number is not a verdict. Nothing switches off at twenty. What changes is how much work each part has done, and the ones that have done the most are the ones that have been moving or sealing all along.
What has actually worn out
Not the expensive half. In a house that has kept the same family since it was built, the count is the story: a door pulled open perhaps a dozen times a day for twenty-three years, a fan that has started and stopped with every cooling cycle in all of them, a control board that has never once been switched off. Those three have done the most work in twenty years, and all three sit outside the refrigerant circuit.
The refrigerant circuit ages on a different clock. It is sealed, nothing in it rubs against anything except inside the compressor, and there is no equivalent of a hinge to wear out. When it does give out on a machine this old, the questions to settle are a joint that has been leaking slowly, contamination in the circuit, and a compressor that has run long hours through hot summers.
The short list that really ends one
Age is not on it. Three things are. The first is a part nobody makes anymore, which is a question about the series rather than about the year, and it is answered from the rating tag in minutes. The second is a component that was never replaceable to begin with, and GE names one: on a Monogram side-by-side the condenser loop is copper set into the cabinet in foam, and GE’s guide says it cannot be replaced.
The third is a repair out of proportion to the machine. That one is arithmetic. Set the repair, quoted in writing before it begins (the $119 is waived when it goes ahead), against a new built-in of this class: about $8,000 at the bottom and $19,000 at the top, for the machine by itself, with the fitting still to pay for. And the opening it has to go into was sized in 2003 around whatever is standing in it now.
Questions
Is a twenty-year-old built-in worth repairing in Gilbert?
Often, yes. The maker’s own figure is a design life of about twenty years on average, and the parts that have done the most work by then are the ones that move and the ones that seal. Putting those right on a cabinet that is otherwise intact can be an ordinary repair rather than a rescue.
How do I find out how old ours is?
The serial on the rating tag answers it, and each maker codes it differently. Viking’s 2012 service manual has the serial opening with the date it was built, as month, day and year. GE codes a Monogram with two letters for month and year, and because those letters cycle every twelve years they leave two candidate years, with the design of the unit deciding between them. Photograph the tag once and the question never comes up again.
What would make you say replace it?
Three: a part that has gone out of production; a fault in a component the maker says cannot be replaced, such as the condenser loop set into the foam of a Monogram side-by-side; or a repair out of proportion to the machine. The year on the tag is not an answer by itself. And since we do not sell refrigerators, there is nothing waiting to be sold to you in place of a repair.
Does Gilbert water shorten the life of the machine?
Gilbert publishes 8 to 10 grains per gallon, the softest of the five cities in our hard-water guide, so water is less of the story here than it is in Chandler or Mesa. Ambient temperature is the local factor that matters, and Sub-Zero names it among the things that move its published design life.
What to do at twenty years that is not a repair
Three things, none of which needs us. Clean the condenser on the short interval: Sub-Zero asks for it to have been done inside three months when frost is the complaint, which is the short end of the three to twelve months its general answers give, and a twenty-year-old machine in this valley is the case for the strict figure.
Inspect the gaskets for tears, rips or dry rot, which is Sub-Zero’s own instruction, and replace any that have gone. On a machine of this age the gasket has opened and closed tens of thousands of times, and it is the cheapest part on the list of things that decide how the next five years go. Then give any change twenty-four hours before judging it: that is the interval Sub-Zero asks for, and a verdict reached the same evening is not one.
Terms
$119 to diagnose, waived with the repair; one fixed price approved before any repair begins. Twelve months on parts and labor on Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking and Monogram, with the genuine OEM parts we supply. What the visit consists of.
Read Next
- About twenty years: how long a built-in lastsThe maker’s own design life, and what moves that number.
- Repair the refrigerator, or replace it?A repair quoted in writing, set against an $8,000–$19,000 machine.
- Gilbert appliance repairEverything we service in Gilbert, and the refrigerator that came with the house.
Something stopped.
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