Worth fixing?
Repair or replace: the arithmetic, not the opinion
The rule of thumb says replace once the repair passes half the cost of replacing. Nobody who quotes it ever shows the two numbers. Here they both are, for cooking equipment, in this shop's own figures.
Where the two numbers come from
One number is what the repair costs. That is the band table this site publishes, researched for this equipment and this market, parts and labor together. The other is what a comparable appliance costs to buy. A comparable Wolf range, rangetop or wall oven, appliance only — before delivery, installation, ventilation or cabinetry. National appliance pricing, not Florida labour.
Put them side by side and the rule of thumb stops being a saying and becomes a sum. Half of the cheapest comparable replacement — $5,200, before anybody has delivered it, fitted it or altered the cabinetry around it — is $2,600. That is the line the rule draws, and it is the figure the rest of this page is measured against.
One fault, against that line
Every repair this shop does on cooking equipment falls in one of these bands. The third column is the honest part: what the band's worst case represents as a share of that $5,200 replacement.
| What gets put right | Typical range | Share of replacing |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic visit | $80 flat | credited toward the repair |
| Igniter or spark module replacement | $210–$500 | about 10% |
| Burner valve or orifice service | $220–$690 | about 13% |
| Oven thermostat or temperature sensor | $190–$520 | about 10% |
| Convection fan or motor | $260–$660 | about 13% |
| Control board or touch panel | $440–$1,050 | about 20% |
| Door hinge, glass or seal | $200–$690 | about 13% |
What replacing it instead would come to
The other half of the comparison, and the half people guess at. These are appliance prices only. Delivery, fitting, any ventilation work and any cabinetry the new box does not fit are on top of them, and in an older kitchen the cabinetry is rarely nothing — what it takes to fit a range into an opening somebody else cut is its own piece of arithmetic.
| Replacing instead | Appliance cost | Half of it |
|---|---|---|
| Wall oven or built-in oven, the usual repair-or-replace comparison | $5,200–$10,500 | $2,600 and up |
| Dual-fuel or gas range, 36 inch and up | $8,500–$16,500 | $4,250 and up |
Three verdicts, and how to tell which one you have
Clearly worth repairing
One fault, on an appliance that has otherwise behaved. Nothing in the table above gets close to the line on its own: the dearest repair we do — control board or touch panel, at the top of its band — is about 20% of replacing, and the cheapest — igniter or spark module replacement — is about 10%. A single failure is not an argument for a new appliance, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling one.
A judgement call
Two or three faults found in the same visit, or one fault that has taken something else with it. Two of the dearest repairs stacked together come to $1,740 — still under the line, but now it is real money against an appliance that has started to show its age in more than one place. It takes 4 separate faults, each at the very top of its band, to reach $2,600. That is the point where the arithmetic genuinely goes either way, and it is a conversation rather than a formula.
Not worth it
The cabinet is the problem, not the parts. Heat damage behind the fascia, corrosion through a chassis, a cavity that has warped, or an appliance so old the specific part it needs is no longer made — those are the honest replacements, and none of them is about the price of the repair. We will tell you when we are looking at one, in writing, and you will have paid the $80 diagnostic and nothing else.
What actually moves the figure
Access first. An igniter or spark module is $210–$500 because it is reachable; a burner valve or orifice is $220–$690 because the appliance has to come apart to get at it. Neither part is expensive. The gap between those two bands is almost entirely the time it takes to reach the thing that failed.
Then whether one failure caused another. A control board that went in a storm often takes an element or a fan with it, and a fan that has been screaming for months has usually been running on a bearing that was going to seize anyway — the way surges present here is a case worth reading before you assume a board.
Then the part itself. Some of our most useful visits end with no part at all, which is why what the diagnostic buys matters more on this question than on any other: the whole decision rests on knowing exactly what is wrong before anyone prices anything.
The full band table, and what the visit covers · Wall ovens · Dual-fuel ranges
Straight answers
What people ask before they decide
- Is it worth fixing a built-in cooking appliance?
- On this equipment, usually. The dearest single repair on our table tops out at $1,050, and the cheapest comparable replacement starts at $5,200 before delivery, fitting or cabinetry. One fault is almost never the argument for a new appliance. Several at once can be.
- What is the 50 percent rule for appliance repair?
- The rule of thumb that you replace rather than repair once the repair passes half the cost of replacing. Half of the cheapest comparable replacement here is about $2,600. It takes 4 separate faults, each at the very top of its band, to reach that line — so the rule turns on how much is wrong, not on age.
- What is the most expensive part to replace?
- The electronics. A control board or touch panel runs $440–$1,050 fitted, against $190–$520 for an oven thermostat or temperature sensor. That gap is why a board is worth proving rather than assuming: swapping one on suspicion is the most expensive guess available on a cooking appliance.
- Is it worth repairing a twenty-year-old range?
- Age on its own decides nothing. A professional range is mostly mechanical — burners, valves, hinges, a fan — and those parts are still made. What decides it is how many things are wrong at once: one worn part on a sound cabinet is worth putting right, three failing systems on the same appliance usually are not.
- How long does a Wolf oven last?
- We do not publish a lifespan, because we do not measure one and a number we cannot stand behind is worth nothing to you. What the trade generally observes on built-in cooking equipment of this class is that the cavity and the burners outlive the electronics, and a board usually sets the end date rather than the metal.
Get the number before you decide
Tell us the appliance and the symptom. The $80 diagnostic ends in a written figure for the repair, and you make the comparison on this page with a real number in front of you instead of a guess.
Owner feedback
Owners who asked us this first
4.9 out of 5 from 95 customer reviews. Each one below is a single visit. Read all 95.
The timer on the hob would count down and then forget to switch the zone off. He replaced the touch control assembly, checked each zone against the new panel, and went through the settings with me.
Radoslav P.2026-07-21
The display had gone dim and the touch keys were hit and miss. A ribbon cable had chafed against a bracket. He rerouted it, taped the edge and fitted a new panel. Nothing on the bill that did not need doing.
Solange C.2026-06-17
Our water here is hard enough that the oven scaled up inside a year. He descaled it properly, replaced a seal that had hardened, and wrote down an interval that has kept the thing clear ever since.
Griselda A.2026-08-21