Sub-Zero · Chicago, IL
Refrigerator Repair
Built-in fresh-food columns and side-by-sides that have stopped holding temperature — read under gauges and at the evaporator rather than off the display.
How it gets described on the phone
- Fresh-food side drifting warm while the freezer stays hard-frozen
- Compressor running without a break and the cabinet still climbing
- Water pooling under the crisper drawers or freezing at the back wall
- Panel flashing a service code, or a temperature the shelves do not match
- The unit is louder than it was, and the noise changed rather than got worse
What gets tested on the visit
- Shelf and evaporator temperatures taken with a probe, then compared with what the panel claims
- Clearance and airflow at the base grille — the first thing a boxed-in cabinet fails on
- Condenser condition, fan draw and the return path behind the unit
- Evaporator fan, defrost heater and each thermistor on the fresh-food circuit
- Suction and discharge pressures read under load, not at rest
- Door seal compression, hinge alignment and the closer over the last inch of travel
The useful thing about a cabinet with two cooling circuits is that a fault on one of them rules out most of the expensive answers before a panel comes off. A warm fresh-food column with a healthy freezer is airflow, defrost, a sensor lying to the board, or a condenser that stopped rejecting heat weeks ago — and in a garden-level kitchen with joinery built tight to the case, it is the last of those far more often than anyone expects.
What it costs
Ranges, before anyone has seen your cabinet
These are the bands this shop works to. The figure you are given on the day is one number covering parts and labour, agreed before a part is ordered — and it does not move afterwards.
| Repair | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Door gasket or seal replacement | $290 – $630 |
| Evaporator or condenser fan motor | $330 – $650 |
| Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor | $260 – $630 |
| Ice maker, water valve or supply line | $280 – $740 |
| Electronic control board | $440 – $980 |
| Compressor or sealed-system repair | $1,440 – $3,160 |
Flat $89 service call covering the visit and full diagnosis, credited against the repair once you approve it.
For scale: a comparable built-in replacement, before installation and cabinetry work runs $11,190 to $22,180. That gap is why a repair is the right answer on most of this stock, and it is also why you will be told plainly on the day it is not.
Reviews
What the callback sounded like
Water was pooling under the crisper drawers every few days. He cleared a drain line that had frozen at the elbow and showed me why it kept happening in a kitchen that dry through the winter.
Rosemary K. · Roscoe Village
Bungalow kitchen with a narrow back hall to carry gear through. He was careful about the floors, diagnosed a failed defrost thermostat, and had the cabinet holding its number before he left.
Lucas H. · Lincoln Square
Twenty-year-old built-in in a rehabbed two-flat, warm at the top and cold at the bottom. He read the pressures and wrote them down before opening anything, then replaced a fan that had been slowly dying.
Deirdre M. · Lincoln Park
Booking
A cabinet that is climbing does not wait for Monday
Dispatch is answered around the clock. An overnight call is logged with the fault, the model and the address, and goes to the front of the next working window rather than into the morning queue.
- The line is answered by a person, not a machine
- On site 8:00 am – 8:00 pm, seven days
- Overnight logs are slotted first, not re-queued