Mon–Fri 8:00am – 6:00pm Sat 9:00am – 4:00pm
St. Augustine, FL · St. Johns County
Independent Thermador service · St. Augustine, FL
Repair or replace
Both halves of that question are already published on this site. This page sets them beside each other and does the arithmetic out loud.
Flat $80 diagnostic, credited toward the repair when you approve the work.
The decision
Some of these calls are decided before the meter comes out. When the corrosion has reached the chassis and the fixings rather than one part, the honest answer is that the repair is not the cheaper half of the choice.
Half of a new one
The rule everybody quotes is the fifty percent rule: if a repair costs more than half of what the appliance would cost to replace, replace it. It is a rule of thumb rather than a law, and it is worth knowing what it quietly leaves out — delivery, the cabinetry a built-in is fitted into, the panel on a panel-ready door, and the fortnight the kitchen spends with a hole in it.
Applied to the figures this site publishes, the rule draws its line at $2,100 — half of $4,200, the lower of the two replacement figures in the table below. Against that line, refrigeration column sealed system is the only band we keep that reaches it, and it reaches it only at the top of its range. Every other kind of work on this site finishes well underneath.
Which is the useful half of the answer. For most faults the arithmetic is not close, and the reason to think hard is rarely the repair bill — it is the condition of everything surrounding the part that failed.
The arithmetic
$2,100 is arithmetic on a published figure, not a price. Nothing here is quoted until the appliance has been opened.
The counts are of all 7 bands we publish. The two the question actually turns on are in the table below; the rest are on the pricing page.
The rows below are completed repairs, parts and labor together. The rows under them are what the appliance itself costs to replace, before anyone has been paid to fit it. The comparison only works when both sides are on one page.
| What gets replaced | Parts and labor |
|---|---|
| Refrigeration column sealed system | $850–$2,520 |
| Control board or touch panel | $430–$1,090 |
Before any of that
$80
Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work.
You get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labor is billed.
A comparable Thermador wall oven, rangetop or column, appliance only — before delivery, installation or cabinetry. National appliance pricing, not Florida labour.
| Replacing it instead | Appliance only |
|---|---|
| Wall oven, the usual repair-or-replace comparison | $4,200–$9,500 |
| Professional rangetop or range | $5,500–$14,500 |
The comparison we actually make
A repair that lands in the lower bands is rarely a close call against a cabinet full of new joinery. One that reaches the top of the sealed-system band, on an appliance already past its second decade, usually is — and the estimate says so in writing rather than leaving you to work it out.
Whatever we fit carries 90 days on labor and 365 days on the part.
Where yours falls
Clearly worth it
6 of the 7 bands we publish finish under $2,100. An element leg, a temperature sensor, an igniter, a hinge, a fan motor: each is one component on an appliance whose cabinet, doors and finish are fine. Nobody replaces a kitchen over a sensor.
A judgement call
The control board or touch panel band runs to $1,090, and a new board fitted to a twenty-year-old machine is a good part going into an old one. Worth it when everything around it is sound. Not worth it when the door, the hinges and the seals are also due.
Rarely worth it
Work in the refrigeration column sealed system band, at $850–$2,520, is the one repair here that approaches the price of the appliance. On a cabinet whose fins and fixings have gone to salt air it buys a working circuit inside a failing box, and the estimate says so.
You get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labor is billed. Whatever we fit carries 90 days on the labor and 365 days on the part, which belongs in the comparison too: a repair paid for twice was never the cheaper side of it.
Flat $80 diagnostic covering the visit and the full diagnostic sequence, credited toward the repair once you approve the work. It is flat rather than hourly, which removes any reason for us to hurry the part of the visit that decides everything else. What you get for it is the finding in writing: which component failed, what putting it right costs, and — where it applies — the sentence saying we would not spend that on this appliance.
That last sentence gets written more often than people expect. A trade that only ever recommends the repair is not giving you an assessment, it is giving you an invoice.
Still under cover?
If the appliance is inside its manufacturer warranty, call Thermador before you call us. Under that coverage the work should cost you nothing, and we will say so rather than take the booking.
4.5
out of 5, across 60 customer reviews. Each one is a single visit, in the words of the person whose kitchen it was.
Bread was catching along the back edge and staying pale at the front. He measured the cavity at four heights and found the convection motor turning slowly. New motor, even browning, and he showed us the readings.
Ottoline M.
Glasses came out with a film that would not wipe off. He tested the water path, sorted out the rinse aid dosing and explained what the mineral here does to glass. The next load came out clear and has stayed that way.
Silas E.
Coffee was running through far too quickly and tasting thin with it. He found the brew unit piston seals collapsed and the grinder left too coarse by a previous service. Both put right, and it tastes the way it used to.
Ronan B.
The rest of the figures