One repair on this page decides what the whole machine is worth: everything else that fails in a freezer costs about the same, and the compressor costs more than a chest freezer did when it was new. The sources behind this page go further than most price lists and say outright that on an older or cheaply bought freezer the honest answer is replacement. The visit is what the money goes on here: $99 [S1] covers the diagnostic alone, and every one of the 6 causes on this page needs a part. The complaint is the freezer runs constantly and nothing in it stays frozen, described as the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes, the ice cream is soft and the meat is still cold, everything is covered in frost and the food is thawing, the freezer is cold but not cold enough or it started after the door was left open. Defrost system fault, and the ice it leaves behind is where to start — $342–$442 installed, about 120 minutes [S1].
What a technician actually does
defrost system fault, and the ice it leaves behind [S1]
high likelihood advanced $342–$442 installed about 120 min
everything is covered in frost and the food is thawing the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes
The source's own answer to why a freezer stops holding temperature, and the reason the diagnosis is not obvious from outside: a defrost fault and a failed fan present identically to a dying compressor, because the unit runs constantly and the contents soften. What separates them is the frost. A defrost cycle that no longer runs leaves ice on the evaporator coil, the ice blocks the air path, and the cabinet gets warm while the compressor works harder than ever. S1's symptom table carries the pattern with the counts: frosting up is 280 of its repairs at a $369 median, a number that sits beside not freezing rather than behind it.
S1 publishes medians of completed jobs rather than part-only prices for this fault: a defrost heater comes to $374 with the middle half at $342-442 across 15 repairs, and a heating element $400 ($364-512) across 21
failed evaporator fan [S1]
high likelihood advanced $335–$450 installed about 90 min
the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes the freezer is cold but not cold enough
The other half of the source's pairing, and the cheaper of the two to be wrong about: the fan moves cold air from the evaporator into the cabinet, so when it stops the coil still gets cold and the food does not. The tell is that the machine is quiet where it used to hum, or that the noise changed before the temperature did - S1's symptom table gives making noise a $396 median across 138 repairs, and notes that its widest spread means several different faults produce that one symptom.
S1 prices a completed evaporator fan replacement at a $381 median with the middle half at $335-450 across 43 repairs; S2 prices the same part on a refrigerator at a $422 median across 130 jobs
door gasket that no longer seals [S1]
medium likelihood moderate $312–$588 installed about 60 min
it started after the door was left open everything is covered in frost and the food is thawing
The cause with a free test attached, and the source gives the test: a tired seal makes a healthy freezer run continuously and frost up, and if the gasket slides out freely when you pull at it, it has gone. Warm, humid air entering the cabinet becomes the frost that then blocks the air path, so a gasket failure and a defrost failure end in the same symptom by two different routes. This is the one cause on the page that a household can confirm in a minute without tools.
S1 prices a completed door gasket replacement at a $393 median with the middle half at $312-588 across 78 repairs; no part-only figure is published
failed thermostat or temperature sensor [S1]
medium likelihood advanced $348–$460 installed about 75 min
the freezer is cold but not cold enough the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes
The control side of the same problem: a thermostat or sensor reading the cabinet as colder than it is tells the compressor to stop early, and everything in the freezer thins out while the machine looks like it is working normally. The source's two medians for the same job differ by five dollars, which is the useful part - a thermostat and a sensor are priced as one repair across both of its panels, so a quote for either should land in the same band.
S1 prices a completed thermostat replacement at a $381 median with the middle half at $348-460 across 56 repairs; S2 prices a refrigerator sensor at a $386 median across 65 jobs
failed control board [S1]
low likelihood pro $408–$604 installed about 90 min
the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes
The dearest of the repairs that are still worth doing, and the one that gets bought by mistake: a board that stops calling for a defrost cycle produces the frost of a defrost fault, and a board that misreads a sensor produces the behaviour of a bad thermostat. Both sources price it above every other non-compressor repair on the page, which is why the diagnosis has to come before the board does. S2's figure is the higher of the two and it is printed beside S1's rather than averaged.
S1 prices a completed control board replacement at a $494 median with the middle half at $408-604 across 51 repairs, the second dearest item in its table; S2 prices a refrigerator board at a $564 median across 78 jobs
compressor or sealed system fault [S1]
medium likelihood pro $328–$1,226 installed about 240 min
the freezer runs constantly and nothing freezes the freezer is cold but not cold enough
The repair that decides the whole page, in the source's own words: any fault that is not the compressor is worth fixing on almost any machine, and a compressor on an older freezer - especially a chest freezer bought cheaply years ago - is the repair where replacement usually wins. The good news it adds is that the compressor is rarely the answer, and the honest number is the spread rather than the median: $328 to $1,226 across 108 jobs, which is a genuine sealed-system repair on one job and a compressor plus the labour around it on another. Nothing here is a DIY job: it needs refrigerant handling and a vacuum pump.
the sources disagree and both are shown: S1's completed compressor repairs median $750 with the middle half at $328-1,226 across 108 jobs, S2's refrigerator compressor median is $956 across 80 jobs, and S3 prices an installed compressor at $700-1,200
Repair or replace?
Find out whether the compressor is involved before anything else, because that single question decides the page: every other repair here is worth doing on almost any machine, at $374-494, while a compressor at a $750 median with a $328-1,226 spread on an older freezer is where replacement usually wins. The cheap checks come first - the gasket slide test and the frost pattern - and both of them distinguish a fault that costs $374 from one that costs $750. [S1]
- Typical completed repair: $302–$500 [S1]
- Comparable new unit: $700–$1,100 [S1]
- Planning life used for the decision: 12 years
- The comparison is not the repair against the freezer, it is the compressor against everything else: $374-494 for a defrost heater, a fan, a thermostat or a gasket, against a compressor at $750 with a middle half reaching $1,226. On a machine that was inexpensive when it was new, that spread is what makes replacement the honest recommendation rather than a sales line - and the sources say so in their own words rather than quoting the job and leaving.
S3's replacement prices are the ones published for the machines these faults live in ($700-1,100 for a top-freezer refrigerator, $1,600-3,200 for a French door), and S2's refrigerator replacement lines sit at eight and twelve years; a standalone chest freezer costs less than either, which is exactly why the sources' shared advice on the compressor is that replacement wins there first
Run your own quote through the calculator — the same half-of-new-price rule with your numbers.