Appliances & Systems repair costs

Most dead appliances need a part, not a replacement

Before anyone quotes you a new unit, find out what actually failed. A furnace that won't light is far more likely to have a bad sail switch ($15 to $60 in parts) or a dirty blower than a dead heat exchanger, and a full furnace replacement runs $900 to $2,600 installed. Water heater thermostats, igniters, and elements cost $50 to $400 to fix, against $700 to $1,800 for a replaced tank at a shop. A rooftop AC with a failed capacitor or fan motor is a $150 to $650 repair, not the $900 to $2,600 a new air conditioner costs installed.

Refrigerators have three price points. A control board swap runs $300 to $500. Rebuilding the cooling unit on an absorption fridge costs $1,000 to $2,200 and makes sense when the cabinet and door are sound. A new fridge installed runs $1,200 to $3,200.

What a tech's hour costs

Most RV shops bill $150 to $225 an hour for HVAC work in 2026, with urban dealers at the high end. Mobile techs charge $125 to $175 an hour plus a trip fee, and they save you the tow. Cummins and Onan authorized generator dealers run $175 to $225 an hour on OEM parts. A $150 to $300 diagnostic visit pays for itself the first time it stops someone from replacing a $200 board when a $20 switch was the fault.

Electrical work is priced mostly by hunting time. A tripped GFCI takes five minutes once you've pushed reset. A corroded ground inside a wall cavity can eat two hours before the fix starts, which is why electrical repairs run from $75 to $8,000 or more for a full rewire.

Cheap fixes that get overpaid

Rule out a dead battery before you replace a converter; owners who do that and handle basic wiring usually spend $160 to $275. A generator that won't start after storage most often has a fuel problem, not an electrical one: a carburetor rebuild or replacement runs $400 to $1,200, while control board and stator failures reach $1,200 to $3,000. A water pump runs $55 to $700. A propane tank can often be recertified for $30 to $70 instead of replaced; a new DOT cylinder is $55 to $140, and a motorhome's built-in ASME tank runs $865 to $930 or more.

The big-ticket items

Frame repair ranges from a $150 to $400 crack weld to $5,000 to $8,000 for a rusted-through rail, and full frame replacement on a towable, rare as it is, starts around $10,000. Rust works from inside boxed steel, so two owners with the same flexing symptom can get quotes ten times apart. Solar runs $230 to $750 for a DIY panel-only kit and $3,000 to $12,000 or more installed by a shop. The panels aren't what drives that; batteries alone can cost three to four times as much.