01Defrost System
Defrost Heater Replacement Cost
Parts and labour, this repair
$270–$610
Defrost heater, thermostat or sensor
The heater that clears the evaporator, and the sensor or thermostat that tells the control when to run it. They fail separately, and they are reached through the same rear panel.
The visit itself is $89, and that comes off the repair the moment you say go. Everything above is the work that follows, on your cabinet, agreed as one figure first.
What is included
- Rear panel off, the coil thawed out fully, the drain trough behind it cleared
- The heater, its clips, and any harness connector the ice has damaged
- Meter readings on the sensor and the control before the heater is blamed
- A defrost run through and confirmed before the panel goes back on
What changes the price
- Whether the coil is iced solid, which adds thaw time before anything can be unclipped
- Whether the sensor or thermostat has failed with it and is replaced in the same visit
- Whether the cabinet has to be drawn out of a tight opening to reach the rear panel
- Freezer drawers, which mean the drawer stack and its rails come out first
What it looks like in the kitchen
You lift a shelf and the rear panel is glazed rather than white. A week after somebody clears it, it is glazed again — and meanwhile the fan behind that panel has started to catch on something, because it is.
Frost on the coil is normal. Frost still there after a defrost cycle has run is not, and once the fins pack solid the air stops moving. The compartment loses cold while the compressor runs flat out, which is the pattern that brings the call in.
How the job runs
The rear panel comes off and the coil is thawed properly — not scraped, not chipped, not closed back up half frozen. With it clear, the heater, the sensor and the control are metered in turn: the heater is only the commonest of three ways this circuit dies, and swapping it blind fixes the symptom on two visits out of three.
The drain trough behind the coil is cleared in the same visit. A defrost that works but drains into a plug of ice only moves the problem onto the freezer floor.
Where this goes next
What sends most of these calls in isa sheet of frost on the back wall, and that page is where to start if you have not lifted a shelf yet.
The part next door in the same circuit fails just as often, and is priced separately asa defrost sensor or thermostat.
Which of the two it turns out to be is settled onthe $89 diagnosis, not over the phone.
Asked before the visit
Can I just defrost the freezer myself and leave it at that?
You can, and the ice will be back inside a week or two. Emptying and thawing a freezer clears the symptom, but the heater, the sensor or the control that stopped clearing the coil is untouched. It buys time before a visit rather than replacing one.
How long does a heater replacement take once you are there?
Most of the visit is thawing, not fitting. A coil iced solid has to come back to temperature before the heater can be unclipped safely, so allow a long appointment rather than a quick one. Sub-Zero Repair Experts Los Angeles books it that way on purpose — (310) 496-3358.
Afterwards
What people said once the kitchen was back together
Built-in Sub-Zero calls on both sides of the pass.
Owners on this route4.9/ 51,075 reviews
Upper zone read fifty five and was actually nearer sixty two, which I only caught with my own thermometer. Stalled damper motor, replaced on the spot. He did turn up an hour past the window.
Roman E.Silver Lake
Everything in the freezer went soft over one weekend and I had no idea why. The vents were choked with the fine dust that blows down off Griffith Park, and the defrost thermostat had quit as well. Near zero again by evening.
Lourdes A.Los Feliz
The alarm chirped at two in the morning and somebody actually answered when I called. The drain had iced solid and meltwater was running down the interior wall. Cleared, thawed, and rechecked two days later.
Julius M.Los Feliz
Defrost heater, quoted before it is started
Tell us what the freezer is doing and you will hear which band it lands in. Phone answered 24/7.