Cost reference
Dishwasher repair cost
Dishwashers are the appliance where the repair-or-replace line arrives soonest. They have the shortest expected life of any major kitchen appliance, and their two expensive faults — the circulation pump and the control board — both land close to the price of a mid-range replacement. Knowing which fault you have is most of the decision.
- Typical repair
- $150–$300
- Diagnostic fee
- $50–$100
- New unit
- $700
- Expected life
- 10 yr
- Pros listed
- 664
How much does dishwasher repair cost?
Most dishwasher repairs land between $150–$300 for parts and labour together, on top of a $50–$100 diagnostic fee that many shops credit against the repair if you approve the work the same day.
Filters, spray arms, gaskets, latches, drain pumps and inlet valves are the low and middle of the band, and between them account for most calls. The circulation pump and the electronic control board are the top, and on a machine past year eight both deserve a replacement price alongside them before you decide.
- Cheapest priced job
- $80–$160
- Dearest priced job
- $250–$500
- Replace above
- $350
Cheapest priced job: Filter, sump, and spray-arm clean-out. Dearest: Electronic control board. These are typical national ranges for the job, not quotes. Local rates vary and a written estimate for your own appliance is the only figure that binds anyone.
Dishwasher repair cost by job
8 named dishwasher jobs, each priced as a typical range covering parts and labour on a mainstream freestanding unit. These run roughly in the order a technician works through them, which is why filter, sump, and spray-arm clean-out leads rather than the cheapest line.
| Job | Typical cost | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Filter, sump, and spray-arm clean-out | $80–$160 | Often just the diagnostic; ask to be shown how so you can repeat it. |
| Door gasket replacement | $130–$260 | Cheap part, fiddly fit — worth having done properly. |
| Drain pump | $150–$300 | Have the sump checked for glass first. |
| Water inlet valve | $150–$300 | Symptom is a machine that fills slowly or floods. |
| Door latch or lock assembly | $130–$280 | The most common no-start cause. |
| Heating element | $180–$350 | Dishes wet at the end of a cycle is the tell. |
| Circulation / wash pump | $250–$450 | Approaching the replace threshold on a budget machine. |
| Electronic control board | $250–$500 | On a unit past year eight, price a replacement first. |
Ranges cover parts and labour on a mainstream dishwasher in a standard installation. A built-in, stacked or luxury unit sits above them, sometimes well above, because the access time and the parts channel are both different — a $700 mainstream replacement and a luxury equivalent do not have the same repair economics. Where a job is licensed work — gas, sealed refrigeration systems, or fixed wiring — the range assumes a correctly certified technician, because there is no legal cheaper version of it.
What drives the price on a dishwasher
Two households with the identical dishwasher fault can be quoted very differently, and the reasons are specific to this appliance rather than generic. These three account for most of the spread.
- Built-in means uninstall first
- A dishwasher is plumbed, wired and screwed to the countertop. Any repair that is not reachable through the door means shutting off water, disconnecting the drain, and sliding the machine out of a tight cabinet opening — often past a floor that was laid after the dishwasher went in. That is time before a repair starts.
- Whether it is actually broken
- A large share of poor-cleaning calls are a clogged filter, a blocked spray arm, or hard-water scale — a clean-out, not a repair. It is the cheapest line on the board and it is genuinely the whole answer often enough that it is worth doing yourself first.
- Panel-ready and integrated fronts
- A custom cabinet panel adds removal and refitting to every job, and integrated controls in the door top edge mean the door has to be split to reach them. Both are labour on a machine that is already priced tight against replacement.
The cheap fix mistaken for an expensive one
The door latch. A dishwasher that will not start reads as a dead control board, and a board is one of the two most expensive things on the machine. The control watches a switch inside the latch, not the latch itself, and that switch assembly is a fraction of the price. It is the most common no-start cause on a dishwasher.
Where the labour actually goes
Because so much of a dishwasher repair is uninstall and reinstall, the labour barely varies with the part. A cheap gasket and a mid-price drain pump can be quoted surprisingly close together, since the expensive half of both jobs is getting the machine out and back in. That also means bundling two small jobs into one visit is genuinely good value here.
DIY versus pro, fault by fault
The same 12 dishwasher faults priced both ways. The DIY column is the part, assuming you diagnosed it correctly. The pro column includes the trip, the diagnosis, the hour and a warranty on the work.
| Fault | Job | DIY parts | Quoted pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dishwasher Not Cleaning | easy30–60 minutes | $0–$70 | $120–$400 |
| Dishwasher Not Draining | easy20–60 minutes | $0–$80 | $150–$350 |
| Dishwasher Leaking | moderate30–90 minutes | $0–$110 | $150–$400 |
| Dishwasher Not Drying Dishes | easy15–45 minutes | $5–$90 | $150–$350 |
| Dishwasher Soap Dispenser Not Opening | easy20–60 minutes | $0–$100 | $140–$300 |
| Dishwasher Spray Arm Not Spinning | easy20–45 minutes | $0–$60 | $140–$350 |
| Dishwasher Door Won't Latch or Stay Closed | moderate30–90 minutes | $0–$80 | $140–$320 |
| Dishwasher Won't Start | moderate30–75 minutes | $0–$110 | $130–$500 |
| Dishwasher Not Filling With Water | moderate45–90 minutes | $5–$95 | $150–$400 |
| Dishwasher Smells Bad | easy45–90 minutes plus a cleaning cycle | $8–$95 | $80–$300 |
| White Film on Dishes | easy30 minutes plus a test cycle | $5–$40 | $80–$350 |
| Dishwasher Making Noise | moderate30–75 minutes | $0–$130 | $150–$450 |
How far a homeowner can take this
Cleaning the filter and sump, clearing spray arm holes, checking the air gap and the disposal knockout plug, and running a descaler are all homeowner work and resolve most poor-cleaning and slow-drain complaints. Stop at anything requiring the machine to come out — the water connection and the countertop mounting are where a small mistake becomes a leak inside a cabinet.
What the DIY column does not include
Your time, the tools, and the cost of being wrong. Buying the correct part needs the model number off the tag on the dishwasher, and a part fitted for a fault that was something else is money gone — most suppliers will not take back an electrical part once it has been installed. 5 of the 10 parts below need nothing more than a screwdriver, but knowing which one to buy is the hard half. If you are not confident in the diagnosis, the $50–$100 diagnostic fee is the cheaper purchase.
What the parts cost on their own
10 dishwasher parts at typical retail for the part alone — no labour, no shipping, no diagnosis. 5 of them are rated easy to fit. This is the number to hold a dishwasher quote against.
| Part | Typical retail | Install | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spray Arm | $15–$40 | easy | 5–8 years |
| Inlet Valve | $15–$40 | moderate | 8–12 years |
| Drain Pump | $35–$120 | moderate | 8–12 years |
| Door Latch and Switch Assembly | $20–$80 | easy | 6–12 years |
| Heating Element | $25–$85 | moderate | 8–14 years |
| Float Switch | $10–$35 | easy | 10+ years |
| Door Gasket | $20–$75 | easy | 6–12 years |
| Rack Roller and Adjuster Kit | $12–$50 | easy | 5–10 years |
| Detergent Dispenser | $30–$100 | moderate | 8–12 years |
| Circulation Pump and Motor | $90–$330 | advanced | 8–14 years |
Every dishwasher part priced here falls between $10–$330 for the component alone. Set that against the 8 job ranges above and the difference is the trip, the diagnosis and the access. Knowing the split does not make a dishwasher quote wrong — it tells you whether a second opinion is worth paying the $50–$100 diagnostic fee twice.
When replacing the dishwasher wins
The arithmetic first — a $700 appliance with a 10-year life — then the cases where the arithmetic is not the whole answer.
New unit
$700
Typical price for a mainstream dishwasher. A budget brand runs below it, a premium or built-in model well above.
Replace above
$350
Half the price of a new dishwasher. A quote above this usually means replacement is the better spend — that is 0 of the 8 jobs listed above.
Expected life
10 yr
9–10 years, the shortest expected life of any major kitchen appliance. Built-in units in hard-water areas trend to the low end unless scale is managed.
Cost per year new
$70
New price spread over expected life. If a repair buys more years than it costs at this rate, the repair is winning.
Replace a dishwasher when
- The wash pump or control board has failed on a machine past year seven.
- The quote exceeds roughly $350 — half the price of a mainstream new unit.
- The tub is cracked, or the racks have rusted through and are shedding onto dishes.
- It leaks from under the tub and the cabinet floor is already water-damaged.
The cost read on this appliance
This is the appliance where the fifty-percent rule bites earliest, because expected life is the shortest in the kitchen and new-unit prices are moderate. A circulation pump or a control board on a machine past year eight is usually a replace. A latch, a gasket or a drain pump at the same age is usually still worth doing.
If the repair quote is more than half the price of an equivalent new unit, replacement is usually the better spend. Below half, repair almost always wins on cost per remaining year of service. Then check the age against expected lifespan. An appliance past roughly three-quarters of its expected life has little runway left to earn back a large repair, so the threshold drops as the machine gets older — on an old unit, a repair at a third of new price can still be the wrong call.
Early failures skew this. Two habits account for most early failures: pre-rinsing every dish, which starves modern enzyme detergents of the soil they need and leaves residue that hardens in the sump, and running short eco cycles exclusively so the tub never reaches a temperature that clears grease.
Value my dishwasherBefore you call for a dishwasher quote
A dishwasher quote is only as good as the information behind it, and 664 businesses here list this appliance. Have these ready and the first visit is far more likely to be the only visit.
The one question worth answering first
Does the machine fill, and can you hear a wash sound during the cycle? Fills and washes but cleans badly is a clean-out or a spray-arm issue. Fills but runs silently through a full cycle points at the circulation pump — the expensive end — and that is worth knowing before anyone is dispatched.
- Model number — the tag is on the tub rim behind the door.
- Whether it fills, whether it washes, whether it drains. Naming which stage fails halves the diagnosis.
- Any error code or flashing light pattern.
- Where the water appears: at the door, under the cabinet, or inside the tub.
- Whether the sink disposal was recently replaced — an uncut drain plug in a new disposal is a classic no-drain cause.
Then ask every shop the same four questions: what is the diagnostic fee, is it credited if I approve the repair today, do you carry parts for this brand, and how long is the warranty on the work. Those four answers explain most of the spread between quotes, and none of them require the technician to have seen the appliance.
Dishwasher repair cost questions
How much does dishwasher repair cost?
Is it worth repairing a dishwasher?
What is the cheapest thing that goes wrong with a dishwasher?
How much of a dishwasher repair bill is labour?
Can I repair a dishwasher myself and save the labour?
What should I have ready before calling for a dishwasher repair quote?
Compare against other appliances
Same figures, every appliance type. The typical band is where most repairs land; the replace threshold is half the price of a new unit.
| Appliance | Typical repair | Diagnostic | Replace above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | $200–$400 | $50–$120 | $600 |
| Washer | $150–$350 | $50–$100 | $400 |
| Dryer | $100–$350 | $50–$100 | $375 |
| Dishwasher | $150–$300 | $50–$100 | $350 |
| Oven & Range | $150–$450 | $50–$120 | $500 |
| Microwave | $100–$250 | $40–$80 | $125 |
| Garbage Disposal | $85–$250 | $40–$90 | $100 |
| Ice Maker | $150–$400 | $50–$100 | $200 |
| Freezer | $150–$400 | $50–$120 | $300 |
| Wine Cooler | $200–$600 | $60–$130 | $250 |
| Range Hood | $150–$400 | $50–$100 | $175 |
| Trash Compactor | $150–$450 | $50–$110 | $400 |