How Much Does Appliance Repair Cost in the UK? 2026 Price Guide

A drain pump on a six-year-old Bosch washing machine costs £34 as a part and £110 fitted. Drum bearings on a sealed-tub Hotpoint cost £320, on a machine that sells for £429 new. Same van, same hour on the tools, completely different decisions.

Appliance repair in Britain is priced in three layers: a call-out or diagnostic fee, labour charged hourly or as a fixed job price, and the part with the engineer's margin on top. See those three numbers separately and most quotes stop being mysterious.

A straightforward repair — one visit, one common part, under an hour on the tools — lands between £95 and £180 including VAT. Over £250 means a major component, a Gas Safe job, or an integrated machine that has to come out of the run first.

• •Diagnostic-only call-out: £45-£90, normally deducted if you proceed with the repair
• •Independent engineer labour: £40-£70 an hour outside London, £70-£100 inside the M25
• •Fixed-price repair, national network or manufacturer service arm: £125-£185 including parts, labour and a 12-month guarantee
• •Gas Safe registered engineer on a gas hob or cooker: £70-£110 an hour, one-hour minimum
• •Major component — bearings, compressor, sealed system: £220-£450, usually where replacing wins

Prices below are all-in — part, labour and VAT — for a freestanding appliance in an average-cost region. Do the free checks first: a blocked filter mimics a dead pump, so confirm why your dishwasher isn't draining or where a washing machine is leaking from before paying £60 to be told.

• •Washing machine drain pump (stops mid-cycle, drain error): £95-£150
• •Washing machine door seal or bellows (leaks from the front): £100-£165
• •Washing machine carbon brushes (drum won't turn, burning smell): £80-£125
• •Washing machine drum bearings: £220-£340, past £280 on sealed-tub models where the whole outer drum goes
• •Dishwasher drain pump or sump blockage: £90-£150; heating element £115-£185
• •Oven fan element (grill works, fan oven stays cold): £85-£140; fan motor or thermostat £100-£165
• •Fridge-freezer evaporator fan, thermostat or door seal: £95-£160; compressor or refrigerant leak £230-£380, rarely worth it past year six
• •Tumble dryer element and thermal cut-out: £90-£150 vented or condenser, £280-£450 for a heat pump sealed system
• •Control board or PCB, any machine: £130-£240

On a typical £130 bill the part is £30-£45 and everything else is labour, travel and margin. That split reverses most home jobs, where materials dominate, and explains why a £12 element still costs £110 to fit. You pay for someone who knows which of four faults produces that symptom and carries the part so the job finishes in one visit.

Engineers mark parts up 25-40% over trade price, which funds the van stock. A two-visit repair doubles the travel and adds £30-£50, so ask whether the part is likely to be on board. Watch VAT too: a sole trader under the £90,000 threshold does not charge it while a national chain does, a £25 swing on a £150 repair for identical work.

• •Region: London and the South East run 20-35% above Yorkshire, the North East and much of Wales for the same fault
• •Integrated appliances: add £30-£60. The machine is unfastened from the carcass, drawn out over a wet floor, then the decor door re-hung square
• •Parts availability: Bosch, Siemens, Beko and Hotpoint spares are next-day and cheap. Discontinued models mean a special order and a second visit
• •Gas: a gas hob or cooker must be worked on by a Gas Safe registered engineer — law, not preference. Ask for the ID card and check the reverse, which lists the appliance types they are qualified for
• •Age: past eight years, expect a second tired component to surface, and a shorter guarantee. Evenings, Saturdays and bank holidays add £30-£60 on top

Numbers in isolation are not much use. Three real decisions, priced end to end.

• •Bosch washing machine, six years old, Leeds. Stops mid-cycle on a drain error. £55 call-out and first half hour, £45 for the pump (trade price £32), 25 minutes fitting, no VAT. Total £100 against £399 for a like-for-like replacement. Repair, comfortably.
• •Hotpoint washer-dryer, nine years old, Cardiff. Rumbling on spin — bearing failure on a sealed outer drum. Parts £165, three hours labour, £320 with VAT. A comparable new machine is £429 delivered, old one taken away. With worn brushes and a perished seal already showing, we would replace.
• •Integrated fridge-freezer, five years old, Bristol. Fridge at 11°C, freezer fine — failed evaporator fan. £70 call-out, £48 part, 40 minutes labour: £150. Replacing an integrated unit is £550-£700 plus £80-£150 to fit and transfer the decor door, with no guarantee a current model fits the aperture. Repair, easily.

Ask for the part number and the part price as separate figures before agreeing to anything. Checking that number against a UK spares retailer gives you the retail price; a 40% mark-up is fair, 200% is not. Then ask whether the call-out is deducted, what the guarantee is (12 months parts and labour from anyone decent), and whether it is one visit or two.

Rules sit on your side. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you pursue the retailer, not the manufacturer, for up to six years in England and Wales and five in Scotland where the appliance was faulty from the start. If you rent, supplied appliances are the landlord's to keep in working order, any gas appliance they provide needs an annual Gas Safe check with the record given to you within 28 days, and landlords in England need a five-yearly EICR on the fixed wiring.

Know where a repair stops being a repair. Swapping a plug-in appliance, or a like-for-like cooker connection unit on an existing circuit, is not notifiable. A new circuit or consumer unit change is Part P notifiable in England and needs certifying by a registered competent person — NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA — or signing off by building control. Wales still treats kitchens as a special location, so more is notifiable there; Scotland runs to its own standards. Any of those move you onto an electrician's rates.

The rule we use in the van: if the quote exceeds half the cost of a like-for-like replacement and the machine is past the halfway point of its expected lifespan, replace it. Otherwise repair. Weigh running costs too — a heat pump dryer costs twice what a vented one does and a third as much to run, so the efficient option often pays back inside four years. Half the call-outs above are preventable; filters, seals and vents sit on every appliance maintenance checklist for a reason.

Methodology: figures come from quotes collected in the twelve months to March 2026 from independent engineers in Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, South Wales and Greater London, plus published fixed-price schedules from national repair networks. Part prices are cross-checked against UK spares retailers. All include VAT where the trader is registered, exclude extended warranty cover, and are reviewed each April — parts inflation has run 4-6% a year since 2023, labour rather more.