What repairs cost · Denver, CO
Cost of compressor or sealed-system work on a wine unit
Parts and labour, fitted
$1,450–$3,030
A firm number from inside this range, agreed with you before anything is opened or ordered.
Opening the refrigerant circuit of a wine cabinet puts the job in the top band, $1,450–$3,030, and what that figure buys is a sequence rather than a single part. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Pros quotes it only after the cheap explanations for a cabinet that will not hold its setting — a stiff seal, a furred condenser, a stalled fan — have been read and ruled out.
What the figure covers
- Recovering the charge
- The refrigerant is pumped into a recovery cylinder before anything is cut, because venting it is prohibited under the EPA's Section 608 rules.
- The failed component
- A compressor, a leaking joint or a restricted section of the circuit — whichever the pressures and the leak search point at.
- A new filter drier
- Fitted every time, because the moment the circuit is open it takes in moisture from the room, and the old drier has already used up what it can hold.
- Evacuation and a weighed charge
- The circuit is pulled down deep enough to boil off that moisture, then charged by weight to the figure the manufacturer specifies for the cabinet rather than by feel on a gauge.
- A run down and a reading
- The cabinet is brought to its set band and left long enough to cycle, with the zones read on a probe before the plinth goes back.
Before any of it
One flat $89 pays for somebody to arrive and read the cabinet properly; approve the repair and that $89 leaves the bill again.
Decline the repair and the visit is the whole of what you have paid. There is no hourly meter and nothing is ordered on an estimate.
What puts a job at the top of the band
- A cabinet built into a finished run that has to come out of the joinery entirely before the machine compartment is workable
- A compressor rather than a repair to the circuit, which is more part and more time under recovery
What keeps it at the bottom
- A leak on a joint that can be reached with the cabinet standing where it is
- A machine compartment already open because the grille and plinth lift away by hand
Three questions people ask about this one
How long does the whole sequence take?
Longer than any other repair on this list, because the sequence cannot be hurried — recovery, the repair itself, a fresh drier, then a vacuum that has to hold before a charge goes anywhere near the circuit. Most of it is one visit, and a cabinet that needs a part ordered is two.
Is this done in the house or does the cabinet leave?
In the house, in almost every case. Recovery gear, a vacuum pump and scales all travel, and a wine cabinet that has been pulled out of its run is already in the most awkward position it will be in. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Pros takes one away only when a repair cannot be made on site — call (720) 790-9436 if you want to know which yours is.
What is a filter drier, and why fit a new one every time?
It is a small canister in the liquid line holding a desiccant that mops up moisture and traps debris. Once it has done that work it is spent, and an open circuit hands it a fresh dose of damp room air. Leaving the old one in is how a repaired cabinet fails again a season later.
Reviews
What Denver owners said afterwards
Built-in Sub-Zero calls, written up by the people who booked them.
4.9/ 51,867 reviews
Wine column would not hold below the low sixties whatever we set it to. He put gauges on it, found a restriction in the sealed system, and told me plainly that it was the bigger job. Steady since.
Wren I.University Hills
Freezer column iced over so badly the bottom drawer stopped sliding. Defrost sensor had drifted out of spec, not the sealed system another shop had guessed at. He showed me the readings first.
Hollis B.Platt Park
Cubes were shrinking in the bin and everything tasted burnt. He found the drain tube iced solid and a lazy circulation fan. Sorted in one visit.
Lorna D.University Hills
Get this one priced in Denver
On site seven days a week, 8 am to 8 pm across the Denver round. Line picked up 24/7. The diagnosis is $89 and it comes off an approved repair.