Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. appliance repair works and where video fits, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 92 appliance repair homepages; do-it-yourself repair video and what people do when an appliance breaks; how many appliance repair businesses and technicians there are and what they earn, including Florida; how many appliances U.S. homes have, how old they are and how long they last; how home warranties, manufacturers and retailers route the work; right-to-repair and refrigerant rules; fires and recalls; and where five popular numbers came from.
15.2% of 92 U.S. appliance repair homepages showed a video player in November 2026; 57.6% named five or more appliance brands, but only 10.9% showed their diagnostic or service-call fee in dollars (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
The U.S. had 6,354 appliance repair establishments in 2025, 25.7% more than in 2019, averaging about 3.8 workers each (BLS QCEW; our calculation). (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
Florida holds 14.3% of U.S. appliance repair establishments (our calculation) and had more home appliance repairer jobs than any other state in May 2023 (3,040). (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
89% of respondents to a parts seller's 2024 survey said they would try a repair themselves if a video walked them through it; among people who repaired a large appliance in 2024, 48% did it themselves or with family or a friend. (PartSelect; Consumer Reports)See details
60% of U.S. adults had a large appliance stop working in the past five years, and 34% had thrown one out because they could not find someone they were happy with to fix it (2024). (Consumer Reports)See details
DOE puts the average refrigerator lifetime at 14.3 years and the dishwasher at about 15.2; the 2007 NAHB table most sites repeat says 13 and 9. (U.S. Department of Energy; NAHB)See details
Frontdoor's home warranty network handles about 3.8 million service requests a year, with its preferred contractors completing about 84 percent. (Frontdoor)See details
Only seven of 50 appliance makers made service manuals available in a 2023 investigation, and New York's repair law excludes home appliances altogether. (U.S. PIRG; New York State Senate)See details
How many appliance repair companies use video on their websites?
About one appliance repair homepage in seven shows video. We read a random sample of U.S. appliance businesses listed with a website in OpenStreetMap on November 2, 2026, and kept the ones that offer appliance repair: 15.2% of the 92 readable appliance repair homepages had a video player (our measurement). Most of it is embedded rather than decorative: 8.7% embedded a video from YouTube or Vimeo (7.6% YouTube), 4.3% hosted a video file on their own site and 3.3% played a muted background loop; of the homepages with video, only 28.6% used self-hosted files alone. That is about half the share of the pool service companies and HVAC contractors we measured the same way, and below electricians and plumbers (15.2% against 32.5%, 29.5%, 24.4% and 20.4%).
The homepages sell brand coverage and speed. 70.7% named at least one appliance brand and 57.6% named five or more; 51.1% said they service all or most major brands. They named ovens and ranges (82.6%), refrigerators (79.3%), washers or dryers (79.3%) and dishwashers (75.0%). 39.1% offered same-day or next-day service, 22.8% emergency or weekend service and 69.6% a warranty or guarantee. Half of them are also stores: 48.9% sold new, used or reconditioned appliances, and 35.9% mentioned commercial work.
The phone does most of the work. 88.0% had a click-to-call link, while 37.0% had a form on the homepage and 13.0% a chat widget. 46.7% offered online booking, and we could identify booking or field-service software on 13.0% of homepages (12 sites, most often Housecall Pro and Rossware's ServiceDesk). The fee question is mostly left to the call: 18.5% mentioned a diagnostic or service-call fee and only 10.9% showed it in dollars. 21.7% said they were licensed or insured, 17.4% mentioned the BBB and 3.3% offered Spanish.
How we measured. OpenStreetMap listed 435 distinct U.S. appliance-business website hosts on November 2, 2026, after we removed national retailers and rent-to-own chains, manufacturers, parts distributors and warranty networks (Asurion alone had 62 mapped records), directories and duplicates. Most are appliance stores. We drew a random 400 and read each homepage once in a headless browser, without clicking or submitting anything, and kept those whose homepage mentions appliance repair or service: 92 readable sites. Many retailer sites sit behind bot walls, and most of the rest were stores without repair wording. Chains and multi-site companies held only 2.7% of the mapped records. A hand check of 30 homepages agreed with the automatic video classification on 100.0% of them; the online booking rule agreed on 83.3% at first and was tightened after the check to stop counting "call to schedule" sentences. The site list with every indicator is in homepages.csv and the method in crawl-summary.json. Shares from 92 sites carry a margin of about plus or minus 7 points at 15% and 10 points at 50%.
How does video fit into appliance repair?
Mostly as the do-it-yourself alternative to a service call. In a November 2024 survey by PartSelect, a parts seller that runs its own YouTube repair channel, 89% of respondents said they would try to fix an appliance themselves if an easily accessible video walked them through it (PartSelect); that is a stated intention, not observed behaviour, and PartSelect did not publish field dates. Of respondents planning a holiday-season repair, 38% planned to do it themselves and 28% to call a repair service. PartSelect says its two technicians appear in over 2,000 of its repair videos (PartSelect).
The one controlled test we found points the same way. In a 2023 experiment in which 61.4% of 60 participants fixing a kettle preferred a video over step-by-step text (24.6%) or a guide (14.0%), 63.2% completed the repair; prior repair experience was the only significant predictor of success, at 40.4% (Sustainable Production and Consumption, as indexed by the University of Rijeka). It is a lab study of a small appliance in Spain, not a survey of U.S. households.
How-to video on YouTube is old and large. Google reported in May 2015 that how-to searches on YouTube were growing 70% year over year in the U.S., that more than 100M hours of how-to content had been watched in North America that year by May, and that "how to install a dishwasher" was among the top home how-to searches in Q1 2015 (Think with Google). Nearly one in three millennials said they had bought a product after watching a how-to video. Google has not published a newer figure in a form we could check.
For repair companies, video is moving into the service call itself. Frontdoor says its American Home Shield app offers video chat and virtual diagnostics so some problems can be handled without a technician's visit (Frontdoor 10-K). On Google's side, "Appliance repair services" is an eligible Local Services Ads category in the U.S. (Google), and Google ended the Money Back Guarantee behind that badge on December 7, 2025. No neutral survey owner publishes how many appliance repair companies make video or what it does for them; our own count of video on their homepages is in the section above.
How many appliance repair businesses are there in the U.S.?
About 6,400 with employees. BLS counted an annual average of 6,354 private appliance repair and maintenance establishments (NAICS 811412) in 2025, employing 24,056 people at an average annual pay of $57,942 per job, 28.6% more than in 2019 before inflation (BLS QCEW; our calculation). That is 25.7% more establishments than in 2019 (5,056) and 13.4% more jobs (21,216), so the average shop got smaller: about 3.8 workers per establishment in 2025 (our calculation). In 2014 there were 4,437 establishments and 19,467 jobs.
Most of the trade is tiny. Census County Business Patterns counted 5,595 employer establishments in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau), 4,449 of them with fewer than five employees, which is 79.5% (our calculation). Only 6 had 250 to 499 employees. Alongside them sat 31,411 nonemployer businesses (owner-operators with no payroll) in the broader home and garden equipment and appliance repair group (NAICS 81141) in 2023, up from 29,666 in 2019 (Census Nonemployer Statistics). Census does not publish nonemployers for appliance repair alone.
No company dominates. In the 2022 Economic Census, the four largest firms took 6.2% of appliance repair receipts and the 50 largest 22.3% (U.S. Census Bureau). The 5,394 employer establishments belonged to 5,235 firms and took in $2,864,398 thousand, about $531,000 each (our calculation). Repairing major household appliances brought in $2,346,911 thousand of that, 81.9% (our calculation), and smaller appliances and household equipment $391,034 thousand. The most common size was 1,384 establishments with revenue of $100,000 to $249,999.
One number does not fit the growth story. Receipts in the 2017 Economic Census were 3,578,730 thousand dollars, so 2022 receipts were 20.0% lower while establishments rose (our calculation, not adjusted for inflation). Census gives no reason; changes in how firms are classified between censuses can move a small industry's totals.
Florida has about one in seven of the country's appliance repair shops. It had 908 private appliance repair establishments and 3,285 jobs in 2025, 14.3% of U.S. establishments and 13.7% of the jobs (our calculation from BLS QCEW). Establishments grew 31.2% from 2019. The industry's share of Florida private jobs was more than twice the national share: a location quotient of 2.14. Miami-Dade County had 154 establishments and Broward 113 in 2025; average pay at Palm Beach County's appliance repair establishments was $42,148.
Census counts agree on the scale: 732 Florida employer establishments in 2023 (County Business Patterns), $126,655 thousand of payroll, and $361,300 thousand of receipts in 2022 (Economic Census). Florida also had 4,106 nonemployer businesses in the broader repair group in 2023. By occupation, Florida had more home appliance repairer jobs than any other state in May 2023, 3,040 (BLS OEWS), and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area had 1,180, the third most of any metro.
How many appliance repair technicians are there, and what do they earn?
About 40,500, counting the self-employed. BLS Employment Projections counted 40.5 thousand home appliance repairers in 2025 and projects growth of 1.9% to 2035, slower than the 3.5% for all occupations, with about 2.8 thousand openings a year, mostly to replace people who leave (BLS). 20.3% were self-employed. The median annual wage was 50,990 dollars in May 2025, or $24.51 an hour (O*NET), up from 49,410 dollars in 2024.
The counts differ because they count different things. The employer survey (OEWS) found 29,950 wage-and-salary home appliance repairer jobs in May 2023 at a median of $47,170 (BLS OEWS, via an Internet Archive copy); QCEW counts every job in the industry, technicians or not; Employment Projections adds the self-employed. Only 12,310 of the OEWS repairers worked in repair businesses; electronics and appliance retailers employed most of the rest. The previous projection round counted 37.3 thousand in 2024 and the round before that 37.5 thousand in 2023.
The job is a phone job as much as a wrench job. In O*NET's survey of the occupation, 97% of home appliance repairers have telephone conversations every day, 32% typically work more than 40 hours a week, and the highest-rated core task is "Bill customers for repair work, and collect payment." (O*NET OnLine). 69% said a new hire needs a high school diploma; BLS lists "High school diploma or equivalent" and moderate-term on-the-job training as the typical entry path. Anyone who opens the sealed refrigerant system of a household refrigerator needs EPA Type I certification (40 CFR 82.161).
The national service fleets have shrunk. Sears Home Services, once the largest, reported over 8,600 technicians making over 11 million service calls a year in fiscal 2010, about 7,300 in fiscal 2014 and about 5,200 making over five million calls in fiscal 2017, a fall of about 40% in technicians (Sears Holdings 10-K filings; our calculation). The fiscal 2014 call count includes installations. Mr. Appliance, Neighborly's franchise, says it has 320+ locations in North America (Mr. Appliance).
How many appliances do U.S. homes have, and how old are they?
Nearly every home has a refrigerator, and many are old. The Energy Information Administration's 2024 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (preliminary) counts 132.54 million occupied primary homes; 132.11 million used at least one refrigerator and 45.47 million used two or more (EIA RECS 2024). The most-used refrigerator was 10 to 14 years old in 21.12 million homes, 15 to 19 in 7.86 million and 20 or older in 6.29 million: in 10.7% of homes with a refrigerator, the main one was at least 15 years old (our calculation).
Appliance in U.S. homes, 2024 (EIA RECS, preliminary)
Washers and dryers age the same way. In 2024 the washer was 10 to 14 years old in 16.03 million homes, and the dryer was 20 or older in 5.46 million. The most common dishwasher age band was 5 to 9 years, in 34.21 million homes.
How long do refrigerators, washers and dishwashers last?
Longer than the popular tables say, by the federal government's estimate. In its 2024 efficiency rules, the Department of Energy put the average lifetime of a standard-size refrigerator at 14.3 years, a compact refrigerator at 8.8, a standalone freezer at 18.4, a clothes washer at 13.4, a dryer at about 14 and a dishwasher at about 15.2 (DOE, Federal Register). DOE fits survival curves to decades of shipments and the ages of appliances households report, so these are averages over the whole stock, not a first owner's experience. DOE also uses a yearly repair rate of 12 percent for electric dryers (14 percent for gas).
The figures most websites print come from a 2007 table. The National Association of Home Builders' study with Bank of America lists refrigerators and dryers at about 13 years, dishwashers and microwaves at 9 and washers at 10 (NAHB), based on first-owner use and credited to Appliance Magazine's September 2005 issue and Grainger. For dishwashers and washers the two sources disagree by four to six years; we show both. A home inspectors' chart gives refrigerators 9 to 13 years (InterNACHI, a trade association).
When appliances do go, they mostly go to the scrap yard. EPA estimates Americans discarded 5.3 million tons of major appliances in 2018, up from 1,630 thousand tons in 1960 to 5,250 thousand; 3.1 million tons of steel was recovered (EPA). In 2023, about 8,035 thousand ENERGY STAR certified refrigerators, 6,021 thousand dishwashers, 6,475 thousand washers and 3,809 thousand dryers were shipped in the U.S. (ENERGY STAR).
How often do appliances break, and do people repair them?
Most households have had one break recently, and most replaced it. In Consumer Reports' nationally representative summer 2024 survey of 2,154 U.S. adults, 60% had a large appliance stop working in the past five years, and 58% of those replaced it; 26% of the replacers had tried to repair it first (Consumer Reports). Of those who did not repair, 43% said the appliance was too old to be worth it and 42% that replacing was more cost-effective. For small appliances the habit is stronger: 87% of people whose small appliance broke replaced it.
Do-it-yourself is the biggest repair channel. Among people who did repair a large appliance in 2024, 48% did it themselves or with family or a friend and 27% used an independent shop. 34% of all adults had thrown out a broken large appliance because they could not find someone they were happy with to fix it, and 43% look at whether they can fix a product themselves when deciding to repair. Consumer Reports' 2021 survey, fielded by NORC, found 55% with a broken large appliance in the past five years; 33% got it repaired, 81% had no warranty or service contract covering it, and of those who sought repair 39% did it themselves, 30% used an independent shop and 29% a manufacturer-authorized one (Consumer Reports/NORC). Half (50%) of non-repairers said repair was too expensive, though 47% had said they would definitely try to repair a large appliance.
Vendor surveys tell the same story with a sales angle. American Home Shield, which sells home warranties, found 76% of 1,007 homeowners wait for an appliance to fail before replacing it, 84% have one past its manufacturer's warranty and 32% have nothing saved for a failure (American Home Shield, January 2025). Allstate Protection Plans, which sells appliance protection plans, found in late 2021 that 24% of homeowners tried a fix themselves and 48% of those succeeded; 78% waited more than three days for an in-home repair appointment, 28% needed more than one visit, and homeowners were without the appliance 10.9 days on average (Allstate Protection Plans). 27% called a repair service they had used before.
What a repair costs depends on who is counting. Thumbtack, a marketplace that sells leads to repair pros, says most people pay around $206 for a minor appliance repair and puts the average refrigerator repair at $250 (Thumbtack, 2026). Allstate's 2021 respondents spent an average $713 per broken appliance on repair or replacement combined.
Who routes appliance repair work: manufacturers, home warranties or retailers?
A large share of service calls are dispatched by someone other than the homeowner. Frontdoor, parent of American Home Shield, handles about 3.8 million home warranty service requests a year through about 17,000 independent contractor firms; its 4,200 "preferred" contractors completed about 84 percent of requests in 2025 (Frontdoor 10-K). Its plans cover up to 29 home systems and appliances, up from 21 in 2019, when it described over four million requests a year and a network that had grown from about 11,000 firms in 2014. It had 2.11 million warranties in effect, a retention rate of 79.2%, and 76 percent of revenue from renewals; first-year renewal was 29 percent for buyers who came through a real estate sale against 74 percent for direct buyers. Frontdoor spent 162 million dollars on advertising on revenue of 2,093 million, 7.7% (our calculation). The 10-K does not split appliances from HVAC and plumbing.
Manufacturers mostly sell parts through middlemen. Whirlpool booked 550 million dollars of spare parts and warranty sales in 2025, 3.5% of its 15,524 million in net sales (our calculation), against 953 million in 2023, before its European business left the books (Whirlpool 10-K). It says spare parts go mainly to distributors and retailers, with only a "small number" sold to consumers. Its warranty expense was about 2.1% of net sales; it accrued 218 million dollars of new warranty obligations and settled 214 million. For the majority of its extended service plans it acts as a sales agent and books only a fee. It spent 276 million dollars on advertising, sold 15% of its output to Lowe's, and lists "right-to-repair regulations" among the rules that will raise costs or force redesigns. It employed about 41,000 people, 39% in the U.S.
Retailers sell the plans. Lowe's sold 12,891 million dollars of appliances in fiscal 2025, its largest category (Lowe's 10-K); it recognized 580 million dollars of protection plan revenue and paid 239 million in claims, 41.2% (our calculation; all covered categories), with 1,262 million dollars of plan revenue deferred and terms of one to five years. Its Track to the Trades program trains associates in appliance repair among other trades; it spent 978 million dollars on advertising. Home Depot sold 13,987 million dollars of appliances (Home Depot 10-K). Best Buy sold 4,166 million dollars of appliances in the U.S. in fiscal 2026; extended warranty commissions were 0.9% of revenue, and its service contracts include factory warranty repairs for vendors (Best Buy 10-K). Assurant earned 34.4% of its Connected Living revenue of 5,378.7 million dollars from extended service contracts on electronics and appliances worldwide (Assurant 10-K).
Lead marketplaces are shrinking. Angi recorded 15,543 thousand U.S. service requests in 2025, down 10%, and 122 thousand monthly active pros, down 19%, on revenue of 1,030,535 thousand dollars and advertising of 334.1 million (Angi 10-K), across all home services.
Right to repair has reached the filings. EDGAR full-text search finds 3 Form 10-K documents with the exact phrase "right to repair" filed in 2019, 14 in 2022 and 19 in 2025, about 6.3 times as many (SEC EDGAR; our calculation); "appliance repair" appears in 8 and 11. The search counts documents, misses the hyphenated "right-to-repair" (Whirlpool's spelling) and includes carmakers and tractor makers.
Do right-to-repair laws cover household appliances?
Some do, and the biggest one does. California's Right to Repair Act (SB 244) took effect on July 1, 2024 and covers electronic and appliance products made on or after July 1, 2021 with a wholesale cost of $50 or more (California Bureau of Household Goods and Services). Manufacturers must keep parts, tools and manuals available for at least 3 years after the last production date for products wholesaling at $50 to $99.99, and 7 years at $100 or more. Minnesota's law covers equipment sold on or after July 1, 2021, gives manufacturers 60 days after first sale to supply parts and documentation, and carves out work that needs a contractor licensed under chapter 326B (Minnesota Revisor of Statutes). New York's Digital Fair Repair Act excludes every home appliance with embedded electronics, such as refrigerators and ovens (New York State Senate, via an Internet Archive copy). Oregon's 2024 law covers household electronics made after July 1, 2015, bans parts pairing for products made after January 1, 2025, names the "National Appliance Service Technician Certification" as a qualifying credential, and fines up to $1,000 a day from July 1, 2027 (Oregon Legislative Assembly).
The manuals are the sticking point. A 2023 investigation by U.S. PIRG with iFixit and Repair.org found only seven of 50 appliance manufacturers made service manuals available and 86% did not provide full repair instructions; 89% of surveyed technicians had trouble getting manuals and 93.5% had trouble finding schematics (U.S. PIRG). 30% of repair shops surveyed paid more than $1,000 a year for manufacturer diagnostic software, and GE charged $919 a year for its service tools. PIRG's 2026 scorecard of 58 small appliances found manuals for only 5.2% and no manufacturer repair service for 62.1% (U.S. PIRG Education Fund). PIRG and its partners campaign for repair rights; read them as advocacy research.
Federal law already bans warranty tie-ins. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. 2302(c), bars a warrantor from conditioning a warranty on using a branded part or service unless it is provided free, for consumer products costing more than $5 (Cornell LII); the FTC's rule at 16 CFR 700.10(c) says the same (eCFR). Even so, all 43 appliance makers U.S. PIRG Education Fund reached in 2021 said they would void a warranty after an unauthorized repair (U.S. PIRG Education Fund). The FTC's May 2021 "Nixing the Fix" report, built on 68 public comments and a workshop on July 16, 2019, found "scant evidence" for manufacturers' justifications (FTC); it records PIRG's finding that 45 of the 50 warranties it read appeared to break the tie-in ban, PIRG's estimate that repair could cut household spending on electronics and appliances by 22 percent, and the appliance makers' association's claim that over 87 percent of 20,000 servicers in members' networks were authorized. The Commission voted unanimously in July 2021 to step up enforcement, then in 2022 took action against grill and generator makers, Weber and Westinghouse's licensee, whose warranties were void without authorized parts, with orders running 20 years and "twenty (20) years" (Federal Register); Chair Khan's statement dates the policy to July 2021. In July 2024 FTC staff warned eight companies, five over parts-or-service conditions; none was a major appliance maker (FTC). In March 2026 the FTC estimated its warranty rules cover about 26,131 manufacturers and 493,621 retailers and impose 209,048 hours of paperwork a year.
Older California law and EU rules set parts-availability floors. The FTC's 2021 report notes California's Song-Beverly Act already required parts for up to seven years on products over $100 wholesale. As that report summarised them, EU rules in force since March 2021 require spare parts for refrigerators for at least seven years, for washing machines for ten years and for dishwashers for ten years (FTC summary of EU ecodesign rules). The EU repair directive, passed 584 to 3 in the European Parliament, applies from 31 July 2026 (European Commission) and adds a one-year guarantee extension when a product is repaired under guarantee; Parliament puts the cost of replacing instead of repairing at €12 billion a year (European Parliament).
What licenses and certifications do appliance technicians need?
Nationally, one: EPA refrigerant certification. Under Clean Air Act Section 608, anyone who services or repairs small appliances such as household refrigerators and freezers must hold Type I certification (EPA). A small appliance is one factory-sealed with five (5) pounds or less of refrigerant; before opening one, technicians must recover 90 percent of it with a working compressor (80 percent if it has failed), and the scrapyard or landfill must keep recovery records for three years. Each certification test has at least 25 questions per section.
A few states register the business. California registers appliance service dealers by location, at an annual renewal fee of $190 (California BHGS). It had 2,939 active appliance service dealers at June 30, 2026, 3.1% more than at the end of 2024 (our calculation), plus 229 combination electronic and appliance dealers. Active registrations had fallen from 2,634 in fiscal 2018/19 to 2,555 in 2021/22, while lapsed ones rose to 1,043. A November 2025 sweep of 47 repair and home-furnishings businesses produced 14 citations. We found no Florida licence specific to appliance repair.
Efficiency rules shape what technicians fix. DOE's standards program covers more than 70 products by one of its pages and approximately 60 categories by another (DOE); EPA says ENERGY STAR has helped avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs since 1992 (ENERGY STAR).
How many fires and recalls involve household appliances?
Ranges cause the most. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates cooking equipment was involved in 147,800 U.S. residential fires a year in 2021-2023, 42.2 percent of all residential fires; ranges and ovens in 11,900 fires and 130 deaths a year; clothes dryers in 4,900 fires and $87.1 million of property loss; refrigerators and freezers in 900; and dishwashers and washing machines in 400 each (CPSC). The U.S. Fire Administration's older count, 2,900 dryer fires a year in 2008-2010, counted only fires reported to fire departments; failure to clean was the leading factor in 34 percent (USFA). The two series measure differently and are not a trend.
Ranges also top the recall list. In August 2024 Samsung recalled about 1,120,905 slide-in electric ranges over front knobs that could be turned on by accident, after about 250 fires (CPSC, via an Internet Archive copy); LG recalled about 500,000 ranges for the same hazard in February 2025; Electrolux re-announced a 2009 recall of 203,000 Frigidaire and Kenmore ranges in May 2024 and recalled 174,800 Frigidaire gas ranges in March 2026. CPSC received reports of 15 appliance tip-over deaths from 2013 to mid-2023, all stoves or refrigerators, and estimates 600 emergency-room injuries a year from appliance tip-overs (CPSC).
What do the popular appliance repair numbers really say?
Five numbers turn up again and again on repair company, home warranty, parts and marketing sites. We traced each one as far back as it goes.
"Replace an appliance if the repair costs more than 50% of a new one"
This is a rule of thumb from Consumer Reports, not a measured threshold. The earliest form we found is a November 2005 syndicated column relaying CR's October 2005 repair-or-replace report: don't repair anything that costs more than half the price of a replacement (Lawrence Journal-World, Michelle Singletary column). CR's own July 2011 item called it a general rule of thumb, to consider replacement if a repair costs more than half the price of a new product (Consumer Reports), next to a survey of 27,404 subscribers; its January 2014 release said not to spend more than 50 percent of the cost of a new product, drawing on 29,281 subscribers (Consumer Reports). CR's 2005 pages are archived only behind its subscriber wall, so we could not read the original wording.
Repeaters have added a second condition CR never printed in the pages we read: that the appliance also be past half its expected life. Liberty Home Guard, a home warranty seller, states it that way with the 50% threshold (Liberty Home Guard); so does a DIY guide site, Remove and Replace (50%, Remove and Replace); a marketing agency tells repair companies their customers decide on the same 50% line (ClicksGeek). NerdWallet notes CR "used to" advise 50% and has since refined it (NerdWallet).
Use instead: CR's current refrigerator guidance, built on 95,711 members' reports on 108,573 refrigerators bought from 2012 to 2022 (January 2024): if a refrigerator is less than 10 years old, repair is usually more economical (Consumer Reports).
"A refrigerator lasts 13 years"
The number comes from a February 2007 table by the National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America, which lists a standard refrigerator at 13 years and summarises gas ranges at 15, dryers and refrigerators at about 13 years and dishwashers at 9 (NAHB, archived). NAHB built it from a summer 2006 telephone survey of manufacturers, trade groups and researchers, credited the appliance rows to Appliance Magazine's September 2005 issue and Grainger, based them on first-owner use, and called the report "a general guideline only". Consumer Reports republished the table in 2009 (13 years, Consumer Reports). Today a real estate brokerage cites it for 13 years (Long & Foster), a repair company says about 13 (EasyBear Appliance Repair), Mr. Appliance says 14 without a source (Mr. Appliance), and Bob Vila credits the Department of Energy with 12 (Bob Vila). We did not find Appliance Magazine's 2005 issue.
Use instead: DOE's January 2024 refrigerator rule, which estimates an average lifetime of 14.3 years for standard refrigerators and 8.8 for compact ones (DOE, Federal Register), fitted to shipments and the ages of refrigerators in use in its household energy surveys through RECS 2020.
"X% of appliances fail within five years"
The repeated percentages contradict each other and carry no source. A parts seller says about 40% of refrigerators have problems within five years (AppliancePartsPros); a home warranty company lists "approximate" five-year problem rates of 25% for refrigerators (Liberty Home Guard); Mr. Appliance's franchise page says over 50% of a home's appliances are expected to fail within five years (Mr. Appliance franchising). A 2019 TV report relayed Consumer Reports' 2018 member surveys as 15 to 40 percent by product (ABC7 San Francisco). Those are problem rates among CR members, not all owners, and CR's own current figure, for refrigerators bought from 2012 to 2022, is 31 percent needing repair by year five (Consumer Reports). A protection-plan seller found in late 2021 that 52% of homeowners' malfunctions had happened within five years of purchase and 95% had ever had a major appliance stop working (Allstate Protection Plans). Germany's Environment Agency measured something else: the share of replaced large appliances that were under five years old and defective, 8.3% in 2013 (UBA).
Use instead: CR's nationally representative 2024 survey: 60% of U.S. adults had a large appliance stop working in the past five years (Consumer Reports); of those who replaced it, 26% had tried to repair it first, and 43% of non-repairers said it was too old to be worth fixing.
"Video lifts conversions by 80%"
This one comes from a single vendor test. EyeView, which sold landing-page video, reported in November 2009 that its first test, on one client's landing page, lifted conversions 80 percent (EyeView, archived); its 2010 white paper said the boost was over 80% only "in some cases", and its one fully described test (a trading platform) found 32 percent (EyeView, archived). Unbounce turned it into a general rule in August 2010 (80%, Unbounce), and Tech.co repeated it in 2015 (80 percent, Tech.co). It reaches the trades through home-service marketing pages (80%, PipelineOn). Appliance repair marketers use cousins of it: a lead-generation vendor says 50% of consumers would be more likely to hire a business with video on its site (Service Direct), and an agency says 80%+ of appliance repair searches end in a same-day call (ClicksGeek); neither names a source.
Use instead: there is no general conversion figure for video. The repair-specific evidence is about do-it-yourself viewers: 89% of PartSelect's respondents said a video would get them to try a fix, and 48% of CR's 2024 repairers did it themselves.
"The appliance repair industry is worth $X billion"
Market-size figures on software and startup sites come from paid reports whose method cannot be checked. A field-service software vendor says the U.S. industry is expected to reach $6.5 billion in 2025 (Service Works); IBISWorld's free page shows $7.4bn for 2026 (IBISWorld). Global estimates disagree by almost two to one: $18.2 billion for 2023 (Service Works) against 34.6 billion dollars for 2025 (Verified Market Research).
Use instead: the 2022 Economic Census, which counted $2,864,398 thousand in receipts at appliance repair employer establishments, plus 31,411 owner-operators in the broader repair group. Those are counts, not forecasts, and they exclude repairs done by retailers and manufacturers.
We started from the questions people search for about appliance repair video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 371 figures from 55 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data and Employment Projections tables, BLS occupation estimates and O*NET; Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics and the 2022 Economic Census (through the Census data API); EIA's 2024 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, Department of Energy efficiency rules in the Federal Register, EPA waste and ENERGY STAR shipment reports, CPSC fire-loss, tip-over and recall reports and the U.S. Fire Administration; the 10-K filings of Whirlpool, Frontdoor, Assurant, Angi, Best Buy, Lowe's, Home Depot and Sears Holdings and EDGAR full-text search; the FTC's Nixing the Fix report, orders and Federal Register notices, the U.S. Code and eCFR, California's Bureau of Household Goods and Services, the Minnesota, New York and Oregon statutes, EPA refrigerant rules, DOE and the European Commission and Parliament; survey owners' own reports (Consumer Reports, U.S. PIRG, PartSelect, American Home Shield, Allstate Protection Plans, Thumbtack, Google); and the pages behind each popular claim. Two rows read from a 5.7 MB California report were rechecked by hand the same day. Some FTC, CPSC, BLS and New York pages refuse automated requests, so we read Internet Archive copies. We left out BLS occupation estimates newer than May 2023 (the BLS data API's daily limit was reached, and no archived copy of the newer pages exists), AHAM shipment totals (sold by subscription), Consumer Reports' paywalled repair-service ratings, Census Nonemployer Statistics for appliance repair alone (not published at that level), Colorado's statute (its site refused every request), and any figure from a gated report. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
580 Overpass elements -> minus 0 out of scope {} -> minus 0 on government/education hosts -> 579 with a usable URL -> minus 101 on directory/social hosts -> 478 records on 435 distinct registrable hosts
14 / 92 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
4 / 92 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
8 / 92 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
7 / 92 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
1 / 92 readable homepages with vimeo_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a Vimeo player (iframe, placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
12 / 92 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
28 / 92 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
61 / 92 readable homepages with any_social_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: any of the YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X or LinkedIn profile links
65 / 92 readable homepages with brands_named = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: at least one appliance brand (Whirlpool, GE, Samsung, LG, Maytag, Frigidaire, KitchenAid, Bosch, Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking, Thermador, Miele, Electrolux, Kenmore, Speed Queen, Amana, Jenn-Air, Dacor, Fisher & Paykel, Monogram, Cafe, Haier ...) named in the page text or an image alt
53 / 92 readable homepages with five_plus_brands_named = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: five or more different appliance brands named in the page text or image alts
47 / 92 readable homepages with all_brands_wording = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "all (major) brands/makes", "most major brands", "brands we service" or "we repair all/most" wording
36 / 92 readable homepages with same_or_next_day = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: same-day or next-day service, "today or tomorrow" or "within 24 hours" wording, or a link or button labelled same-day
17 / 92 readable homepages with diagnostic_fee_mentioned = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a diagnostic, service-call, trip or visit fee or charge named, a fee waived/credited with the repair, or a free diagnostic offer
10 / 92 readable homepages with diagnostic_fee_amount_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a dollar amount shown for the diagnostic, service-call or trip fee
31 / 92 readable homepages with parts_sales_or_oem_parts = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: genuine/OEM/factory/replacement parts, a parts store/department/counter, parts in stock, "we sell/stock parts" or parts ordering wording, or a link labelled or pathed parts
64 / 92 readable homepages with warranty_guarantee = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a warranty or guarantee (on parts, labor or repairs) named in the page text ("home warranty company" mentions excluded), or a link labelled warranty/guarantee
73 / 92 readable homepages with refrigerator_mentioned = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: refrigerators/fridges named in the page text or a link label
73 / 92 readable homepages with washer_dryer_mentioned = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: washers, washing machines or dryers named in the page text or a link label
76 / 92 readable homepages with oven_range_mentioned = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: ovens, ranges, stoves or cooktops named in the page text or a link label
45 / 92 readable homepages with appliance_sales = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: appliance sales signals: new/used/reconditioned/scratch-and-dent appliances, appliance sales/store/showroom/outlet, shop now, add to cart, in stock, buy now/online, or a link labelled shop/store/showroom
33 / 92 readable homepages with commercial_services = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: commercial appliances/kitchens/laundry/refrigeration/service, restaurants, property managers, landlords, apartments or the bare word commercial in the page text, or a link labelled or pathed commercial
21 / 92 readable homepages with emergency_or_weekend = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: 24/7, 24 hours, around the clock, emergency service/repairs/calls, weekend service/appointments or evenings and weekends wording, or a link labelled emergency/24/7
20 / 92 readable homepages with licensed_insured_wording = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: licensed and insured/bonded, fully licensed/insured, a license or registration number (incl. California BEARHFTI/BHGS), state-licensed, or the word insured/bonded in the page text
2 / 92 readable homepages with trade_association = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: UASA / United Appliance Servicers Association, PSA / Professional Service Association, NASTeC, CFESA, NARDA or ISCET named in the page text or an image alt
16 / 92 readable homepages with bbb = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: BBB / Better Business Bureau / A+ rating in text, a BBB image alt, link or seal request
66 / 92 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, customer reviews, "what our customers say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Elfsight, Trustindex ...)
7 / 92 readable homepages with free_estimate_quote = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: free / complimentary / no-cost / no-obligation estimate, quote, consultation, evaluation or inspection in the page text, or a link or button labelled so
28 / 92 readable homepages with quote_or_estimate_request = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a quote, estimate, service or repair request: "get a (free) quote/estimate", "request service/repair/a technician", free quote wording, or a link/button labelled or pathed quote, estimate, request service/repair
43 / 92 readable homepages with online_booking_scheduling = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: online booking or scheduling: a booking vendor link, iframe, script or request (Rossware ServiceDesk booking, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Jobber, Workiz, Schedule Engine, Calendly ...), a control or link labelled book/schedule (tel:/mailto: excluded), or "book/schedule online" wording ("call to schedule" sentences excluded)
32 / 92 readable homepages with price_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a dollar amount shown on the homepage (service-call fee, flat price, coupon or appliance price; insurance, financing, rebate, minimum-order and $0 amounts excluded)
24 / 92 readable homepages with coupon_or_special = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: $X off, save $X, X% off or coupon wording, or a link labelled or pathed coupons / specials / promotions
29 / 92 readable homepages with financing = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: financing wording (financing, finance options, monthly payments, 0% APR, lease-to-own, payment plans, Synchrony, Affirm, Wisetack, Acima, Snap Finance, Katapult) in the page text or a link labelled or pathed so
3 / 92 readable homepages with spanish_language = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Spanish-language signal: "Hablamos Español", "Se habla español", "español", "en español", "Spanish-speaking", "bilingual" in the page text, a link labelled Español/Spanish/ES or pathed /es/, or a page whose html lang is es
29 / 92 readable homepages with family_or_locally_owned = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: family-/locally/veteran-/woman-owned, family/local business or independently owned and operated in the page text
12 / 92 readable homepages with field_software_detected = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a field-service or booking software identified (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Workiz, ServiceDesk/Rossware, Service Fusion, FieldEdge, Kickserv, ServiceMonster, Fieldd, Schedule Engine, Calendly, Thryv/vCita, LeadConnector booking): first from link hosts, then iframe, script and request hosts, then the vendor named in text
34 / 92 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form; tel: and mailto: links never count
12 / 92 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat or web-chat widget: a network request to a chat vendor (Podium, Tawk, LiveChat, Intercom, Drift, HubSpot messages, LeadConnector ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form and cookie-consent iframes excluded)
20 / 92 readable homepages with careers_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team/crew, now hiring, employment, open positions, apply now (to a job page), empleo/trabajo, or a link to a /careers, /jobs, /employment or /join-our-team path
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; 5 positives confirmed by a recorded YouTube iframe or native video; no play controls or popup players on the 25 negatives.
agreement counts in own/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; first-pass false positives came from sentence text: 'call now to schedule', an FAQ question, 'if you would like to schedule an appointment', a testimonial and a process-step heading. The rule now counts a booking vendor (Rossware, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Jobber ...), a control or link labelled book/schedule, or 'book/schedule online' wording.
count of field_software values among readable rows in homepages.csv: {'(none detected)': 80, 'Housecall Pro': 7, 'ServiceDesk (Rossware)': 3, 'Thryv / vCita': 1, 'ServiceTitan': 1}; any-mention counts {'Housecall Pro': 7, 'ServiceDesk (Rossware)': 3, 'Thryv / vCita': 1, 'ServiceTitan': 1}; rule: a field-service or booking software identified (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Workiz, ServiceDesk/Rossware, Service Fusion, FieldEdge, Kickserv, ServiceMonster, Fieldd, Schedule Engine, Calendly, Thryv/vCita, LeadConnector booking): first from link hosts, then iframe, script and request hosts, then the vendor named in text. A floor: route software such as Skimmer usually sits behind a customer login or app that the homepage does not link
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Nobody counts appliance repair video. No neutral survey owner publishes how many repair companies make video or what it does for them. The other video figures here are about viewers trying repairs themselves, and the main one is a parts seller's hypothetical question. Our homepage read measures whether a player is present, not whether the video is any good.
The homepage sample comes from OpenStreetMap. Volunteers map businesses unevenly, most mapped appliance businesses are stores, and many retailer sites block automated visits. We kept the 92 readable homepages that mention appliance repair; repair-only companies without a storefront are under-represented. Shares from 92 sites carry a margin of about plus or minus 7 to 10 points.
Many surveys come from sellers. PartSelect sells parts, American Home Shield and Allstate Protection Plans sell warranties and plans, Thumbtack sells leads, and U.S. PIRG campaigns for repair rights. Consumer Reports' 2021 and 2024 surveys are nationally representative; its reliability figures come from its own members.
Federal counts use different scopes. QCEW counts jobs in appliance repair businesses, OEWS counts employed repairers wherever they work, Employment Projections adds the self-employed, and Nonemployer Statistics is published only for the broader home and garden equipment and appliance repair group.
Company figures are not appliance-only. Frontdoor, Lowe's, Assurant and Angi do not split appliances from other systems or products in their filings.
Lifespans are estimates. DOE's lifetimes are modelled averages over the installed stock; NAHB's 2007 table reflects first-owner use and cites a 2005 trade magazine we could not read.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics#DRV-101. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Appliance Repair Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Appliance repair video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics
MLA
“Appliance Repair Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Appliance Repair Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_appliance_repair_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Appliance Repair Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/appliance-repair-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 328 figures from 55 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Nov 2, 2026: Added our own measurement, held back at launch while the OpenStreetMap Overpass servers were down: a read of 92 U.S. appliance repair homepages (video players, social links, brands, same-day service, fees, booking and conversion tools), with the site list (homepages.csv) and the method (crawl-summary.json).
Frequently asked questions
How many appliance repair companies use video on their websites?
In our November 2026 read of 92 U.S. appliance repair homepages, 15.2% showed a video player and 13.0% linked to a YouTube channel. No survey owner publishes a wider count.
How many appliance repair businesses are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted an annual average of 6,354 private appliance repair and maintenance establishments in 2025, employing 24,056 people. Census also counted 31,411 owner-operators without employees in the broader home and garden equipment and appliance repair group in 2023.
How much do appliance repair technicians make?
The median annual wage of U.S. home appliance repairers was $50,990 in May 2025, or $24.51 an hour. Average annual pay per job at appliance repair businesses was $57,942 in 2025.
Do people watch videos to repair their own appliances?
Many say they would. 89% of respondents to PartSelect's 2024 survey said they would try a fix themselves if an easily accessible video walked them through it, and 48% of U.S. adults who repaired a large appliance in 2024 did it themselves or with family or a friend.
How long does a refrigerator last?
The Department of Energy estimates an average lifetime of 14.3 years for a standard-size refrigerator and 8.8 years for a compact one. The often-quoted 13 years comes from a 2007 NAHB table based on first-owner use.
Should I repair or replace an appliance that costs more than half its price to fix?
That 50 percent line is a Consumer Reports rule of thumb, not a measurement. CR's current refrigerator advice is that repair usually makes sense if the refrigerator is less than 10 years old.
Do right-to-repair laws cover home appliances?
California's law, in effect since July 1, 2024, covers appliances wholesaling at $50 or more. New York's law excludes home appliances such as refrigerators and ovens.
Do appliance repair technicians need a license?
Nationally, technicians who repair household refrigerators and freezers need EPA Type I refrigerant certification. California also registers appliance service dealers, with 2,939 active at June 30, 2026.
