{ "title": "Dishwasher or Dryer Won't Work — Who Do I Call?", "description": "An appliance repair technician, brand-authorized if the unit is still under warranty. Why a dryer that won't heat is often a clogged vent, why a dishwasher that won't drain is often a DIY clog, and the repair-or-replace math.", "category": "appliance", "vertical": "appliance", "tldr": "Call an appliance repair technician — not a plumber for a dishwasher, not an electrician for a dryer. If the unit is under manufacturer warranty, use the brand's authorized servicer or you void it. A dryer that won't heat is often a clogged vent, which is a fire hazard and a separate trade. A dishwasher that won't drain is often a simple clog you can clear yourself.", "who_to_call": [ { "who": "An independent appliance repair technician", "when": "The unit is out of warranty and has a real fault — won't run, won't heat, won't drain, won't fill — and your quick DIY checks came back clean", "not_for": "It's still under the manufacturer's warranty (using an independent voids it), or the fault is the vent, the outlet, or a clog you can clear yourself" }, { "who": "The brand's authorized service line (Samsung, LG, Bosch, Whirlpool, etc.)", "when": "The unit is under manufacturer warranty. You must use the brand's authorized servicer, or an independent repair can void the remaining coverage", "not_for": "It's out of warranty — an independent technician is usually faster and cheaper for the same job" }, { "who": "A dryer vent cleaning service", "when": "The dryer runs but won't heat properly, takes two or three cycles, and the clothes and dryer body come out very hot — a clogged vent, and a fire hazard", "not_for": "The dryer produces no heat at all with normal airflow — that's usually a failed heating element or thermal fuse, which is the appliance tech" }, { "who": "Nobody — do this yourself first", "when": "A dishwasher that won't drain (clean the filter, check for a garbage-disposal knockout plug), or a dryer lint screen and vent flap you can reach. Free and common", "not_for": "The unit is dead, sparking, leaking from inside, or under warranty" }, { "who": "Your home warranty provider", "when": "You have a policy — call them before booking anyone, or the claim may be refused for using your own contractor", "not_for": "No policy; go straight to an independent technician" }, { "who": "An electrician", "when": "A dryer's 240-volt outlet is dead, the breaker trips repeatedly, or nothing on that circuit works — the wiring, not the appliance", "not_for": "The dryer has power and runs but won't heat or tumble — that's appliance repair, not electrical" } ], "body_markdown": "## Name the symptom before you name the trade\n\nAlmost everyone reaches for the wrong trade with these two appliances, and the wrong trade means a wasted call-out fee. A dishwasher is not a plumbing job, and a dryer is not an electrical job — both are **appliance repair**. The plumber and the electrician own the connections in the wall, not the machine.\n\nBefore you book anyone, three questions sort out who — or whether — to call:\n\n1. **Is it under warranty?** If yes, the brand decides who touches it. Skip to the authorized servicer, because an independent repair can void the rest of the coverage.\n2. **What exactly is it doing?** \"Won't heat,\" \"won't drain,\" \"won't run,\" and \"leaking\" are four different problems that route to four different fixes. Describe the symptom, not just \"it's broken.\"\n3. **Can a five-minute check settle it?** A dishwasher that won't drain and a dryer that won't heat are, more often than people expect, a clog you clear yourself or a vent someone cleans — not a repair at all.\n\nGet those three right and you avoid the two classic mistakes: paying an independent tech to void your warranty, and paying an appliance tech a diagnostic fee to tell you the vent was clogged.\n\n## Who to call, and who not to\n\nThe trade is **appliance repair**. Here's who owns what, and the two boundary trades people wrongly call first.\n\n**Under manufacturer warranty: the brand's authorized service line.** Samsung, LG, Bosch, Whirlpool — searches for those brand names next to \"repair\" are really warranty questions. While the unit is covered, you must use the brand's authorized servicer, or an unauthorized repair can void the remaining warranty. Call the number in the manual or on the manufacturer's site, not the first local ad. Check the paperwork, too, because major components sometimes carry longer coverage than the base warranty.\n\n**Out of warranty: an independent appliance repair technician.** Once coverage has lapsed, an independent is usually faster and cheaper for the same fault, and you're free to choose one. This is the authorized-versus-independent split, and it flips entirely on that warranty date.\n\n**Not a plumber, for a dishwasher.** A plumber owns the water supply line and the drain plumbing in the wall and under the sink. The dishwasher's own pump, inlet valve, float, and control board are appliance repair. A plumber will decline \"my dishwasher won't drain\" — unless the actual problem is the sink drain or disposal it shares, which is the one genuine overlap.\n\n**Not an electrician, for a dryer.** An electrician owns the 240-volt outlet and the circuit. The heating element, thermal fuse, motor, and belt are appliance repair. Call an electrician only if the outlet is dead, the breaker trips repeatedly, or nothing on that circuit works — the wiring, not the machine.\n\n**A home warranty policy changes the order.** If you carry one, call the policy before you book anyone; most require their own contractor and will refuse a claim if you called your own. This is the same appliance-versus-plumber tangle that catches people with a [fridge that stops cooling or leaks](/appliance/fridge-not-cooling/), and it's the single most common version of the site's founding complaint — [every trade insisting it's not their job](/home/nobody-will-take-the-job/) collects the rest of the loops and the script that ends them.\n\n## The dryer that won't heat is usually the vent, not the dryer\n\nThis is the routing insight worth the whole page. \"My dryer won't heat\" splits into two completely different jobs, and telling them apart saves you money and, occasionally, a house fire.\n\n**The drum turns, there's some heat, but clothes take two or three cycles and come out very hot.** That is a **clogged exhaust vent**, not a broken dryer. Lint packs the duct, the hot moist air can't escape, and the load can't dry. The fix is a **dryer vent cleaning service** — its own trade, not an appliance repair. And it is a safety issue, not just an efficiency one: Fixr cites that **34%** of home dryer fires are caused by failure to clean the dryer, adding up to roughly **2,900** dryer fires a year. Fixr prices a vent cleaning at **$100 to $200**, national average **$150**, and clearing a specific clog at **$100 to $200**.\n\n**No heat at all, with airflow that seems normal.** That points back at the appliance: a failed heating element or a blown thermal fuse on an electric dryer, or an igniter or gas valve fault on a gas dryer. That's the **appliance repair technician**. Fixr prices a heating element replacement at **$150 to $250**. One trap worth knowing: a thermal fuse very often blows *because* the vent was clogged, so a good technician clears the vent as part of the fix. Replace the fuse and leave the clog and you'll be back where you started within weeks.\n\nSo the order is: clean the lint screen, check the vent flap outside actually opens, and feel whether there's airflow. Poor airflow with hot clothes is the vent. No heat with normal airflow is the element. Two symptoms, two trades.\n\n## The dishwasher that won't drain is often a clog you can clear\n\nThe other big false alarm. \"My dishwasher won't drain\" is one of the most common calls, and it's one of the most common ones you can fix yourself in ten minutes.\n\nWork through this before booking anyone:\n\n- **The filter.** At the bottom of the tub, usually a twist-out cylinder. A filter clogged with food and grease is the single most frequent cause of poor draining. Pull it, rinse it, put it back.\n- **The garbage-disposal knockout plug.** If your dishwasher drains into a garbage disposal that was recently installed, check whether the installer left the **knockout plug** in the disposal's dishwasher inlet. It's a solid plug that must be punched out during installation, and forgetting it blocks all drainage — a very common miss after a new disposal goes in.\n- **The drain hose.** Make sure it isn't kinked behind the machine, and that the high loop or air gap under the sink is clear.\n\nIf it still won't drain after those, it's a drain pump or a control fault, and now it's an appliance tech. Fixr prices a \"won't drain\" repair at **$50 to $400** and a pump repair at **$100 to $250**. But run the free checks first — a lot of technician invoices for \"won't drain\" are a service fee to clean a filter you could have cleaned yourself.\n\n## What repairs cost, and sanity-checking the quote\n\nHold any quote against Fixr's ranges and ask for the failed part in writing.\n\nFor **dryers**, Fixr puts typical repair at **$100 to $200** with a national average of **$150**, and the full range from **$50** to **$450**. The diagnostic fee runs **$50 to $80**, usually credited against the repair. Common parts: a heating element at **$150 to $250**, a motor at **$250 to $450**.\n\nFor **dishwashers**, Fixr puts typical repair at **$100 to $300** with a national average of **$200**, and the full range from **$50** to **$600**. The diagnostic fee runs **$50 to $75**. Common jobs: a control panel at **$150 to $350**, a pump repair at **$100 to $250**.\n\nHourly labor sits around **$50 to $100** for both. A quote well above these ranges on a standard freestanding unit needs a specific reason, and that reason — the named component — should be on the invoice before you approve the work. If a number feels wrong, the same test applies as to any home-repair quote: [honest ranges for common jobs and the questions that expose a padded one](/home/is-this-quote-a-scam/).\n\n## Repair or replace: the 50% rule\n\nThe math is simpler for these than for a fridge, because replacement units are cheaper. The rule of thumb: **if the repair costs more than about half the price of a new unit, and the appliance is past about half its expected life, replace it.**\n\n**Dishwashers tip toward replacement quickly.** A new dishwasher is only **$400 to $700** at Fixr. That means a **$150 to $350** control panel or a pump job on a dishwasher that's already eight or ten years old is pushing past the half-of-new line, and a new machine resets the clock with a warranty. Cheap fixes — a filter, a door seal, a drain hose — are worth it at any age.\n\n**Dryers lean toward repair.** A new dryer runs **$400 to $2,000** at Fixr, and dryers are mechanically simple and long-lived, so the half-of-new threshold is much higher. A **$150** heating element or a **$150** vent cleaning is almost always worth doing. A **$250 to $450** motor on a dryer past fifteen years is the genuine judgment call — that's where the 50% rule earns its keep.\n\nThe one thing that overrides the arithmetic is the vent-cleaning case, because that isn't really a repair-or-replace question at all — it's maintenance that also happens to prevent a fire, and it's worth doing regardless of the dryer's age.\n\n## If you rent\n\nIf the dishwasher or dryer came with the rental, it's the landlord's appliance and the landlord's repair. Report the fault and let them book the service — and note that if the appliance is still under manufacturer warranty, the landlord has to route it through the brand's authorized servicer too, so don't call your own person and risk voiding it. If it's an appliance you brought in yourself, it's yours to maintain and repair.\n\nOne thing to flag in writing regardless of who owns the machine: a **clogged dryer vent**. Lint buildup in the exhaust is a fire hazard for the whole building, not just your laundry, and vent cleaning is a maintenance item a responsible landlord should handle promptly. If the landlord stalls on a genuine safety issue like that, the [escalation ladder for a landlord who won't fix things](/home/landlord-wont-fix/) runs from written notice to code enforcement.", "costs": [ { "item": "Dryer repair (typical)", "range": "$100–$200, national average $150", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair" }, { "item": "Dryer repair, full range", "range": "$50–$450", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair" }, { "item": "Dryer diagnostic / service fee", "range": "$50–$80", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair" }, { "item": "Dryer heating element replacement", "range": "$150–$250", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair" }, { "item": "Dryer motor replacement", "range": "$250–$450", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair" }, { "item": "Dryer vent cleaning (the no-heat / fire-hazard fix)", "range": "$100–$200, national average $150", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-vent-cleaning" }, { "item": "Dryer vent clog clearing", "range": "$100–$200", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-vent-cleaning" }, { "item": "New dryer (replacement unit)", "range": "$400–$2,000", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/washer-and-dryer" }, { "item": "Dishwasher repair (typical)", "range": "$100–$300, national average $200", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "Dishwasher repair, full range", "range": "$50–$600", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "Dishwasher diagnostic / service fee", "range": "$50–$75", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "Dishwasher that won't drain", "range": "$50–$400", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "Dishwasher pump repair", "range": "$100–$250", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "Dishwasher control panel", "range": "$150–$350", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" }, { "item": "New dishwasher (replacement unit)", "range": "$400–$700", "source": "Fixr", "source_url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair" } ], "faq": [ { "q": "Do I call a plumber or an electrician for these?", "a": "Neither, for the appliance itself. A dishwasher is an appliance-repair job, not a plumber's — a plumber owns the supply and drain plumbing in the wall and under the sink, not the machine's pump, valve, or control board. A dryer is an appliance-repair job, not an electrician's — an electrician owns the 240-volt outlet and circuit, not the heating element or motor. Call a plumber only if water is coming from the wall pipe before it reaches the dishwasher, and an electrician only if the dryer's outlet is dead or its breaker keeps tripping." }, { "q": "It's under warranty. Can I use any repair company?", "a": "No — and this is the one that costs people their coverage. If the unit is under the manufacturer's warranty, you generally must use the brand's authorized service provider. Queries like 'Samsung dryer repair' or 'LG dishwasher service' are really warranty-routing questions: call the brand's service line, not a random local outfit, because an unauthorized repair can void the rest of the warranty. Sealed and major components sometimes carry longer coverage than the main warranty, so check the paperwork before you pay anyone out of pocket. Once you're out of warranty, an independent technician is usually faster and cheaper." }, { "q": "My dryer runs but the clothes come out damp. Is that the dryer or the vent?", "a": "Usually the vent, not the dryer — and it matters because they're different trades. If the drum turns and you feel some heat, but loads take two or three cycles and the clothes and the dryer body come out very hot, the exhaust vent is almost certainly clogged with lint. The heat can't escape, so it can't dry. That's a dryer vent cleaning service, and it's also a fire safety issue: Fixr cites that 34% of home dryer fires are caused by failure to clean the dryer, tied to about 2,900 fires a year. Fixr prices a vent cleaning at $100 to $200, national average $150." }, { "q": "My dryer produces no heat at all. Same thing?", "a": "Probably not — no heat whatsoever, with airflow that seems normal, points at the appliance rather than the vent. The usual culprits are a failed heating element or a blown thermal fuse (electric dryers), or an igniter or gas valve issue (gas dryers). That's an appliance repair technician. Fixr prices a dryer heating element replacement at $150 to $250. Worth knowing: a thermal fuse often blows because the vent was clogged in the first place, so a good tech will check the vent too — fix the element without clearing the vent and it'll blow again." }, { "q": "My dishwasher won't drain. Do I need a technician?", "a": "Often not — this is the most common one you can fix yourself. Start with the filter at the bottom of the tub; a clogged filter is the single most frequent cause and it takes five minutes to clean. Next, if your dishwasher drains into a new garbage disposal, check whether the installer left the knockout plug in the disposal inlet — a very common miss that blocks all drainage. Also check the drain hose isn't kinked. If it still won't drain after that, it's a pump or a control issue, and Fixr prices a 'won't drain' repair at $50 to $400 and a pump repair at $100 to $250." }, { "q": "What will a service call cost before any parts?", "a": "Both trades charge a diagnostic fee that's usually credited against the repair if you go ahead. Fixr puts a dryer service/diagnosis fee at $50 to $80 and a dishwasher one at $50 to $75, with hourly labor around $50 to $100 either way. Get the failed part named on the invoice before you approve anything, and hold the number against Fixr's typical ranges — dryer repair runs $100 to $200 (average $150), dishwasher repair $100 to $300 (average $200). A quote well above that on a standard freestanding unit needs a specific reason." }, { "q": "Repair or replace — how do I decide?", "a": "Use the 50% rule: if the repair would cost more than about half the price of a new unit, and the appliance is past about half its expected life, replace it. A new dishwasher is only $400 to $700 at Fixr, so a $300-plus control-panel or motor repair on an older one usually tips toward replacing. Dryers last longer and a new one runs $400 to $2,000, so the math is different — a $150 heating element or a $150 vent cleaning is almost always worth doing, while a $450 motor on a fifteen-year-old dryer is borderline. Cheap, common fixes (a vent cleaning, a dishwasher filter, a door seal) are worth it at almost any age." }, { "q": "I rent. Who pays for this?", "a": "If the dishwasher or dryer came with the unit, it's the landlord's appliance and the landlord's repair — report it and let them book the service, especially since a landlord-owned appliance under warranty must go through the brand's authorized servicer anyway. If it's your own appliance that you brought in, it's yours to fix. Either way, a clogged dryer vent is a shared safety issue worth flagging in writing, because a lint-clogged vent is a fire hazard for the whole building, not just your laundry." } ], "sources": [ { "label": "Fixr: Dryer repair cost", "url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-repair", "accessed": "2026-08-24" }, { "label": "Fixr: Dishwasher repair cost", "url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dishwasher-repair", "accessed": "2026-08-24" }, { "label": "Fixr: Dryer vent cleaning cost", "url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/dryer-vent-cleaning", "accessed": "2026-08-24" }, { "label": "Fixr: Washer and dryer cost", "url": "https://www.fixr.com/costs/washer-and-dryer", "accessed": "2026-08-24" } ], "updated": "2026-08-24", "url": "https://whodoicallfor.com/appliance/dishwasher-or-dryer-repair/", "json_url": "https://whodoicallfor.com/appliance/dishwasher-or-dryer-repair.json", "recommended_call": null }