How Long Do Appliances Last in a Rental?

Most pages that answer this question give a single unsourced range, usually 10 to 15 years, for every appliance. The honest answer is narrower and appliance-specific. Two published lifespan tables agree closely, and pairing them with current repair and new-unit prices turns a lifespan guess into a replace decision you can defend to an owner. The full figure set, 46 of them, lives on our rental appliance lifespan and repair cost statistics page. This page is the operator's version.

Lifespan by appliance, and the replace line

According to the National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America Home Equity life expectancy study (2007) (nahb.org), gas ranges have the longest life of any major appliance at 15 years, dryers and refrigerators last about 13, washers 10, and the shortest-lived are trash compactors at 6, dishwashers at 9 and microwave ovens at 9. According to InterNACHI's standard estimated life expectancy chart (nachi.org), the ranges are refrigerator 9 to 13 years, gas range 15 to 17, electric range 13 to 15, dryer 13, dishwasher 9 and washing machine 5 to 15. The two sources were built independently, one from a builder survey and one from a home-inspector association, and they land within a year or two of each other on every line.

Lifespans: NAHB and Bank of America study (2007) and InterNACHI's chart. Repair ranges: HomeAdvisor's appliance repair cost guide (2026), with the electric range figure from HomeAdvisor's oven repair guide; repair averages: Thumbtack's appliance repair pricing (2026). New-unit ranges: HomeAdvisor's appliance pricing guide (2026); the disposal replacement average is from HomeAdvisor's disposal repair guide. The replace line is our arithmetic: half of the low-end new price, applying Consumer Reports' 50 percent rule. It is a floor for a budget-grade unit; a mid-grade unit moves the line up with its price.

Two other lifespan figures are worth knowing because they pull in opposite directions. According to the US Department of Energy's 2024 dishwasher rulemaking (energy.gov), the average dishwasher lifetime is 15.2 years, well above the 9 years in both tables. Yet according to Consumer Reports' dishwasher longevity guidance (2026) (consumerreports.org), most of the 20-plus manufacturers it asked said a dishwasher should last about 10 years. The engineering life and the life the maker will stand behind are different numbers. For a rental budget, use the maker's number.

Why rentals run shorter: none of these sources measure rentals specifically. A tenant does not descale the dishwasher, clean the lint trap or level the washer, and a turnover between tenants is the only moment anyone looks. That is the same reason rental carpet wears out faster than the manufacturer's rating. Plan on the low end of each range and let recorded install dates, not memory, tell you where each unit sits.

How often they actually break

Lifespan tables describe the median unit. The failure data describes the ones that call you on a Saturday. According to Consumer Reports' member surveys, roughly one appliance in five has a problem in its first five years, and the refrigerator is worse than that.

The refrigerator number gets worse the longer you look. According to Consumer Reports' refrigerator brand reliability survey (2026), among all new refrigerators bought since 2015, 49 percent have experienced a problem such as failing to make ice or a broken compressor. The icemaker is the weak part, which is an argument for the plain top-freezer model in a unit that turns over often. According to Consumers' Checkbook's appliance longevity article (checkbook.org), manufacturers have told Consumer Reports they only expect their products to last 10 to 12 years or so, and Consumer Reports survey data shows an estimated 30 percent need repairs after five years.

Brand matters at the margin. According to Yale Appliance's 2026 retailer service report (yaleappliance.com), based on 33,190 first-year service calls, the most reliable brands all had first-year service rates under 10 percent, and Speed Queen laundry came in at 3.7 percent. That is one retailer's territory, not a national sample, but it is real service data rather than a survey, and it points the same way as Consumer Reports.

Repair or replace: the arithmetic

The rule most people half-remember has a primary source. According to Consumer Reports' repair-or-replace guidance (2014), no matter who does the repair, don't spend more than 50 percent of the cost of a new product on repairing an old one. That is the whole rule as Consumer Reports published it. The version that adds "and the appliance is past half its expected life" circulates widely, but we could not find it in a primary source, so treat the age half as a sensible add-on, not a citation.

On a typical rental appliance the rule almost never says repair is too expensive. According to HomeAdvisor's appliance pricing guide (2026) (homeadvisor.com), repairs run around $170 per machine while the average new home appliance costs $2,175. That is under 8 percent. The rule only bites at the bottom of the market, which is exactly where most rental appliances live: a $200 refrigerator repair is 47 percent of a $430 budget refrigerator and 13 percent of a $1,500 one, the figure HomeAdvisor says most homeowners budget for a new refrigerator.

Three adjustments to the rule. First, gas costs more to fix: according to HomeAdvisor's appliance repair cost guide (2026), gas-powered models run about 20 percent higher, $300 average against $240 for electric, and gas oven repairs range up to $600 where electric ones stop at $250. Second, age has an energy cost even when nothing is broken: according to the US Department of Energy's Energy Saver kitchen appliance guide (2021), a refrigerator or freezer more than 15 years old should be replaced as soon as possible, because it can cost up to 33 percent more to run than the newest ENERGY STAR models. In a rental where the owner pays utilities, that is a line item every month. Third, add the install: according to HomeAdvisor's appliance installation cost guide (2026), professional installation averages $209, a refrigerator runs $130 to $250, a dishwasher $110 to $270, and a washer or dryer $50 to $175 each. Compare repair against new price plus install, not new price alone.

The two appliances that damage the building

Every appliance in the table fails into its own footprint except two. A washing machine fails into the floor and the unit below it. A dryer fails into a fire. Their lifespan matters less than their maintenance schedule, and both schedules are short.

According to the National Fire Protection Association's washer and dryer fire report (2017), in 2010 to 2014 US fire departments responded to an estimated 15,970 home fires a year involving clothes dryers or washing machines, and dryers accounted for 92 percent of them. The dryer vent and air duct cleaning statistics covers the schedule and who does it in a multifamily setting; the water damage documentation guide covers what to photograph when a hose does let go.

Tax treatment: five years on paper, thirteen in the kitchen

According to IRS Publication 527 (Residential Rental Property, 2025 tax year) (irs.gov), appliances in a rental such as stoves and refrigerators are 5-year property under MACRS GDS, 9-year property under ADS, and under the half-year convention the year-one depreciation percentage is 20 percent. So a refrigerator with a 13-year physical life is fully written off in six tax years. A fully depreciated appliance is not a worn-out one, and the depreciation schedule is not a replacement schedule. Keep the two in separate columns of the same record, which is the point of the rental property useful life schedule. Talk to your accountant on the depreciation election; nothing here is tax advice.

What to record at move-in and at every turn

None of the numbers above are useful if you do not know how old each appliance is. Most portfolios do not. The install date lives in a contractor's invoice in a folder nobody opens, and the appliance itself is the only durable record. Photographing it at move-in and at each turnover is the cheapest maintenance data you will ever collect.

1. Model and serial plate. One clear photo of the data plate on every appliance. The serial usually encodes the manufacture date, which is your fallback when the install date is lost.
2. Install or in-service date. Record it once; it is the input to every lifespan and replace-line calculation on this page.
3. Condition photos, same angles every time. Door seals, drum, racks, cooktop, icemaker, the floor beneath the washer and refrigerator. Same framing at every turn so a change is visible as a change.
4. Hose and vent dates. The supply hose replacement date and the last dryer vent cleaning, on the appliance and in the record.
5. Repair history. Each repair with date and cost. The second repair on a unit past the low end of its band is usually the replace signal.

Consistent photos at each turn also settle the other question a broken appliance raises: was it wear or was it damage? The appliance and electronics damage claims guide covers that line. RapidEye reads those turnover photos across every turn and flags what changed, so an appliance that is drifting toward failure, or was damaged between one photo set and the next, gets noticed before the tenant calls.

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