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Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers vs Home Appliance Repairers

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers and Home Appliance Repairers on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers Home Appliance Repairers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$59,810
$49,410
Employment · BLS OEWS
396,870
31,940
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
37th pct
40th pct

At a glance

Dimension Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers Home Appliance Repairers
Median pay $59,810 $49,410
Employment 396,870 31,940
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+8.1%) About average (+2.6%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 40,100 3,100
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 37th pct Moderate · 40th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 36th pct · 21% of tasks 24th pct · 17% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Mechanical, Customer and Personal Service, Problem Sensitivity, Near Vision, Deductive Reasoning, Operations Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Finger Dexterity, Critical Thinking, Troubleshooting, Inductive Reasoning, Manual Dexterity, Engineering and Technology, Reading Comprehension, Installation, Repairing, Visualization, Computers and Electronics, English Language, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, Quality Control Analysis, Oral Expression, Information Ordering, Extent Flexibility, Speaking, Equipment Maintenance, Judgment and Decision Making.

Specific to Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers

  • Building and Construction
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Category Flexibility
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Speech Clarity
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Design
  • Physics

Specific to Home Appliance Repairers

  • Administration and Management
  • Administrative
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Written Comprehension
  • Service Orientation
  • Equipment Selection
  • Time Management
  • Written Expression

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers

Specific to Home Appliance Repairers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers or Home Appliance Repairers — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers vs Home Appliance Repairers." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers-vs-home-appliance-repairers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers vs Home Appliance Repairers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers-vs-home-appliance-repairers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers-vs-home-appliance-repairers,
  title  = {Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers vs Home Appliance Repairers},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers-vs-home-appliance-repairers}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.