Repair or Replace Calculator
The industry rule of thumb: replace when a repair exceeds 50 percent of a comparable new unit, and tighten that threshold to about 30 percent once the equipment has used three quarters of its expected life. This calculator applies that logic to your numbers.
How to read the result
The ratio compares your repair quote to replacement cost. Under the threshold, repairing is usually rational; over it, get a replacement quote before approving the work. The calculator does not know your refrigerant situation, your repair history, or energy savings from a newer unit, all of which push older equipment further toward replacement. Our repair or replace guide covers those factors.
Three things this calculator cannot tell you
- Whether parts are still made for it. This is the factor that overrules the arithmetic. A unit at 40 percent of replacement cost is a clear repair, unless the board is obsolete, in which case the next failure ends it regardless of what today's quote says. Ask the technician directly whether the parts chain is still open.
- Whether it has failed this way before. A first failure and a fourth failure of the same component are different decisions at the same price. Repeated faults usually mean something upstream, water quality, ventilation, voltage, that a new unit will meet too.
- What the new one costs to run. Refrigeration and warewashing have moved a long way on energy and water use, so a replacement can carry an operating saving the repair does not. Equally, a new unit may need electrical or plumbing work the old one did not, which our installation guide covers.
One more, which is not a number at all: a repair happens this week and a replacement often does not. Lead times on commercial equipment can run to weeks, and the cost of waiting belongs in the comparison. Our downtime calculator estimates that side.
Embed this calculator
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