Repair or replace: the actual math, not the sales pitch

The rule of thumb — replace if the repair costs more than a third of a new system, on a unit over 10 years old — is a reasonable starting point, but it skips the two factors that actually decide most close calls: refrigerant type and repair history.

R-22 systems are the clearest case. R-22 was phased out of production years ago, so sourcing it for a leak repair now costs several times what it did, on equipment that is already at or past its expected life. On an R-22 system, a refrigerant-related repair frequently costs more than the difference toward a new, more efficient system would — so the math answers itself.

Repair history matters more than most homeowners realize when they are staring at one bill in isolation. A single capacitor failure on an 8-year-old system tells you nothing about the rest of the unit. Three service calls in eighteen months on the same system tells you something completely different, even if none of those three repairs individually crossed the one-third threshold.

What we do on every service call, whether or not it ends in a repair: we tell you the age, the refrigerant type, and whatever repair history we can see, and we let you make the call with real numbers rather than a script.