REPAIR VS.REPLACE

Your home heating and air conditioning system is one of the most expensive investments of home ownership. When it starts acting up homeowners often enter panic mode.Thoughts of having to buy a new system start running through your mind. Sometimes that scenario ends up being the reality. We wrote this article to help you decide if it’s the right time to make that choice. Most homeowners don’t have a maintenance contract to help keep their systems  from suffering those catastrophic breakdowns. We will cover maintenance contracts in a separate article. When faced with the decision of repair or replace, you should consider these factors.

•1 Type of Repair

•2 Price

•3 Age of equipment

•4 Number of years  you plan to live in your home

What is it needing to be repaired? If it’s something typical like a condenser fan motor or a capacitor, it is more cost effective to just go with the repair. If you find yourself constantly needing to spend money to fix your system, you should definitely think about replacing your system.

Repairs  can be costly depending on who you choose to service and repair your equipment.If a major component in your air conditioner(compressor or condenser coils) goes bad, those are going to be your most costly repairs.If those parts go out and your system is out of warranty, you will most likely be flushing your hard earned money down the drain if you opt to repair. If faced with this scenario you should opt to replace.

If your equipment is older than 10 years, you are more than likely out of the warranty period.Major repairs should not be paid for on a system out of warranty.Yes it’s  cheaper and tempting to just replace the parts, than it is to pay for a new system. So why should you buy a new system? If you do opt to go with the major repairs on a system out of warranty guess what? You are still out of warranty and may have to have more repairs in the future. Those repairs can add up quickly. Ask yourself would you rather go with the repairs with no warranty and risk losing more of your money in future repairs? You could have put those repair costs which are often easily 1/4-1/2 the cost of a system replacement, towards a new system.

This brings us to the last factor in the process.Ask yourself this question. How long am I going to be living in my current home?Why does this matter? This matters because the cost of a new system is often recouped over a period of 5 years depending on the efficiency upgrades you make when selecting new equipment. If you won‘t be living in your home that long you should probably opt for the repair.With that being said if you sell your home a new system can only add value to your home.If selling your home is the likely scenario for you, make sure your new heating and cooling system warranty can be transferred to the new buyers. Most often you have to go through the manufacturer to make sure the warranty is transferred.

Payne County Mechanical hopes this article has given you enough insight to help you make your decision, the next time you are faced with the task of choosing to repair or replace.