Use the 50% rule as a starting point: if a repair costs more than half the price of a comparable new system — or the unit is past 12–15 years old — replacement usually wins. Under that threshold, a quality repair on a well-maintained system is money well spent.
What factors actually matter in the decision?
Four things decide almost every repair-or-replace call we make with homeowners:
- Age — compressors and coils near end-of-life fail in clusters, so one repair is often the first of several
- Refrigerant — older R-22 systems cost dramatically more to repair because the refrigerant is phased out
- Repair history — a second major repair inside two seasons is the system telling you something
- Efficiency gap — a 15-year-old unit can use nearly twice the electricity of a modern replacement for the same cooling
When is repair clearly the right call?
Capacitors, contactors, fan motors, and thermostat faults on a system under 10 years old are routine, affordable repairs. There's no reason to replace a healthy system over a wear-item — and we'll tell you so, because talking a customer out of an unnecessary replacement is how we've kept neighbours for decades.
What's the failure mode of waiting too long?
Fraser Valley summers are hotter than they used to be, and replacement lead times stretch exactly when heat waves hit. A system limping into July on a failing compressor tends to die during the first sustained heat — when every contractor's schedule is already full. If your unit is on the bubble, decide in spring, not August.
Our recommendations come with a written quote for both paths when the call is close — Big Valley has a 4.7-star Google rating across 160+ reviews largely because we don't sell replacements people don't need.
Get an Honest Assessment
We'll inspect the system and give you the repair and replacement numbers side by side.