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- Repair or replace
Repair it, or plan the replacement?
Four things decide it: how old the equipment is, how big the repair is against a replacement, what refrigerant is in it, and how long you are holding the building.
The tool
No prices are given here — a real figure needs a survey. What this does is put the four factors in proportion so you can take a position into a budget conversation. It runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
Where this points
The repair is small relative to the equipment and the equipment has life in it. Replacing now would throw away years you have already paid for.
- Get the repair priced in writing and ask what else on the unit is close to failing.
- Note the fault in the asset record — a second failure of the same kind changes the picture.
- If the unit has never had a proper service, this is the moment to start one.
This repair is worth doing, but the equipment is at the age where the next one will not be. Treat it as bought time rather than a solution.
- Repair now, and put the replacement into next year's capital plan.
- Have the unit surveyed while it is still working — curb, access and services are easier to check calmly.
- Ask for the replacement scope in writing now, so the number is ready when it is needed.
The repair is a large share of what a new unit costs, on equipment that is past its easy years. Spending it buys very little.
- If the unit is running, keep it going with the minimum that is safe while the replacement is organised.
- Get the change-out surveyed properly: curb, crane access, electrical supply and downtime.
- Replacing in the shoulder season costs less and disrupts less than replacing in August.
Age, repair share and the rest of the picture all point the same way. Putting this money into the existing unit is the expensive option, not the careful one.
- Ask for the scope in writing, including what is excluded — electrical, curb adapters, crane and disposal.
- Size from a load calculation rather than the old data plate, particularly on this coast.
- If the space cannot be without cooling, temporary equipment is a line in the quote, not an afterthought.
R-22 changes the arithmetic. Production of R-22 ended in the United States in 2020, so only reclaimed and stockpiled refrigerant remains. A leak repair on an R-22 system is not just the labour — it is refrigerant at a price that keeps moving, on equipment that is already old. It rarely makes a repair wrong on its own, but it moves the line.
Find out which refrigerant it is. It is on the data plate, and it changes this decision more than anything else on the list. Any technician on site can tell you in a minute.
What a survey adds that a tool cannot
- How it has been treatedTwo identical units of the same age can be a decade apart in condition. Coil state, cabinet corrosion and maintenance history all count.
- What it is connected toDucts, curbs, electrical supply and controls often cost more to change than the unit itself, and they decide what can go back in.
- What the space needs nowBuildings change use. The unit that was right for a shop may be wrong for a kitchen or a clinic.
- Whether it is one unit or sixReplacing several together is usually cheaper per unit and much less disruptive than doing them one at a time.
