Repair or replace your AC? An honest way to decide

Start with age, adjusted for South Florida

Systems here run most of the year, so they wear faster than national lifespan figures suggest. As a rough guide:

• Under about 8 years: repair almost always wins, unless the unit was badly installed.
• 8–12 years: depends on what failed. A capacitor, yes; a compressor, think hard.
• 12+ years (or 8–10+ within a mile or two of the ocean): a major repair is usually money better put toward a new system.

What failed matters more than the invoice total

Electrical parts (capacitors, contactors, fan motors, boards) are routine repairs on a system of almost any age. Sealed-system repairs (a compressor, an evaporator or condenser coil, a major refrigerant leak) are the ones that tip an older system toward replacement, because they're expensive and often the first of several.

A commonly used rule of thumb: if the repair is more than about half the cost of a new system, replace. Another: multiply the repair cost by the system's age; if that's more than the cost of a new system, replace. Both are rough, but they point the same way for the same reasons.

R-22 changes the math

If your system uses R-22 (most installed before about 2010 do), production ended in 2020 (EPA: R-22 phaseout). Any repair that needs refrigerant draws on a shrinking and expensive supply. On an R-22 system, a leak or a coil is almost always the point to replace.

Your plans matter too

• Selling within a year or two? A sensible repair usually makes more sense than new equipment.
• Staying five years or more? The running-cost savings and reliability of a new, right-sized system add up.
• Repaired two summers running? That pattern tends to continue.

Try the calculator

Our repair-or-replace calculator puts these factors together in about a minute. If you're holding someone else's replacement quote, we'll give you a free second opinion, and we'll say so in writing if a repair buys you more seasons.