Repairs
Repair or Replace
A repair quote and a replacement price are not comparable as they stand, because they buy different amounts of time. Put each one against the months it buys, and the comparison becomes honest — including when it is too close for money to decide.
How is this calculated?
Repairing is priced as repair cost ÷ extra months it buys. Replacing is priced as (replacement price − resale value of the old item) ÷ expected months of life.
Comparing those two figures is the whole calculation, and it says nothing about reliability: a repair keeps a machine that has already failed once, while a replacement usually starts with a warranty. When the two are within about 15% of each other, the tool says so instead of picking a winner.
About this tool. It compares two costs, not two lives: a new item may be better in ways that never appear in the arithmetic, and a repaired one may be exactly what you want to keep. Nothing you enter is stored.
Worked example
A realistic scenario, already filled in. Open it, then change one number at a time to see what actually moves the result.
A 600 repair against an 1,800 replacement
The repair buys 18 months; the replacement lasts about six years with 200 recovered from the old one. Repairs usually win per month when they are small, and lose once a second failure becomes likely.
Open this example in the tool → The numbers live in the link, so you can bookmark it or send it to someone.
Guides that go with it
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Frequently asked questions
Why compare cost per month instead of total cost?
Because the two options buy different amounts of time. A cheaper repair that only lasts a year can cost more per month than a replacement that lasts six, and total cost alone hides that completely.
What should I enter for the expected months?
For the repair, how long you realistically expect the fix to postpone the problem, not the best case. For the replacement, the lifespan you would expect from a new item of that kind, which is usually a range rather than a number.
Should I subtract what I could sell the old one for?
Yes, if you would sell it rather than keep it or throw it away. Enter that amount as the resale value so the replacement is priced net of what you actually recover.
The two options are within a few percent. What decides it?
Reliability, the warranty on the replacement, and how much the problem itself bothers you. When the money is that close, those are the real criteria, and the tool says so instead of pretending the arithmetic decided.