The trade's shortcut is the age times cost rule: multiply the repair quote by the equipment's age. Under roughly 5,000, repair is usually sound. Over it, replacement usually wins. A $300 sensor repair on a 12 year old furnace (3,600) is a repair. A $1,500 blower and board on a 17 year old system (25,500) is money into a system whose other parts share its birthday.
Run the age times cost rule, then run the Westminster adjustments. Add the corrosion read on the outdoor unit: a cabinet and coil in advanced coastal decay shorten the honest life left in a repair. Add the household read: in a multi generational home, reliability has a value beyond the arithmetic, and a planned replacement in a mild month beats an emergency one in a heat week at the same price. The proposal worth signing prices equipment, ducts, and electrical as separate lines and states the old unit's findings that drove the recommendation.
Three facts adjust the arithmetic. Refrigerant: older cooling systems use refrigerants that now cost enough to make a major cooling repair a replacement argument by itself. Ducts: a replacement on failed ducts buys a new machine with the old complaint. History: a first major repair at 14 years is a different bet from a third at 14 years.
The output of a good visit is both prices in writing, with the duct findings attached. Companies earn the replacement by showing the repair price honestly first. If you are only shown one number, you were not given a decision; you were given a direction.
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