Repair or Replace Calculator
Compare a repair quote with the cost, age and condition of your appliance.
Why
What would change this
How this result was calculated
Four things are weighed together, and none of them decides the question on its own. A cheap repair leans hard toward repairing but can still be outweighed by age, condition and a run of recent failures. The calculator deliberately produces no percentage or probability: there is no dataset behind it that would make one mean anything.
This is a general comparison, not an inspection. A technician who has seen the machine knows things this page cannot.
Methodology
The familiar version of this decision is a single rule: if the repair costs more than half the price of a new machine, replace it. That rule is a reasonable starting point and a poor finishing one. It sends people to the shop over an inexpensive fix to a sound appliance, and it treats a three-year-old machine exactly like a fifteen-year-old one.
This calculator keeps the 50% comparison as one of four factors rather than as the decision itself:
- The quote against a replacement. The ratio matters more than either figure on its own, which is why the calculator asks for both. An inexpensive repair is the heaviest single factor in the model and leans hard toward repairing — but it does not settle the question by itself, and the three factors below can outweigh it.
- Age, read against sourced data for that appliance. The Department of Energy publishes an average age at retirement for each appliance type, estimated from shipments data and the ages of machines actually in use. Twelve years sits differently against a dishwasher's 15.2-year average than against a washer's 13.4.
- Condition apart from this fault. This is what separates two machines of the same age, and it is the one thing only you can see.
- Recent repair history. One repair is ordinary. A run of them is usually a pattern rather than bad luck.
One result is fixed regardless of the rest: a quote at or above the price of a comparable new machine cannot come out as a repair recommendation, however new and sound the appliance is. There is no counterpart to this for cheap repairs, and that asymmetry is deliberate. Paying more than a new machine costs is an arithmetic fact. “The fix is cheap” is a judgement that a worn-out machine with a history of failures can legitimately overturn.
Those averages describe populations, not your appliance. DOE's own distributions are wide — the clothes-washer rule describes units retiring before four years alongside others still running at thirty. An average tells you how much of a typical allowance has been used, not how long this particular machine has left.
What this calculator does not do
It does not give you a probability. You will not see "an 83% chance you should replace it", because there is no dataset behind this page that would make such a number anything other than invented. The output is a recommendation in five steps, from "repair looks reasonable" to "replacement is probably the better economic choice", with every factor that produced it listed in words.
It does not estimate energy savings either. Doing that honestly needs your electricity or gas rate, your usage and the actual consumption of both machines. If you tell it the appliance is expensive to run, that is carried through as a consideration, not converted into a dollar figure.
The average service lives below are sourced. Where the early, mid and late boundaries fall around each average, and the weight given to each of the four factors, are editorial judgements. They are kept in one file so they can be argued with, and they are not presented as measurements.
Nothing you type is stored, sent anywhere, written into the address bar or passed to any analytics. The figures live in the page while you use it and are gone when you reload.
Average service life
These figures come from the Department of Energy's appliance standards rulemakings. In each, DOE fits a survival function to historical shipments data and to the ages of appliances in use, reported through the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, and reads an average age at retirement from it.
| Appliance | Average service life | Source says |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 14.3 years | DOE fitted a cumulative Weibull survival function to historical shipments and to the age distribution of installed stock from RECS 2005, 2009, 2015 and 2020, giving an average lifetime of 14.3 years for standard-size refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers. The figure is for standard-size refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers. DOE models compact units separately, at 8.8 years. |
| Washer | 13.4 years | A survival function fitted to shipments data and RECS stock ages gave an average appliance lifetime of about 14 years, which DOE updated to 13.4 years for this rule after the 2020 RECS showed more units retiring before four years. DOE’s distribution for washers is wide: some units retire before four years and some are still in service at thirty. |
| Dryer | 14 years | A survival function fitted to shipments data and to RECS responses on the age of appliances in the home gave an average appliance lifetime of approximately 14 years. |
| Dishwasher | 15.2 years | DOE estimated a survival function from historical shipments, the stock of appliances in the American Housing Survey and RECS appliance ages, yielding a lifetime probability distribution with an average lifetime for dishwashers of approximately 15.2 years. DOE found no evidence that dishwasher lifetime varies by product class or efficiency level. |
| Range / Oven | 14.5 years | DOE estimated average lifetimes of 16.8 years for all electric cooking products and 14.5 years for all gas cooking products, characterised with Weibull probability distributions. DOE gives two figures. The calculator asks which appliance you have, not what it burns, so it uses the shorter, gas figure of 14.5 years. An electric range is therefore read as slightly further through its life than DOE’s own 16.8-year figure implies. |
How the calculator uses these: a machine under half the average is treated as early in life, one between half and the full average as mid-life, one at the average as late, and one more than a quarter past it as beyond. DOE publishes an average rather than a range, so those boundaries are our assumption applied to a sourced figure — not something DOE states.
Sources
- U.S. DOE, Energy Conservation Standards for Refrigerators, Refrigerator-Freezers, and Freezers (direct final rule) 89 FR 3026, 17 January 2024. DOE fitted a cumulative Weibull survival function to historical shipments and to the age distribution of installed stock from RECS 2005, 2009, 2015 and 2020, giving an average lifetime of 14.3 years for standard-size refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers.
- U.S. DOE, Energy Conservation Standards for Residential Clothes Washers (direct final rule) 89 FR 19026, 15 March 2024. A survival function fitted to shipments data and RECS stock ages gave an average appliance lifetime of about 14 years, which DOE updated to 13.4 years for this rule after the 2020 RECS showed more units retiring before four years.
- U.S. DOE, Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Clothes Dryers (direct final rule) 89 FR 18164, 12 March 2024. A survival function fitted to shipments data and to RECS responses on the age of appliances in the home gave an average appliance lifetime of approximately 14 years.
- U.S. DOE, Energy Conservation Standards for Dishwashers (direct final rule) 89 FR 31398, 24 April 2024. DOE estimated a survival function from historical shipments, the stock of appliances in the American Housing Survey and RECS appliance ages, yielding a lifetime probability distribution with an average lifetime for dishwashers of approximately 15.2 years.
- U.S. DOE, Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products (direct final rule) 89 FR 11434, 14 February 2024. DOE estimated average lifetimes of 16.8 years for all electric cooking products and 14.5 years for all gas cooking products, characterised with Weibull probability distributions.
Before you decide
Get the quote in writing, itemised into parts and labour, and ask whether the diagnostic fee comes off the repair if you go ahead. Ask how long the part is warranted for. Before paying, check whether anything already covers the work: a manufacturer warranty, an extended service plan, a retailer protection plan, or a benefit attached to the card you bought the appliance with. There is no standard term to go by — some sealed systems and motors carry far longer cover than the rest of the machine — so it is worth looking rather than assuming.
Do not open a sealed refrigeration system, a gas connection or anything behind a panel that needs the power disconnected to reach, unless you are qualified to. A quote you disagree with is worth a second opinion from another technician; it is not worth your own attempt at the repair.