To Repair or Not to Repair?

That Is the question for the bard-ish RV owners.

Your furnace has quit working. The technician gives you the repair and the Instal/replace cost. It’s the middle of January.

The repair cost is half the replacement service.

Probably the most vexing question for RV owners, or anything owners–for that matter, is to repair or replace.

Here is the calculus we present to our customers within these cases:

• First, consider your budget and that one or both will fit in. Keep in mind, that some repair shops offer financing.
• If it is less than 2 years old, FIX IT.

Being fairly new indicates that the problem is probably a small fluke of a problem that’s unlikely to repeat. Your furnace is new enough that the other components within it should be in good shape. Not to mention that you may be within warranty, and the manufacturer will most likely require you to fix it.

If it is over 6 years old, REPLACE IT, if you can afford it.

The problem with fixing older components is that once it is fixed, you have an old furnace with one new part. All the original parts are as far into their design life as the new one was and are subject to future failure as the part in question was.

The calculus we suggest is that you depreciate the furnace by 50% beginning year six due to its age and no other factor.  And, that’s about true. 12 years is a common design life for furnaces. Subtract an additional 10% to your depreciation for each year beyond six. Subtract the repair cost for the unit. The remainder is your true cost of replacement.

• The dreaded 3-6 year window.

In this range, your rig is still new enough that the decision becomes harder. I do my best to have my customers use some dispassionate criteria as their guide. RV owners are normally pissed off about now and aren’t thinking straight as a result. It happens to the best of us. So it’s a good idea to create your criteria for this question in advance.