Repair or Replace Calculator

The classic rule of thumb: if a repair costs more than 50% of replacement, replace — but that rule ignores age. This calculator weights the repair quote against the equipment's remaining useful life, so a $200 repair on a 9-year-old copier and the same repair on a 2-year-old one get different answers, as they should.

Equipment typeCost to replace with equivalent new equipment ($)Repair quote, incl. labor ($)Equipment age (years)This equipment is critical — downtime directly disrupts work

How the math works

We estimate remaining life from typical service lifetimes (office copiers/MFPs ~5–7 years or their duty-cycle limit; laser printers ~5 years; electric standing desks ~7–10 years; task chairs ~7–10 years). The repair is compared not to the original price but to the value of the remaining life of a replacement. When a repair exceeds roughly half that value — or the equipment is past 80% of its expected life — replacement usually wins. Downtime matters too: if the equipment is critical and repair means waiting for parts, the calculator surfaces that tradeoff rather than hiding it.