Latest / Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast / ❄️🔥 Repair or Replace? How to Know When Your HVAC Needs a Replacement.

Transcript

❄️🔥 Repair or Replace? How to Know When Your HVAC Needs a Replacement. · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:02
  I hear this question all the time from homeowners.
• 0:05
  Should I repair or replace my HVAC system, heating, ventilation,
• 0:10
  and air conditioning system?
• 0:12
  And I think that depends.
• 0:14
  Nathan Shafer from Shafer Heating and Cooling has joined me here on the
• 0:18
  show today to answer that question. How are you, my friend?
• 0:22
  Hey, doing phenomenal, Jim. How are you? I am doing phenomenal as well.
• 0:27
  All right, this is a tricky question because you need more context,
• 0:30
  I think. Should I repair or replace?
• 0:33
  Let me take a stab at it before you get into this. If someone were to ask me,
• 0:36
  and once again, I'm not an expert like you guys are, but I would say if your
• 0:41
  air conditioning system's 20 years old or older, your whole heating and air
• 0:45
  conditioning, I would say probably replace it.
• 0:49
  If it's eight years old, that depends. Is that fair?
• 0:54
  Yeah, no, it is. It is because it really just comes down to being smart with your money, right?
• 1:00
  I mean, we want to protect the hard earned money, uh, of the client and it just
• 1:04
  comes down to a point to where what makes the most sense.
• 1:07
  Um, you know, there's true crossed and there's upfront costs and,
• 1:11
  uh, where are we at? What have we put into it so far?
• 1:14
  You know, has it been great up until this point? And now we have a little bit,
• 1:17
  have we been, it's just been a constant ongoing issue.
• 1:20
  Um, I mean, so many things go into it. And like you said, the age,
• 1:23
  um, you can, you can fix just about anything.
• 1:27
  You know, it's very, very rare. People say it all the time, unfortunately,
• 1:30
  in the industry that, oh, that can't be fixed. Got to have a new one.
• 1:32
  Well, that's just because they want to sell you a new system. I mean, let's face it.
• 1:35
  Everybody wants to sell a new system. I mean, who doesn't? That's a big ticket.
• 1:39
  However, that's not always what's best for the client and the best interest at the time.
• 1:43
  So it comes down to what makes the most sense right then.
• 1:46
  And does it make sense to put 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, whatever,
• 1:52
  and repairs into that system and how old that it is.
• 1:55
  And so there's some cost analysis and worksheets and tools that we go through
• 1:59
  with the client to help them figure that out so that they can make a good educated
• 2:02
  decision on what is the best choice and not feel like they're pressured one
• 2:07
  way or the other or unsure about it.
• 2:09
  Because no matter what, it's an investment and we want to make sure that they're comfortable with that.
• 2:14
  So things that we put into that and that cost analysis are things like what
• 2:18
  has been the cost of repairs?
• 2:19
  How long do you plan to keep the system?
• 2:22
  When do you plan to replace? Is it within the next five years or is it sooner? Is it later?
• 2:26
  What's the average cost of the new system, different things like that.
• 2:29
  And then it helps them align with, okay, it probably makes sense to go ahead
• 2:32
  and look and see what a new system would cost on top of here's my utility savings
• 2:36
  or my rebates incentives from the power companies, government, different things.
• 2:40
  And or, hey, you know what? I feel confident it'd make more sense to go ahead
• 2:44
  and just repair this one and let's keep moving forward.
• 2:48
  I agree. Same thing with cars. We keep going back to automobiles.
• 2:51
  My wife and I have a vehicle each, just a two vehicle family, very simple.
• 2:57
  I don't want to drive a car over six years old.
• 3:03
  The average, apparently the average
• 3:05
  age of a car on the road in the United States of America is 11 years.
• 3:10
  That's fine. But I know an 11 year old car is going to give me some trouble.
• 3:14
  I'm all about safety and reliability.
• 3:18
  And if those two are met, I'm good. Problem is, is when a car's 11 years old,
• 3:22
  the reliability I think is questionable.
• 3:25
  Uh, you know, most cars, right? So same thing with your heating and air conditioning system, I believe.
• 3:34
  Um, I want it to be reliable, certainly safe.
• 3:39
  Safety is a whole nother conversation. Uh, but in terms of, you know, reliability,
• 3:44
  I'm too busy And I'll be honest I'm getting too old To worry about.
• 3:50
  Having breakdowns And so forth I want maintenance To be done twice a year Have
• 3:54
  Schaefer come out Twice a year When it's working right To keep it working right
• 3:58
  And then when it gets old Get it replaced Those are my thoughts Yeah 100% I'm
• 4:03
  right there with you It gets to the point To where it's like I don't.
• 4:06
  Anything can happen to anything, right? A brand new system could malfunction and break.
• 4:10
  The likelihood of it is very, very low compared to, you know,
• 4:14
  an eight or 10, a 15 to 20 year old system.
• 4:16
  Like it's not, it's not, if it breaks, it's more like when it breaks,
• 4:20
  like it's going to probably, right. You have a highly high chance of it happening.
• 4:23
  So there's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night or the weekend,
• 4:27
  or you're trying to go to work. And that's the surprise, right? No heat, no cooling.
• 4:31
  Oh shoot. Now it's a big repair that we didn't have budgeted for.
• 4:34
  So the reliability, and for me, and you're probably the same way,
• 4:38
  Gene, I think so many of us are, is we're so busy.
• 4:41
  They don't want us to have to have something else to worry about or wonder or
• 4:44
  have a surprise or something to budget for.
• 4:46
  Things are at an all-time high, right? Things just keep going up and up.
• 4:49
  And so everybody's on these different budgets and things.
• 4:51
  Well, now you've got an unexpected $500 repair or $1,500 or this,
• 4:56
  that. In other words, with that newer system, it's under warranty, total peace of mind.
• 5:00
  God forbid when something does happen, I don't have to worry about it.
• 5:03
  They can call us, you know, we're there in no time, it's fixed and it's free of charge.
• 5:07
  So, um, it really just comes down to the, the, the point of where that system
• 5:11
  is and what their future plans are.
• 5:13
  And like I said, we have a, uh, a nice little worksheet.
• 5:16
  We can work through that with them so they can make a good, confident,
• 5:19
  educated decision on how it's best for them.
• 5:21
  I like being able to rest at night and not having to worry about anything,
• 5:25
  whether it's, you know, life insurance to take care of my family or,
• 5:29
  homeowner's insurance to take care of the home and, you know,
• 5:33
  newer reliable cars, HVAC systems, the roof, the roof is like,
• 5:39
  you know, 30, 40 years old.
• 5:41
  That next storm could be a mess. So let's, I mean, let's just do it.
• 5:46
  You know, you got to kind of bite the bullet.
• 5:48
  If you own a home, you have a responsibility to the property and your family to keep it up.
• 5:54
  And the HVAC system is certainly part of that.
• 5:58
  Absolutely. A hundred percent. Nathan, thank you as always for joining me today
• 6:01
  on the program. Hey, thank you, Jim. We'll see you later.