When should i replace instead of repair?

But whether you do the repair yourself or hire a professional, our long-standing advice remains. Don't spend more than 50 percent of the cost of a new product on repairing an old one. And if an item has already broken down once before, replacing it may make more sense. If an appliance exceeds 50% of its useful life and if the cost of a repair exceeds 50% of the cost of buying a new one, you should replace it instead of repairing it.