What percentage of a new appliance's price should a repair cost before it's worth replacing instead?

The widely used rule of thumb is that a repair quote above roughly 50% of a new unit's price is where replacing usually becomes the better financial call - and our companion guide on when to replace an appliance adds the appliance's age into that same decision, since a cheap repair on a very old unit can still be a bad deal. This post supplies the other half: the actual rupee ranges to compare a real quote against, for four common appliance categories in India.

How much does a refrigerator compressor replacement cost in India?

Typically 4,000 to 12,000 rupees, rising to around 15,000 on inverter or premium models, against a new double-door refrigerator priced roughly 25,000 to 35,000 rupees in the mainstream segment. That works out to a repair-to-replacement ratio of about 11% to 48%, climbing to around 60% for an inverter compressor replacement on a fridge near the lower end of that price band - close enough to the 50% threshold that it's worth getting the exact quote and the exact new-unit price before deciding, not assuming either way.

Is it worth repairing an AC's gas leak, or should I just replace the AC?

Almost always worth repairing - a gas refill (leak repair plus refrigerant refill) typically costs 2,500 to 4,000 rupees against a 1.5-ton split AC priced roughly 30,000 to 46,000 rupees, a ratio of only about 5% to 13%. Compressor replacement is the very different case within the same appliance: that can run 8,000 to 25,000 rupees, a ratio of roughly 17% to 83% - genuinely crossing the 50% line at the higher end, especially on a cheaper AC. "AC repair" isn't one number - which specific part is failing changes the answer completely.

Why do PCB, thermostat, and heating element repairs rarely justify replacing the whole appliance?

Because those parts are inexpensive relative to the whole unit even at the high end of their price range - a washing machine PCB runs roughly 2,500 to 6,000 rupees against a 26,000-30,000 rupee machine (about 8-23%), and a geyser's heating element or thermostat runs 400 to 1,500 rupees against a 5,500-9,000 rupee geyser (about 4-27%). None of those ranges get close to the 50% threshold even in a worst case, which is a genuinely different situation from a compressor replacement on an AC or fridge.

Do genuine spare parts cost more than local or duplicate parts for appliance repairs?

Generally yes, and it's a real factor in why the same repair category quotes such a wide range - a technician offering a noticeably cheaper PCB or compressor swap may be using a duplicate or refurbished part rather than a genuine OEM one, which affects both how long the fix lasts and, per our guide on protecting your warranty, whether an authorized-service requirement is still being met at all. Ask which kind of part is being used before accepting a quote at either end of these ranges.

Maintenance Guides

What Appliance Repairs Actually Cost in India, as a Percentage of a New One

By Applimate Team · September 8, 2026 · 8 min read

Key takeaways

The 50% repair-vs-replace rule needs a real cost figure to compare against, and most people don't have one on hand - here it is for four common appliances, sourced from India repair-booking platforms and price trackers rather than official manufacturer rate cards, which mostly don't publish this.
AC gas refills (about 5-13% of a new unit's price), washing machine PCB swaps (8-23%), and geyser element or thermostat repairs (4-27%) rarely get anywhere near the classic 50% replace threshold.
Compressor replacement is the outlier: a refrigerator compressor runs roughly 11-48% of a new double-door fridge's price (higher again on inverter models), and a split AC compressor can run 17-83% of a new AC - the one repair that genuinely crosses the 50% line on its higher end.
The same repair category spans a wide range partly because of genuine OEM parts versus cheaper local/duplicate parts - a variable that affects both the bill and how long the fix actually lasts.
These are market-rate ranges from repair-booking platforms and price-comparison sites, not manufacturer-published rate cards - always get your own quote in writing before deciding, the same caution our two-part repair-or-replace rule depends on.

A technician quotes ₹9,000 to fix your washing machine. Is that reasonable, or is it most of the way to a new one? Most people don’t actually know, because the number they’d need to compare it against - what a repair like this typically costs, as a share of what a new unit costs - isn’t something anyone hands you. Our guide on when to replace an appliance instead of repairing it laid out the rule that holds up: replace when the appliance is past half its expected life and the repair quote is past roughly half of what a new one costs. That second half of the rule needs a real number. This post supplies it, for four appliances, using the actual repair-cost ranges reported by India’s repair-booking platforms and price trackers.

The ratio nobody actually has on hand

Manufacturers themselves are surprisingly quiet about this. LG’s own published guidance, for instance, states that out-of-warranty servicing runs roughly ₹500-900 for a basic visit and that a formal quote is generated per case - but none of the major brands publish a detailed out-of-warranty parts price list the way they publish warranty terms. That gap is exactly why the number a technician quotes standing in your kitchen feels impossible to evaluate on the spot: there’s no official reference to check it against, only whatever that one technician says.

What follows isn’t an official rate card either - it’s the market range reported by India-based repair-booking platforms (Urban Company, NoBroker, and others) and appliance price trackers, for the specific repairs that come up most often. Treat every figure as a range to sanity-check a real quote against, not a fixed price you’re owed.

What common repairs actually cost, against what a new unit costs

Repair cost as a share of a new unit's price

AC gas refill

5–13%

Geyser thermostat

4–18%

Washing machine PCB

8–23%

Geyser heating element

6–27%

Fridge compressor

11–48%*

AC compressor

17–83%

Scale: 0-100% (chart width equals the ratio itself). *Fridge compressor ratio can reach ~60% on inverter models replaced on a lower-priced unit. Repair costs: thechillspot.in, Urban Company, Mannu Bhai, FixMyGadgets, ServiceOnDoors. New-unit prices: Smartprix, Mysmartprice, The Print, Reliance Digital. Ranges reflect repair-booking-platform and price-tracker data, not official manufacturer rate cards - city, brand, and genuine-vs-local parts all move the real number.

"AC repair" isn't one number. A gas refill and a compressor swap are both called an AC repair, and one costs a tenth of a new unit while the other can cost most of one.

The repairs that almost always win

Four of the six repairs above never get close to the 50% threshold even at their worst-case, highest-cost end: an AC gas refill tops out around 13%, a geyser thermostat around 18%, a washing machine PCB around 23%, and a geyser heating element around 27%. In every one of these cases, the part itself is a few hundred to a few thousand rupees against a unit that costs tens of thousands - the math simply doesn’t get close, no matter which end of the estimate you use.

This matters because these are also some of the most common reasons an appliance stops working properly - a geyser heating slower, a washing machine’s display going dead, an AC blowing warm air because of a slow refrigerant leak. The instinct to assume “an old appliance breaking down means it’s probably time to replace it” is wrong often enough, for exactly these failure types, that it’s worth checking the actual repair quote before assuming the appliance is done.

The repair that actually flips the decision: the compressor

Compressor replacement is the one repair category on this list that genuinely crosses the 50% line, and it’s worth understanding why it’s structurally different from the others. A compressor isn’t a small electronic board or a heating coil - it’s the single mechanical part doing continuous physical work every time the appliance runs, sealed inside a refrigerant circuit that has to be professionally evacuated, replaced, and recharged rather than simply swapped like a board. That’s reflected directly in the price: a refrigerator compressor replacement (₹4,000-12,000, more on inverter models) and a split AC compressor replacement (₹8,000-25,000) are each several times more expensive than any of the other repairs covered here.

The AC compressor case is the most dramatic: against a mainstream 1.5-ton split AC priced roughly ₹30,000-46,000, a ₹25,000 compressor replacement on the cheaper end of that AC price range is a ratio pushing 83% - well past the point where a new AC, likely with a fresh multi-year compressor warranty of its own, is the more sensible money. On the lower end of the compressor-cost range against a pricier AC, the ratio drops to around 17% - still worth repairing. The same repair, the same appliance category, and a nearly 5x swing in whether it clears the 50% line, depending entirely on the actual quote and the actual AC in question.

Genuine parts vs. local parts: the hidden reason the ranges are so wide

Part of why every range above spans a 2-4x gap between its low and high end isn’t just city-to-city price variance - it’s that “compressor replacement” or “PCB replacement” isn’t a single product. A genuine OEM part sourced through an authorized service center costs more than a duplicate or refurbished part a local technician might use, and the cheaper end of every range on this page likely reflects the latter, not just a better deal on the same part.

This isn’t only a durability question. It connects directly to something covered in our guide on protecting your appliance warranty: if the appliance is still within its warranty period at all (even on a different component), a repair using an unauthorized part or an unauthorized technician can itself be the thing that voids remaining coverage - a compressor warranty that still had years left on it can be lost to the same repair that was meant to save money. Before accepting the cheapest quote on this list, it’s worth asking directly which kind of part is being used, not just what the final number is.

What this actually depends on: two numbers, not one estimate

Every ratio on this page needs two real numbers to mean anything for your specific situation: the actual quote in writing (not a phone estimate) and the actual current price of an equivalent new unit (not what you paid for yours years ago). The ranges above are a starting point for recognizing whether a quote is in the “obviously fine” zone, the “obviously replace” zone, or close enough to 50% that it’s worth checking both numbers precisely before deciding.

How Applimate helps

Applimate logs every service and repair against the specific appliance it happened to, with its cost - so when the next quote comes in, you're not comparing it to a rule of thumb from a blog post, you're comparing it to what you've actually spent on this exact unit already, next to what you paid for it in the first place. Paired with the maintenance-record habit covered in our AC maintenance guide, it's also how you'd notice a pattern of repeat repairs adding up toward that 50% line one small invoice at a time, rather than all at once in a single big quote.

Quick reference: is this repair worth it?

Get the actual repair quote in writing - not a phone estimate, and ask specifically which part (genuine vs. local/duplicate) it assumes
Check today’s price for an equivalent new unit - not what you paid when you bought yours
Identify which specific repair this is - a gas refill and a compressor swap on the same AC are entirely different financial decisions
Compare the quote against the relevant range above - under ~25% is comfortably repair territory for most of these categories; a compressor quote near or past 50% deserves a second look
Ask whether an authorized technician and genuine parts are being used if the appliance still has any active warranty coverage left
Layer in the appliance’s actual age against its expected lifespan - the cost ratio and the age both matter, not just one

None of this replaces getting a real quote for your real appliance - but knowing that a gas refill sits around 5-13% while a compressor swap can run past 80% means you’re no longer guessing which zone a number like “₹9,000” actually falls into the moment it’s quoted.