Repair it, or replace it? Ten years is usually where the answer changes.
Nobody in this trade wants to say out loud that sometimes the right answer is "fix it and keep going", because there's no invoice in it. So here's the whole argument in public: how long these things actually last, where repair spend stops earning its keep, when we'd tell you to repair instead — and why the VEU rebate happens to be worth the most at exactly the moment your system hits the line.
Design life, and where we stop recommending you spend.
These aren’t marketing numbers. They’re what the manufacturers quote for design life, and what we see replacing this gear across the corridor every week. “Replace from” is the age past which a significant repair usually costs more per remaining year than a new system does.
| System | Typical life | Replace from | Why that age | What you gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas storage hot water | 8–12 years | 10 yrs | The tank is a steel cylinder with a sacrificial anode inside it. Once the anode is spent the tank starts corroding, and there is no repair for a corroded tank. Everything else on the unit is replaceable; the tank is the unit. | A heat pump replacement runs on roughly a quarter to a third of the energy, and it's the single biggest VEU rebate on the list. |
| Electric storage hot water | 8–12 years | 10 yrs | Same steel tank, same anode, same ending. Elements and thermostats are cheap and easy; neither of them saves a tank that has started to go. | The largest running-cost gap of anything we replace. An old electric tank is the appliance the VEU scheme was most obviously written for. |
| Gas continuous flow | 12–20 years | 15 yrs | Better lifespan than a tank because there's no tank to corrode, but the heat exchanger has narrow passages and parts availability tails off past about fifteen years on discontinued models. | Modern units are more efficient and quieter, though the honest answer here is that a healthy continuous-flow unit at twelve years is usually worth keeping. |
| Gas ducted heating | 10–15 years | 10 yrs | This is the one where age is a safety question and not just an economic one. Heat exchangers crack with thermal cycling, a cracked heat exchanger spills carbon monoxide, and carbon monoxide has no smell. Past ten years it goes on the carbon monoxide test list every single service. | A 3-star unit replaced with a 6-star cuts the gas it burns to hold the same house at the same temperature, every winter, for the next fifteen years. |
| Ducted or split reverse cycle | 10–15 years | 12 yrs | Compressors go, and a compressor on a twelve-year-old unit costs a serious fraction of a new system. The bigger issue is refrigerant: older units run R22 or R410A, and R22 in particular is phased out and expensive to source. | Inverter efficiency has moved a long way. A modern unit doing the same job draws materially less power, and the VEU covers reverse-cycle upgrades too. |
| Evaporative cooling | 10–15 years | 12 yrs | Roof-mounted, so it lives its whole life in the weather. Pads, pumps and motors are all replaceable, but once the cabinet itself starts going you're repairing something with a rusting box around it. | Newer units use less water and run quieter. Worth pricing a reverse-cycle changeover at the same time so you're comparing both properly. |
You usually know before we tell you.
These are the six that decide it.
The repair quote is over about a third of a new one
Standard rule of thumb across the trade, and it holds up. Spend $1,400 on a ten-year-old tank and you've bought maybe two years on a system that owes you nothing. Put that toward a replacement with the rebate applied and you've bought fifteen.
It's the second repair in two years
One failure is a component. Two is the system telling you where it is in its life. The second call-out is usually the one where we stop quoting parts and start quoting both options side by side.
Rusty water, or water on the floor
On a storage tank this is the end. A weeping tank cannot be repaired and a wet tank gets worse quickly, not slowly. Turn the water off at the isolation valve and ring someone, because it will fail properly at the least convenient moment available.
The running costs have crept up and nothing else changed
Efficiency drops as things age — sediment in a tank, a coil that's lost capacity, a heater burning more gas to hold the same temperature. It rarely shows up as a fault. It shows up on the bill.
Parts are on back-order
When a part takes three weeks, that isn't just an inconvenience, it's the supply chain telling you the model is being wound down. We'll always tell you when we're chasing a part for a discontinued unit rather than quietly adding days.
A gas appliance over ten that hasn't been CO tested
This one isn't economics. A cracked heat exchanger has no smell and no warning, and the test takes minutes with a calibrated analyser. Whatever you decide about replacing it, get it tested.
When we'd tell you to repair it and keep your money.
This page pushes replacement because most of the time, on most of the systems we're called to, that's the right call and the numbers say so. But a page that only ever pointed one way would be an advertisement, not advice. Here's where we'd tell you to fix it.
Selling someone a system they didn't need is how you get one job instead of a family's worth. We'd genuinely rather have the family.
- It's under about six years old and the fault is a component — an element, a thermostat, a capacitor, a sensor
- A gas heater that won't light, where it's an igniter or a flame sense rod. Both are stocked parts and both are a one-visit fix
- An aircon that isn't cooling because the filters and coil are filthy. That's a service, not a system
- A hot water system with a spent anode but a sound tank — an anode change is cheap and it genuinely buys years
- Anything still inside its manufacturer warranty. Ring the manufacturer before you ring us, and we'll tell you that on the phone for free
The rebate is worth most at exactly the moment you hit the line.
The Victorian Energy Upgrades program pays to get old, inefficient appliances out of houses. That's the whole design of it. Which means the appliance the scheme values most is precisely the one you're standing in front of wondering whether to repair — the ten-year-old gas or electric tank, the 3-star ducted heater, the aircon running phased-out refrigerant.
Two things follow from that, and both are worth knowing before you decide. First, your old system does not need to be broken to qualify. The rebate rewards the efficiency improvement, not the failure. Second, the worst time to make this decision is the morning it dies, because you'll take whoever can come today at whatever they charge. Deciding while you still have hot water is how you get a better system for less money.
We apply the rebate at the quote. Not a claim form, not a rebate you chase afterwards, not "you'll get it back later". If an installer quotes you a number and tells you to claim it yourself, that's worth a second look.
How the VEU rebate works →Estimate yours →Need hot water while you decide? →
The questions we get asked on the phone.
How old is too old for a hot water system?
Around ten years for a storage tank, gas or electric. The tank is a steel cylinder protected by a sacrificial anode, and once the anode is spent the steel starts going. Elements, thermostats and valves are all worth fixing on a young tank. None of them help an old one, because it isn't those parts that fail terminally, it's the cylinder.
My ducted heater is 12 years old and still works. Should I replace it?
Get it carbon monoxide tested first, and let the result decide. Heat exchangers crack with thermal cycling and a cracked one spills carbon monoxide with no smell to warn you. If it tests clean and runs well, you can keep going with annual tests. If it doesn't, it's a replacement, and that isn't a sales position, it's the law.
Is it worth regassing an old air conditioner?
Not usually, and here's the honest reason: aircon doesn't consume refrigerant. If it's low, it has leaked, so a regas without finding the leak is paying to fill a bucket with a hole in it. On an R22 unit — anything roughly fifteen years or older — the gas itself is phased out and expensive, which usually settles the argument on its own.
Does the VEU rebate need my old system to be broken?
No, and this is the part most people get wrong. The scheme rewards the efficiency improvement, not the failure. A working but inefficient old gas or electric tank is exactly what it was designed to replace, which means the best time to claim it is before you're standing in a cold shower making a rushed decision.
How much is the VEU rebate worth?
Up to about $2,605 on heat pump hot water for an owner-occupier with everything stacked — VEEC, STC, the $400 Australian Made bonus on eligible brands, and the $1,000 Solar Homes rebate if you qualify. Rentals get up to about $1,605, because Solar Homes is owner-occupier only. We apply it at the quote rather than making you chase it.
What if you tell me to replace it and I don't believe you?
Get another quote, and we mean that. What we'll give you is the repair price and the replacement price on the same page, with the rebate already applied, so you're comparing two real numbers rather than a number and a feeling. If someone else can genuinely repair it for less and make it last, take their quote.
Both numbers, on one page, with the rebate already in them.
Tell us what you've got and roughly how old it is. We'll come back with what the repair costs, what the replacement costs after the rebate, and which one we'd do if it were our house. If that's the repair, we'll say so.