Return on Investment- Go with New or Rebuilt?

Return on Investment- Go with New or Rebuilt?

Today, I was doing a return on investment (ROI) for a customer looking to purchase a new Polycold for his vacuum coating chamber.  In my mind, I was running the numbers to see if I had a strong case for selling him my rebuilt Polycold instead of the manufacturers new Polycold. Rough numbers were $28K for new and $12k for my rebuilt Polycold (with a 12 month warranty). Another known variable was that I knew if the customer had to send the unit in for service, today that would be about $8500 to completely rebuild the Polycold unit. 

Most of the time I know if the unit has a new mechanical compressor, that is the major expensive moving part that will dictate a large repair. Once I sell this unit, I would not expect to see it come in for the next rebuild for 8-10 years.

So lets run the numbers.... a $16,000 price difference and the rebuild cost every 8 years is a about a 15 year ROI new over rebuilt. Even if they are rough on equipment, I would not expect to see it before 5 years. That makes the new Polycold a 9 year payback. And that is assuming the new Polycold never has to be rebuild. I think that is a pretty poor assumption. 

So maybe keep the future rebuild cost in mind when deciding to purchase new or rebuilt vacuum equipment.