Duplimate - repair or replace
Our club duplimate machine (purchsed 4 years ago, refurbished, usage 3 sets/week) is misbehaving. It gets about 60% deals wrong even with new cards - typically 14-13-13-12; this increases the dealing time enormously. Should we try getting it reparied (costs?) or decide it has had its day and get a new one (expensive!)? Any advice greatly appreciated.
Comments
Difficult to give firm advice - can only relay my own experience
We have a 2005 Mk IV bought new which was serviced locally (UK) over the years when things went wrong - typically miscounts - probably every 2/3 years - the machine is still working accurately and is used as an occasional standby (but not being hammered)
In 2014 we bought a new machine £2500 , the idea being to have a faster modern machine and a standby if out of service . However the new machines developed problems in 2018 which were costly (transport / labour /parts) and inconvenient ( worry about sending to Sweden + time) to get fixed as it needed to be returned to Sweden . However it is working okay now.
So my view is that the machines are good when working okay but are really inconvenient when not - and repairs can be costly - however I would think in your case the repair would be far less than a capital outlay and would keep you going for a couple of years until another fault develops.
My view being that things go wrong with the machines in the longer term - however they are repairable at a cost - and miscounts should not be too expensive to fix.
Our usage was about 6 sets per week pre -pandemic
Thank you, that is extremely useful.
My experience of these machines is that they need servicing and/or repairing more often than I would have expected, but that if this is done they have a long life.