Along with our office software subscriptions, we've been paying annually for extended warranties and software maintenance for our GPS and Robotic field equipment. The annual outlay amounts to what we would pay for a high end total station back in the day.
POLL: What are you paying for extended hardware warranty and software maintenance for your robots and GPS equipment?
Brand, unit, coverage and cost...
George,
The extended warranty on the robotic unit is worth it if the plan includes a yearly clean and calibration. You would need to look at the costs of a yearly full clean and calibration at an authorized service center for your brand of gear versus the costs of a one year plan that includes the yearly service. This would give you piece of mind and yearly upkeep with a calibration certificate for your robot. I can only speak for the Leica products. With Leica you need to purchase the warranty when the robotic instrument is new. You can always keep extending the warranty year after year. Robots are complicated machines and have many components that could need repair.
With the GNSS units I am pretty sure you can purchase the extended warranty at anytime. On GNSS units... not much to go wrong because it is just circuit boards and housings. Yes things go wrong with GNSS gear from time to time but usually they are very dependable over their life span. Might be better to just pay as you need on repairs to GNSS.
With Trimble gear it's worth it to maintain software warranties so you can keep current - Trimble also allows you to use TCC for free if your data collectors are kept current.
Hardware, I agree with everything Mark said. I also think that if you have multiple units paying for the occasional repair is going to be cheaper than keeping up hardware warranties on all of them.
Hardware warranties are good for people like government agencies who are on fixed budgets and may not be able to come up with money for an untimely repair.
It's also important to remember that the warranty will ONLY cover component failures. This does NOT include normal wear and tear, damage, or abuse.