Expected Equipment life

[Stream]

I am new here, and seriously considering purchasing an existing mat. I am very early in the process, however I think things may move quickly as I have located a potential mat.

The following questions are only a small part of my learnig/due diligence. I am aware of many other things to evaluate, etc. before making the deal. This forum is a wealth of information - a big thanks in advance to all who contribute to make it such.

With regard to the existing equipment, it has a mix of the following:

Washers:
Wasco W74,75,124 & 184
Maytag 30 & 50 lber's

Dryers:
Wasco Dry 30's (singles & twins)
Maytag 30# twins

I do not know the age, maintenance, etc on any of the equipment at this time, but am looking into that as much as possible.

I spoke to a Wasco rep (at the HQ in NY, not a dealer) and among the things he told me were that the Gen 4 equip was at least 20 years old b/c they have now been through Gen 5 and are into Gen 6. I then spoke to a Maytag dealer & he said the Wasco Gen 4 was worn out crap, without even knowing anything more about it. This struck me as he just wants to sell me some equip.

So my questions are:

What is a REALISTIC expected life on Wasco Gen4 equipment? Is it worth re-building and if so, what is a rough estimate of cost to re-build a unit?

What about expected life on the WascoDry 30's ? Rebuildable? cost?

What about life/cost for the Maytag units?

I also realize that amount of use and maintenance can be a big variable on this, but what is reasonable & customary?

I still have to get much more info from the seller (we are meeting later this week for more "discovery"), but from the outside, this mat appears to be doing very well, and is priced at a premium. Therefore, any positive insite will be greatly appreciated as I go through this process.

Also, it appears most equipment dealers are not the most honest cats around. Any suggestions on how to get a realisitic condition assessment/valuation on the existing equipment?

[Laundry_Mike]

When buying an existing mat, business volume is much more important than equipment. Wascomat is awesome equipment, but the equipment you mentioned is getting to the end of its lifespan, even if they were maintained well. Don't sink a lot of money (rebuilds) into them. The Wasco dryers you have were manufactured by another company, maybe ADC. The Maytags were probably also. You'll have to find out the manufacturer and age to determine how much money you want to spend on them. When shopping for equipment, be sure to shop around, and try to compare apples to apples as much as possible. By seeing 20 year old Wascomat equipment still running in a store that you say seems to be doing well, should give you a damn good idea of what brand of equipment that is really good.