"You purchased a brick sir, shame that it's out of warranty and won't turn on, you can send it back on your dime, or buy a new one."

So I was/am someone who likes to use commercial equipment for everything when possible. It's harder to find and cost WAY more for professional tools. But, you get years and years of maintenance free use/abuse. If you know what you are looking for you can always get second-hand deals.

The big thing though: commercial equipment was designed to be repaired and often long supported by the mfg.

Examples:

- Hobart (Belshaw/amana whoever tf owns them now) You could still obtain parts to repair 70s era equipment

- Dell: you can still purchase replacement parts for most poweredge servers even 10 years old or even get support without any or much cost

- Caterpillar: also still purchase many parts and revised parts for equipment also from 70s era although this has declined. Cummins and other companies that are still somewhat solvent offer mostly the same although automotive in general has declined (different discussion)

- Eaton, Square D and other commercial electrical equipment lines, are still supported/upgrade-able with minimal downtime/cost

- Cyberpower still sold replacement parts for 15 y/o commercial battery backup units while consumer units are end of life after the 3 year battery failure point.

Among other reasons, a selling point for commercial equipment was that you didn't need to throw it out and get a new one every time it breaks. Meaning your equipment was an investment, not operational cost.

On to the complaint. Boy it's sad seeing certain commercial products in all fields decline to the point where when you're out of warranty it cost marginally more to just replace the unit than it does to repair it. Plus the box is "so secretive" that it's illegal to crack it open and repair it yourself.

I pine for the change in culture and economics, not more government boots on corporations.