After spending 7 years in the Navy, I can readily assure you that the GF would make a lousy boat anchor. It isn’t heavy enough or large enough for a large watercraft, and it is too heavy and bulky to be readily usable by a smaller boat. I would probably take the offer of the trade in if my only two options were Get a Refurb for Cheap or Boat Anchor. YMMV
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I just want to second a lot of the response you have been getting in the past few posts. When I planned to buy my pro I planned to budget at least $500 every 2 years for maintenance like the tube. Glowforge is very open and up front that users should plan to spend $500 for a tube replacement every 2 years.
The $1K offer from glowforge is more then fair. Honestly, I think that is a better deal then just simply a tube replacement. The carriage plate alone is $150 from glowforge (which is lower cost then anything you can make yourself unless you happen to have the pricy machining equipment). A new printhead is $650.
I am wanting to be blunt but not belittling in my response…You bought a $6k machine yet did not plan to spend at least $1k in maintenance every other year. That really sounds like a user that wanted to spend $6K without reading into a machine. IMO, you just wanted an easy machine but maybe lasers was not the market you are fit for.
It is amazing to see how many folk use concrete mooring anchors 
they think that if it weighs as much as an engine block in air that it would do the same in saltwater. And then they are so surprised when their boat is ashore (in one case after leaving a huge hole in my boat)
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Agreed.
My Cell Sorter lists for over 350k. the service contract for Flow Cytometers follow this rule of thumb. first 3 years 10% of cost per year. 35k gets you the Field service Engineer coming out and doing 2 preventatvie maint. visits. and repairs covered, labor and parts. from that point on each year older the price goes up. It goes up continuously until they send you an END OF LIFE notice. Those make you very sad.
say you decide NOT to carry the service contract. you need somebody to come out. well it is a 5k PO. because you pay time and travel. then you pay for the parts. 1 detector for my sorter, that handles the size of the cell, is 8 grand.
now this is highly specialized equipment. but it does serve to demonstrate that you buy expensive stuff, it costs $$$$ to keep it going.
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Not to mention the electrical hazard. You’d need a pretty long extension cord…
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