We received an inquiry from a new manager of a club in Coogee that we serviced the lift at his old club in Bondi. He had received a letter from his lift maintenance company that the VVVF drive that runs the motor of his lift was not being manufactured anymore, the lift company would not cover the VVVF drive under their existing maintenance agreement unless he paid an about $70k to replace it with the new version. The lift maintenance company said that if the existing drive was to fail and he didn't pay to fix it the lift might be out of action for up to 6 months. VVVF Drives do need to be custom programmed for the specific site and we have seen them up to $10k to buy. The multinationals can take 6-8 weeks replacements for VVVF Drives, is 6 months a stretch?
Some drive manufacturers also quote average lifespan as 1-4 years.
Interesting if they are sending a letter like this to all of their customers to drum up business in quiet times.
As an update a few of the employees of that company are working at another newly formed business and the original was sold to a multinational-again. Co-incidence?