Hey hey,
I'm a teacher in a Walsall school And use a laser pro mercury 25w machine. It's fab, with it being 6 years old and still on it's first laser tube the machine is still going strong. The thing is that the cheap water cooled china machines are ok I suppose but from a maintenance point of view your better with an rf co2 laser machine. They have a longer laser tube life and a more reliable cooling system.
For example a water cooled laser cutter (china) usually have a tube life of 1500 - 3000 hours depending on power settings. These then have to be changed as the power the tube delivers then gets reduced due to the tubes wear and tear. You also have to consider the water cooler. I've been to a friends school with on of these and it's a fish pump in a bucket of water. From a teacher point of view this is bad and prone to issues.
Laser pro tend to use synrad rf co2 tubes and they claim to have a life of 40,000 hours life. But check what tube is in.
Now the laser pro machines are expensive but wow amazing and reliable we paid £12k for ours I believe but it's not needed a penny spent on it in the 6 years we've had it. An estimation on the laser tube hours ours has to be around 5000 hours. From time to time the mirrors need cleaning and the honeycomb bed vacuuming.
Hope that helps but if you need any more info on our machine ask. Ps speak to the uk laser pro agent they are cheaper than technology supplies.
Phil
