We have had 2 failures with a Piko thermocycler in the last 4 years which seems a high failure rate. The apparent cost of repairing the machine is 2/3 of its brand new cost with labour charges of £190 p/h + travel . I have not been able to get any information from the suppliers as to how unusual this failure rate is. As PCR machines are one of the more expensive laboratory items and in regular use it would be interesting to know what the reliability is of other standard block machines.