Maintenance/Lifecycle of Haas mills

To start I'm not looking to make a bash thread, but have a conversation on the life cycles of the equipment. In general and maintenance/lifecycle of specific parts/options of the equipment.

I'm debating selling some older equipment and getting a vf2 and want to fully understand the operation/maintenance cost.

In saying that is there any "you can expect at x hours or x years to replace items a, b, c?

Is there any "optional equipment" that adds to the maintenance costs?
Augers, carousel vs side mount tool changer, through spindle coolant?

I've had few issues with my haas tool room machines. But living in northern Canada service calls are terribly expensive due to long travel times and paying meals and hotels for technicians. ($1500 to drive here. Stay the night and drive home, not including any work done. So return trips with parts gets outrageous.just a fact of northern living)

Thank you all for any insight.

I'd guess the most problematic option would be through spindle coolant. The coolant unions can fail in a variety of ways, some that can damage the spindle. Ditto the high pressure pumps and filters can cause problems.

I prefer side mount tool changers, but carousel (IMO) are easier to fix yourself if there's issues. And generally, any extras you add are more potential failure points.

What might be good for you is to buy an extra year or two of warranty, as that should cover the travel costs (double check this). It's a gamble, you're putting money in early with the idea that you get piece of mind and protection of that extra year or two, but it hurts with each payment.

since 93 I have owned a bunch of both new and used different machines including hass. it also depends what type of work you do as far as the problems youll have.
for example if you run plastic alum or soft metals everyday and dont push them to the max generally no problems. if you push your machine hard your going to break something or wear something faster.

Ive boughten 3 sight unseen machines one a citizen f12 88 or 90 was sitting for 2 years. I bought it for a play toy so to speak cause I never got to really play with them and I got a smoking deal on it. after 8 months in my shop i fired it up and ran it been running everyday ever since(3 years now) hold a tenth easy.
same thing with my miyano Knc 45 bought it with a bad mother board no parm. my 12 year old put in the parms fired it up ,we found a bad 12 vol signal from the spindle drive robs it from another spot with a 13cent alligator clip jumper cable and its been running good, it does how ever have a ghost problem in it and shuts down every once in a while. but starts back up and runs.

mechanically my fadal eat mac valves like candy.

Hass I only have electrical board/control problems for the most part and that started from the day they put it on the floor. why I have no clue but of all the machines I have owned and run over the last 20+ years hass and hitachi seiki with the secos control are the only controls I have ever had that gives me the electronic issues.
Ive had some valves go out(its a 2009) there spindle I hated from day one cause it flat out sucks.

but its a good machine and holds tolerance extremely well ,interpolates a circle extremely well true position has stayed virtually dead nuts since the day I owned it.
only other problem I have with hass is there deal about getting parts to do it yourself. there parts are extremely high and you get no warranty , and for the most part the HFO's SUCk for getting any technical support.there so called techs for the most part have very little experience and spend most of the time on the phone with the factory getting simple instructions on how to do simple things like lets say put your parms back in, pop in a mocon board or even a spindle drive. which any competent machinest should be able do over the phone but haas wont let you.They for the most part dont trouble shoot anything they just replace parts and if its not that part they put another part in until the errors go away.

What I am saying is if you dont get support especially were you live dont by a machine(any brand) that you cant get support for.

Got a 2015 VF-3SS here with 1000 PSI spindle coolant. The first two years ate two spindle motor bearings due to rotary union leaks. Then they put a new design rotary union on and that seems to have fixed it.