It's not until people ask these questions and you do a calculation that you realise how much time and money this hobby takes!!
I bought my 3VCS second-hand from someone with a good reference and in the five years I have had it I reckon its done over 200 hours. I have had one problem with the module not switching on properly (shows 'DISP' in the screen, not 'RF') that turned out to be dirt in the female sockets of the module. Apart from that... nothing... at all... ever.
I have had only five radios sets since I started in 1976. Three of those have been Futaba (3GX, FF3 and 3VCS) and none has missed a beat. The 3GX and FF3 received a clean bill of health at 3 IFMAR WCs (when they were put on a spectrum analyser in those days to make sure they were on the right frequency) and travelled variously all over Europe, to the US and Australia in hand luggage.
In the RC-sensitive world of 12th, the most popular radio sets these days are Futaba and Sanwa. It used to be Futaba and KO, and before that Futaba and JR. But it's always been Futaba and something!
Service from Ripmax is prompt and good value. They repair older sets too. It is one product in RC I would recommend without hesitation, second hand or new. HTH
