Compressor swap that went sideways, OEM or rebuilt?

Last Tuesday I took on a fridge call in Arlington where the compressor was locked up solid. Customer wanted the cheap route, so I grabbed a rebuilt unit from my supplier for $180 instead of the $310 OEM. Got it all brazed in, pulled a vacuum, charged it, and it ran for about 40 minutes before the overload tripped. Turns out the rebuilt had a weak start relay already on it, and I burned an hour swapping parts. My buddy swears rebuilt compressors are fine if you spend time on startup checks, but I'm starting to lean the other way after this mess. Is the extra cost worth the reliability, or am I just having a bad run with this supplier? Anyone else had a rebuilt fail right out of the box?

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nelson.gavin1mo ago

Gotta say, this kinda reminds me of buying cheap tires or batteries. You save a few bucks upfront, then end up paying double in time and frustration when it craps out way sooner than it should. Sometimes the cheap route just ain't worth the headache.

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