How useful are Service Contracts for qPCR machines? - (Feb/19/2013 )

"Extendend warranty! How can I lose??" (Homer Simpson).
We pay for annual service contracts for two machines: 7300 Real Time PCR System and StepOnePlus Real-Time PCR System for more than 7000 per year. Can these things actually break?

It is hard to tell. I know it is expensive. It is like health or auto insurance which you may use once a year or never use it. As an alternative, there are 3rd party service providers and they cover many types of equipment at lower price.

Our Biorad realtime machine once broke, then we paid a lot for repair, then it broke again shortly afterwards and ended up being discarded...