DirectAIR® Vs. Leasing
The difference will amaze you
DirectAIR® is different than a lease with a preventive maintenance contract.
DirectAIR® is a total compressed air as a utility solution while leasing compressed air equipment is only a different way to finance the cost of the equipment. With leasing, you have done little or nothing to reduce your other compressed air related costs and risks, which are substantial. In some cases, you have actually increased them.
Compare what you receive with DirectAIR® versus leasing or owning a compressed air system.
| DirectAIR® | With a Lease / Ownership | |
|---|---|---|
| Design engineering | Yes | No |
| All operation | Yes | No |
| All maintenance | Yes | No |
| All rentals | Yes | No |
| Installation | Yes | No |
| Free-standing facility | Yes | No |
| Guaranteed quality air | Yes | No |
| Long-term solution | Yes | No |
| Increase or decrease system size | Yes | No |
| Eliminate lost production | Yes | No |
| Avoid high cancellation charges | Yes | No |
| Positive balance sheet impact | Yes | No |
Here are some of the advantages that DirectAIR® has over leasing:
We take total system responsibility.
DirectAIR® includes all system components and design from the building to the discharge pipe. All compressors, cooling systems, controls, monitors, motors, starters, filters, dryers, interconnecting piping, auto drains, fans, buildings, lighting and more are included in our scope. If one of these components affects another component, it is our responsibility. What happens in a lease scenario when your cooling system causes a problem with a leased compressor or dryer? Who is responsible for that? With DirectAIR®, all costs are included:
- System Design and Installation: The costs of the design engineering and installation of the equipment and facility are included with DirectAIR®. We only require that you bring us the necessary utilities to run the DirectAIR® station and provide the land. This is not the case with leased equipment. You will most likely be responsible for designing, engineering and installing the system (i.e. compressors, cooling systems, dryers, filters, controls, fans, buildings, etc.). And these costs will typically have to be capitalized.
- System Operation: With DirectAIR®, all operation is included for the entire compressed air system. Your personnel will not spend any time dealing with the compressed air equipment, which frees their schedules for more productive activities. In a lease, your personnel will be responsible for operation and daily checks of the equipment (compressors, cooling systems, filters, dryers, etc.). If this is done incorrectly, you risk voiding any warranty and incurring the cost of any necessary repairs. You should carefully read any lease agreement for your responsibilities and liabilities to determine your cost exposure.
- Rental Equipment Costs: With DirectAIR®, our pricing includes any necessary rental equipment costs that may occur. With a lease, you will be responsible for paying for backup equipment when the leased equipment is down for repair.
- Maintenance Costs: DirectAIR® includes ALL maintenance costs for ALL of the equipment and facilities within our plant site. Leased equipment may only include certain components of the compressor with nothing for the dryers, filters, controls, piping, cooling system, pumps, building and other equipment. As stated above, if you do not operate the equipment within the prescribed guidelines, you may be responsible for all of the maintenance. You will need to read the lease agreement carefully to understand what maintenance is included and factor in the additional maintenance in your evaluation.
- Emergency Service: With DirectAIR®, you get 24/7 service included. If there is a problem with any of our equipment, our ManagAIR® system pages our technicians for immediate response. We then remotely connect to the site to evaluate the situation and, if necessary, make an on-site service call. This is all done without involving your personnel. In a lease scenario, your personnel will have to track down the service provider to schedule an on-site call and you will typically have to pay for any after-hours service calls.
DirectAIR® is the optimum and most profitable solution for your company’s compressed air needs. When all costs and risks are properly evaluated, we are confident that you will conclude that DirectAIR® is the right choice for your facility.
We provide low cost, flexible financing.
- DirectAIR® is a “Fee for Service” operating expense with no financial statement impact. Any lease with a fixed buyout must be capitalized. Even an operating or “synthetic” lease should be noted as a financial obligation on your financial statements.
- DirectAIR® can be cancelled with six months notice at any time with only a minimal decommissioning charge. This significantly limits your financial exposure should your plant be sold or closed. With a lease, you are financially obligated for the entire lease amount.
- With DirectAIR® you have the flexibility of reducing the size of the system should your air requirements drop, thus lowering your compressed air cost. With a lease, you are stuck with an oversized and inefficient system and its corresponding cost.
- With DirectAIR® there will be no “budget busting” overhaul or equipment replacement surprises.
Your satisfaction is strictly guaranteed.
DirectAIR® guarantees that you will have the quantity and quality of compressed air that you need, when you need it, and we’ll penalize ourselves if we don’t fulfill that guarantee. A guarantee with penalties protects your plant’s production that could otherwise be at the mercy of a leasing company whose main incentive is to keep their costs down to maximize their profits. With DirectAIR®, our main objective is reliability.
Our intention with DirectAIR® is to supply you with compressed air forever, not just for a few years. With that as our goal, we install the best equipment for the long haul and monitor and maintain it so that it is always in peak operating condition. Other more short-term approaches will leave you in the same position that you are in now with worn-out, unreliable equipment that will need to be replaced in a few years. Keep in mind that it is fairly easy (and cheap) to maintain a compressor to last 3 to 5 years, but it may not last 6.
Our track record is flawless.
As stated above, our penalties put “teeth” into our guarantees. This insures that we will equip, operate, and maintain the DirectAIR® station for 100% reliability and our track record proves it. Our DirectAIR® sites have logged over 50 years of combined operation without a single continuous hour of lost production due to low air pressure! If system reliability and plant productivity is a priority, DirectAIR® is the ultimate choice. When considering other alternatives, lost production and downtime need to be considered.