Well, agreed - not much risk for a mere $250. My own way is to build something bullet-proof. I might start with a film dev drum modeled after a stainless steel Thermos bottle - the whole point is to keep the liquid inside the drum at constant temperature, which doesn't necessarily need an exterior water jacket at all. For my big print drums I went with a manufacturer offering premium drums of exceptional temp retention due to their specific thermoplastic, namely Noryl, which is expensive. They also made the best thermoregulators back in the day. Long out of business by now; retired.
I won't go into my own agitation tweak; but it's about as bombproof and reliable as it gets, but also ridiculously simple and inexpensive to add! Otherwise let's just say that a serious gearmotor is involved in the main device, lifetime duty rated; makes anything Jobo look like a toy - but the whole rig (minus drums) actually cost less than today's Jobos! - though about double the price of a basic Jobo rotary system back then.
I don't know what more highly automated drum units like the Prinz system cost at the time; I was recently offered one of those for free, but don't have the need or space, much less the patience for electronics repairs if something goes bad in that category.
For ordinary roll film processing I'm perfectly content with ordinary Jobo hand inversion drums and a basic tray water bath. It's relaxing. But that approach wouldn't be acceptable for a small commercial lab needing to process lots of film every day.
Pessimistic I'm not. It's just that every time one of these innovations comes up, they either can or can't afford to patent it, and even if they do, someone might come right behind them and sell a pirated knockoff version anyway. I've seen that happen many times, even to innovative friends of mine. It takes a lot of money just to defend a patent. The only real solution is to make something so well built and efficient that it gains brand recognition traction right up front. Thankfully, with this kind of gear, Walmart and the other big box corporate pirates won't being taking any interest in it. There's still no darkroom section hiding somewhere in their endless aisles.
When you're talking actual 100K and upward equipment, it's common to make zero profit on the equipment itself, but a bundle on the shipping, setup charges, and ongoing maintenance contracts
(plus often travel expenses too). Just like buying a car - the dealer makes very little on the vehicle itself, but gouges the hell out of everybody on scheduled maintenance plus repair parts.
Then there's my way, knowing someone who did all that, spent an average of 2 million dollars every few years constantly upgrading his lab to the latest and greatest, and then eventually said to hell with it, converted over to digital, and offered me anything I wanted of his old chemical and enlarging gear for free. I really didn't need much more than I already had; but still, there was a little bit of space left for something really nice.
