Tom, actually new is not always better than repaired. I spent a decade doing Service cost estimates, figuring failure rates and figuring how much it was going to cost to keep things going. There is a basic failure reate curve, we called it a bath tub curve, High on both ends and very low in the middle. This is true for all electronics. Once they have passed the 90 days useage, electronics are solid as a rock, until the reach the other end of the bath tube curve. That is usually in the 10 to 15 year of usage range. That is why that I will never buy an extended warrenty on any electronic gear. Mechanical wear out is a different story and I won't address that here.

Now, if you apply that to the RC gear we use, things are accelerated a bit on one end due to the number of power on/off cycles, but the short usage cycles overides that by a bunch. I would estimate that if a receiver has survived a year of flying two to three days a week for 6 months, It is at the bottom of the bath tub curve and should work fine for many years after, crashes not included.

The overal failure rate is based on all new components when made. After you have reached the bottom of the curve, one new component will not nudge the failure rate very far off the bottom.

Bottom line is this, a fresh off the shelf new receiver is more likely to expreience a failure than a year old receiver that has been repaired, and a BIG IF HERE, if it was repaired by a skilled service tech. I would expect that Horizons techs are very skilled and therefore, I would trust their repair. Cost should be the only factor in deciding to repair or replace.

Don