Cash on collection
Selling a Transformer in a Failed Unit
Units released by this situation bought across Ohio, with the removal and paperwork handled.
What we buy
What we buy here
When failed unit carries an insurance deadline, the salvage decision is usually separate from the repair decision. Utilities retire units on a schedule, and the ones coming out of a substation are often better built than anything a plant owns.
| What happens | A winding fault, a bushing failure or a core problem takes a unit out of service and leaves the plant without capacity. |
|---|---|
| Deadline | the failed unit is usually in the way of the replacement, so it moves quickly |
| Paperwork | a failure report and the test results that condemned it |
| Buying note | Failed units are still worth buying for the tank, the core and the hardware, and sometimes for a rebuild. |
Who we buy from
Six kinds of seller, one desk
- Recyclers
- Electrical contractors
- Equipment dealers
- End users
- Demo contractors
- Distributors
Fast offers
A nameplate photo is usually enough to price a unit the same day.
Dedicated logistics
We arrange the crane, the permits and the flatbed, not you.
No broker fees
You are dealing with the buyer, so nothing is shaved off the offer.
How it works
Six steps from your yard to the money
- 01
Take pictures
The nameplate, the cabinet interior and the tank in daylight. Three photographs are usually enough to place a unit in the right class and the right price band.
- 02
Send them to us
The form on this page, a text or an email all reach the same desk. Include the city, the access and any deadline the site is working to.
- 03
Review the offer
A buyer reads the photographs, asks one or two questions and sends a written offer with the assumptions stated, so nothing changes on the day.
- 04
We schedule freight
Crane, flatbed and permits are booked around your access. You get a date and a window, and we carry the cost of getting it right.
- 05
Testing on arrival
Winding resistance, megger and turns ratio, plus oil analysis where the unit is liquid filled. The results decide the final number, and you see them.
- 06
Get paid
Payment is released on the agreed terms once the unit is received and tested, by check or ACH. No retention, no sixty-day terms.
What we handle for you
The parts sellers dread, done for you
Rigging
Crane and forklift arranged around your access, not the other way round.
Oil containment
Bunds, absorbent and disposal handled before the unit moves.
Bill of sale
A clean title document for your records, signed on collection.
PCB paperwork
Pre-1979 units get the testing and the manifest they need.
Situation
What failed unit means for a transformer
failed unit means the paperwork and the schedule matter as much as the condition. An insurance salvage is bought on the adjuster's valuation rather than the seller's hope, which keeps the process honest.
A seller with a deadline should say so early, because the schedule is built around the date rather than the unit. The unit is the easy part; the site, the access and the paperwork are where the time goes.
The paperwork that has to be right
A closure releases every transformer on the site at once, and the good units are the ones that were never run. A purchase order from a plant takes longer than a check from a receiver, and both are normal.
A waste manifest names three parties, and all three have to be right before the truck moves. The paperwork is dull until it is missing, and then it becomes the only thing anybody wants to talk about.
How the pickup runs
If a plant requires a background check or a safety orientation in advance, tell us at quote stage. A lowboy is the answer when the unit is heavy and the approach is long, and the answer is expensive either way.
Overhead lines are the constraint people forget, because they are above eye level and above the trailer. The last hundred feet decide the day, and they are the hundred feet nobody photographs.
What to send us first
A mine-duty unit is designed to be dragged, and it looks it, which is not the same as being worn out. The unit will outlast the building it serves, which is why so many of them change hands.
Common questions
Other situations we handle
Get started
Get an offer in minutes
Five fields and a phone number is all we need to start. We reply the same business day, and a firm number follows the nameplate photo.
(614) 715-3047or send the form and we will call you.
Questions
What sellers ask before they call
Equipment types
Do you buy in a failed unit situation?
Nothing sits in our queue for a week waiting for approval, because the buyer who quotes you also books the crew. With failed unit, the first question is not what the unit is worth but who can release it. A buyer's first question is about the rating and the second is about the access, in that order.
Service area
Who signs the paperwork in a failed unit?
You are paid when the unit leaves the pad, not thirty days after it arrives somewhere else. A bill of sale should name the unit, the serial, the kVA and the date, because a document that says one transformer is not a document. A tank that has been repainted recently deserves a closer look than one that has not.
Payment
How fast can you move in a failed unit?
There is no fee to look, no commission on the number, and no deduction invented after the truck is loaded. The urgency in failed unit is real, and it is also where sellers get taken advantage of, so we quote against condition rather than against the calendar. A transformer is heavy, oily, regulated and awkward, and every part of the process reflects that.