Thanks all for the feedback.

I buy used machines almost exclusively and have never had a motor issue... which got me thinking maybe what I'm seeing is survivorship bias. In other words, only the machines without fatal flaws make it to the used market.

My Grizzly dust collector is from the early 90's and just keeps chugging along.



I do think the overall quality of machines manufactured in Asia has improved a lot over the past 40 years. And that includes the component parts like bearings etc.