Which is better-PENTAX or Olympus??

teicherl · Sep 16, 2004

Hello-

Let me introduce myself. I was a former technician for Pentax for 4 years. I am now a Sales Representative with Pentax. As a respected employee, I have never heard such complaints regarding Pentax having more repairs than Olympus. It is virtually impossible to compare the two scope manufacturers when some facilities try to "save money" by using third party repair companies to repair their equipment. Also, do not forget that staff turnover could result in more repairs.

I have many Pentax customers that have scopes in their lab for as much as 13 years. I have been told by physicians and nurse managers they would never give up the durability and quality when it came time to purchase new equipment.

I welcome the offer of anyone who has any questions regarding the scopes, computer management, and our unbeatable customer service standards. Thanks a lot for reading!

colonoscopea · Sep 17, 2004

We are trialing olympus and pentex---the latest scopes--- we are building a new unit and about to replace all of our scopes, We currently use pentex--have needed alot of repairs--are Olympus any better?? One of our doctors really liked the olympus variable stiffness scope.. Does anyone else have any comments about them and do they break easily??? We are worried about REPAIR and also SERVICE.. We are located in central NY..Thank You!!

We just switched from Olympus to Pentax about 2 years ago and have not experienced any problems what so ever. We had Olympus for many years including all of their computer equipment. Our stiffening scopes seemed to lose their stiffness over a fairly short period of time, so our docs seemed to think that they did not provide a whole lot of benefit. The channels were too small and the computers are not user friendly. We have had excellent service over the last 2 years and our repairs went from 74K a year to less than 20K and we do over 4000 procedures a year. I would highly recomend that you go with Pentax we are certainly glad we did.

Dont get sucked into Olympus' CPP I have a friend who had to get lawyers involved at their facility in trying to get out of it. :crying2: They ended up paying over 300K for 150K worth of equipment and they didn't even own it when they were done.

Good Luck to you. If you have any questions shoot me an email back.

teicherl · Sep 17, 2004

Hello-

Thank you for your kind input on Pentax. Seems like there was a lot of bashing in the beginning.I have been doing a lot of research into the VS (Variable stiffness) thing in the Olympus scopes and have come up with the same results that you did. It seems to be a "perception" thing among the docs. This is a fact: when the variable stiffness breaks, the whole scope needs to be disassembeled to replace the stiffner. Costs a lot of $$$$$. I am not slamming Olympus, but just getting the truth out there. Thanks a lot for the info:)

We just switched from Olympus to Pentax about 2 years ago and have not experienced any problems what so ever. We had Olympus for many years including all of their computer equipment. Our stiffening scopes seemed to lose their stiffness over a fairly short period of time, so our docs seemed to think that they did not provide a whole lot of benefit. The channels were too small and the computers are not user friendly. We have had excellent service over the last 2 years and our repairs went from 74K a year to less than 20K and we do over 4000 procedures a year. I would highly recomend that you go with Pentax we are certainly glad we did.
Dont get sucked into Olympus' CPP I have a friend who had to get lawyers involved at their facility in trying to get out of it. They ended up paying over 300K for 150K worth of equipment and they didn't even own it when they were done.
Good Luck to you. If you have any questions shoot me an email back.

bamaral · Mar 1, 2005

Our GI Lab has been open for less than 3 years. We perform ~2400 procedures per year. We have 4 Pentax EC3430LK for our colonoscopes & 2 EG2730K for our 2 EGD scopes. We have had 5 circuit board replacements and 3 CCD video chips. The service turn around can be up to 2.5 months (although we do get loaners). The reps have been wonderful. I am concerned regarding the number of circuit board & video chip replacements. We are considering changing to Olympus. My questions to the forum 1) have other pentax users had similar repairs? 2) Do the olympus users have similar repairs?

colonoscopea · Mar 1, 2005

Hey there Bamaral, welcome to the website. Not a lot of people in GI get on here. Regarding your question. We had extreme repairs with Olympus, it wasnt that our physicians were unhappy with the scopes, but the repairs were killers. To me it sounds like you have a problem with you leak testing. That was the big change for us in the cleaning room and we have been pounded on by our Rep to do it correctly and it has been a huge difference. We are still happy with Pentax and cant imagine going back to Olympus. Where are you located? I am curious cuz of your name BAMAral are you in Birmingham, I have a brother there. Good luck to you.

Colonoscopea

Our GI Lab has been open for less than 3 years. We perform ~2400 procedures per year. We have 4 Pentax EC3430LK for our colonoscopes & 2 EG2730K for our 2 EGD scopes. We have had 5 circuit board replacements and 3 CCD video chips. The service turn around can be up to 2.5 months (although we do get loaners). The reps have been wonderful. I am concerned regarding the number of circuit board & video chip replacements. We are considering changing to Olympus. My questions to the forum 1) have other pentax users had similar repairs? 2) Do the olympus users have similar repairs?

bamaral · Mar 2, 2005

Hey there Bamaral, welcome to the website. Not a lot of people in GI get on here. Regarding your question. We had extreme repairs with Olympus, it wasnt that our physicians were unhappy with the scopes, but the repairs were killers. To me it sounds like you have a problem with you leak testing. That was the big change for us in the cleaning room and we have been pounded on by our Rep to do it correctly and it has been a huge difference. We are still happy with Pentax and cant imagine going back to Olympus. Where are you located? I am curious cuz of your name BAMAral are you in Birmingham, I have a brother there. Good luck to you.
Colonoscopea

Our Center is in northern CA. We use the hand held Pentax leak tester. What type are you using?

colonoscopea · Mar 3, 2005

We use the hand held leak tester as well.

Our Center is in northern CA. We use the hand held Pentax leak tester. What type are you using?

Kyli · Mar 24, 2005

We use Olympus scopes and when talking to our Drs, whom work at other hospitals that use Pentax - Olympus seem to be the favourites. Apparently the picture is very clear and you can get the fullscreen picture.

Our Docs love their VS scopes - we use mostly adult size, but often use the paediatric size too.

I think the main thing is to care for your scopes properly. Always leak test!! And in the case of the variable stiffeners, always put them back to "0" (floppy!!) before cleaning and loading them into your cleaning machines (we use Steris).

MQ Edna · Apr 6, 2005

Are you making sure that you take the leak tester off after it is removed from the water? I have seen a lot of circuit damage due to the fact that water gets into the scope from releasing the leak tester while it is submerged in water. Another way water can get into the scope is by dropping the leak tester into the water by accident, the next person comes by and attaches it to the scope and blows air into it to test the scope. Guess what, a drop of water just was sent up to the circuit, 1 drop may not do anything, but add it up after some time has passed and you can do quite of bit of damage.