I've been buying automation gear for a 120-person injection molding shop for six years—long enough to sign off on roughly $210,000 in Allen-Bradley PLC hardware, programming software, and training across eight vendors. Every dollar goes through one spreadsheet. Nothing gets ordered without a total-cost-of-ownership line sitting next to it.
So when we needed to build a small control panel for a new hydraulic test rig last quarter, I didn't just grab the cheapest quote. Two candidates made the shortlist: a refurbished MicroLogix 1000 already sitting in our spares cage, and a fresh Micro850 from the distributor. Both ran the same logic. Both drove the same outputs, including a 15 HP electric sup pump (the spec sheet abbreviates "supply pump"—nobody at the vendor bothered to spell it out).
Here's the comparison I actually ran, and the piece that surprised me. Prices below are accurate as of Q1 2025. Distributor pricing moves fast; verify current costs before you budget on these numbers.
The comparison framework
I looked at four things—the same four I use for every Allen-Bradley PLC decision that crosses my desk:
- Unit price and in-stock availability
- Programming software licensing
- Training investment (courses vs. books vs. free resources)
- Lifecycle risk and spare-part replacement cost
None of these are glamorous. All of them bite you eighteen months after installation if you don't budget for them.
Dimension 1: Unit price and physical availability
On paper, the refurbished MicroLogix 1000 looked like a steal. A working 20-point unit runs $500–$900 on the secondary market (as of January 2025), and we already owned ours—so its "cost" was technically zero, depreciation aside.
A new Micro850 of comparable I/O runs $600–$1,200, depending on the exact variant and where you buy it.
So the sticker savings for the MicroLogix 1000: roughly $400, if I'm being generous.
Here's what the spreadsheet doesn't show: availability. If our existing MicroLogix 1000 fails mid-project, I have to buy another refurbished one from whoever happens to have stock. That's usually a 5–15 day lead time and no guarantee on the exact revision or firmware. For a machine that's holding up a customer delivery, this is not where I want to save four hundred dollars.
We had two distributors quote the Micro850. Both had it in stock. That counts for something when the pump is running.
Dimension 2: Programming software
This is where the math flips.
The MicroLogix 1000 programs in RSLogix 500 (or the older RSLogix Micro). Some paths come with a Starter Lite license that handles small point counts for free—but once you cross the line count (and the pump logic plus safety interlocks sailed right past it), you're buying a paid license. Plan on $400–$600 for a legitimately licensed seat (based on distributor quotes, Q1 2025; verify with your local Allen-Bradley sales rep, since licenses are sometimes bundled into hardware orders).
The Micro850 programs in Connected Components Workbench—CCW, if you've been around a while. The free edition supports the full Micro850 line. There's a paid developer edition if you want version control and better project management, but for the small-station work we do, the free tier covers it.
That's roughly $500 of savings for the Micro850 the moment the software invoice hits.
Most buyers I've talked to fixate on the hardware price and completely miss the software line. Flip that order. In the first year, the software usually outranks the hardware.
Dimension 3: Training investment
Here's the one that people argue about with the most conviction, and where the TCO gets messiest.
Formal Allen-Bradley PLC training courses from Rockwell (or a certified partner) run roughly $800–$1,800 per module per student. For a two-day "getting started with Micro800 programming" class, I was quoted just under $1,200 per seat last time I checked. Two engineers, one course: about $2,400.
The alternative—a solid PLC programming book plus free online resources—costs less than $100. The catch: it takes three to four times as long, and the learner has nobody to ask when an actual fault code appears at 2 a.m.
A lot of people ask why we don't just watch YouTube tutorials and call it done. I've done it. They work fine for specific tasks—wiring a particular sensor, setting up a counter, clearing a fault. What they don't teach is the mental model that makes debugging fast. That's the gap a $1,200 course closes (eventually).
My honest read: for a team of one or two people, formal courses usually lose on TCO alone. For a team of four or more, the math flips—the course pays for itself in reduced support calls and fewer production-hour mistakes. That's been true in every shop I've worked in.
The compromise we landed on last year: buy one programming book, buy one Rockwell course seat, and pair the trained engineer with a junior engineer for on-the-job shadowing. Not a perfect solution, but it beat sending the whole team to a $1,200-a-head class.
Dimension 4: Lifecycle risk, spare parts, and troubleshooting
This is the paragraph that decided it for me.
The MicroLogix 1000 was discontinued years ago—Rockwell stopped producing new units and has been steering customers toward newer platforms for a long time now. That means no new stock, no forward-compatibility guarantees, and a shrinking pool of refurbished parts.
Replacement batteries are one example. The MicroLogix 1000 uses a replaceable lithium backup battery, and when it dies, the program can be lost on the next power cycle. If someone on your team doesn't know how to test a battery with multimeter, this trivial task becomes a service call. A healthy 3V lithium backup battery should read 2.9–3.1 V on a multimeter (out of circuit); anything below 2.7 V and you replace it—before you're troubleshooting a phantom fault at midnight.
The Micro850 is still in active production. Rockwell publishes a lifecycle status table for it. Parts ship in days, not weeks. Documentation is current, and third-party support techs still train on it.
Given that the electric sup pump on our test rig runs 16 hours a day, this dimension mattered more to me than the $400 saved on the refurbished unit.
What I'd choose in each scenario
I'm not going to tell you one option is universally right. That's not how procurement works. Here's how I'd break it down:
- One-machine pilot, tight budget, and an operator who already knows RSLogix 500: the refurbished MicroLogix 1000 is defensible. You'll save $400–$700 up front, and if the controller fails, you swap in another refurb unit. Just keep a spare on the shelf. Cheapest option on the front end—but you're buying into a dying ecosystem.
- Multi-machine shop, or one that plans to grow: the Micro850 wins on TCO almost every time. Free software, current parts, current training resources, and a programming environment that won't strand you the way RSLogix 500 is starting to.
- Small team of one or two engineers: skip the formal Rockwell courses for now. Buy a programming book, use the free CCW resources, and put your savings into a second starter PLC to practice on. Come back to paid classes when you have four or more engineers.
- Team of four-plus with multiple stations: formal Allen-Bradley PLC training courses usually pay for themselves in six to twelve months. Budget for them.
We went with the Micro850. Not because it was the cheapest option—it wasn't—but because the $400 I "saved" on the refurb would have cost me more than that in spare-part hunting and downtime the first time something went sideways.
To be fair, the MicroLogix 1000 is still a solid platform. I've seen them soldier through fifteen years in a dirty plant without a complaint. If you already own one and it's running fine, don't rip it out. But for anything new, I wouldn't put fresh money into a platform that Rockwell has already walked away from.
One last note: this comparison is based on our volumes—about $40,000 a year in automation spend, spread across maybe a dozen station-level controllers. If you're spending ten times that, negotiate harder than I did and get your distributor to bundle the software license into the hardware quote. If you're buying once every three years, just buy the current platform and don't look back.