Buying guide

Should You Hire or Buy a Mini Excavator?

If you only need a digger for one weekend, hire one. If you have acreage, a long build or a steady run of jobs, buying usually wins. The trick is working out where your line is.

Step 1: count your digging days

List the jobs you have coming up over the next couple of years: fence lines, drainage, trenches for water and power, house pads, dams, clearing, post holes. Estimate the days each one needs. Be honest, and remember that jobs take longer when you are fitting them around everything else.

Step 2: price hiring for those days

Ring your local hire yard and ask for the daily and weekly rate on a machine the size you need, plus delivery and pickup. Hire delivery is usually charged both ways, every time. Multiply it out for your digging days.

Step 3: compare it with buying

A worked example, using an example hire rate of $350 a day all-in (check your own local rate):

Past the break-even point, every extra day of work is free, and you still own the machine. A well-kept machine also keeps resale value, so the real cost of owning is lower than the purchase price.

Things hiring does not give you

• Time: no booking ahead, no rushing to finish before the hire runs out.
• Small jobs: the half-hour jobs you would never hire a machine for.
• Attachments: our machines come with a ripper, auger and buckets, which hire yards usually charge extra for.

When hiring makes more sense

• You have one job and nothing after it.
• You need a much bigger machine than a mini for a one-off.
• You have nowhere to store a machine.

Still on the fence? Tell us what you are digging and roughly how often, and we will tell you straight if buying makes sense. If it doesn't, we will say so.