Just Curious... not a debate on what is the best motor, but all we hear are the horror stories of motors blowing up with "low" hours.
How Many hours do you have or did you get out of your Mercury Pro XS?
Mine has over 300 and still running like a champ.
My brothers just let go at 803 " I think thats a good life out of it"
What hours are on yours?

How its used and how often are the biggest factors.

There are Opti's with 6000 hours on them that are used daily in commercial service.

I’m at 504 and lost my belt yesterday. Other than that no issues.

they will run a lot of hrs the weak link on optis are the compressor around 500 hrs they are suspect an when they go down it generally put pieces in the fuel delivery system that creates more problems.

490 on mine and then lost a piston , my hunch is the water feed line base filter to the compressor was clogged over heated and took out the compressor and then it took out piston.

Totally preventable. I made a new water filter that I can see and clean when putting now power head on.

535 hours, just getting broke in.

560 on mine, replaced 1 coil and a fuel injector over 12 years. Get mine serviced every year and use only Mercury products.

610 on mine. At around 350 compressor went out. Other than that keep up annual maintenance should last a while..

34 hours on my 2017 hahaha I'm going to get it serviced this week, then its nothing but non ethanol fuel, dfi oil and quick kleen!

The last one that blew on me was at 467 hours. Every optimax I've owned has died the same way... I've never got over 800 hour before they was blow up.

600 on mine and I’m the third owner, so no telling how it was previously maintained. Sometimes I wish it would blow, so I could get a new Pro XS; but then I’d have to spend money. So, maybe I hope it doesn’t blow.

225 Optimax Pro XS, just hit 500hrs. First Mercury and my last!!!

Last boat had a 225 Evinrude.

I've had more issues out of the Mercury in 500hrs than I EVER did out of the Evinrude in 1300hrs.

The Merc's are fast but if reliablity is what you're after, I'd look elsewhere

Something I've noticed about Mercury on here, and on some Facebook groups... They are common to blow well under 1000hrs, but people still run them

I have a friend that blew two in the last year. I believe they were at 800 and 700 hours each.

Problems not with the motor but how its used. Reason you see the saltwater crowd getting several thousand hours out of them is they start them, let them warm up then run them all day without shutting off. Bass boat crowd starts them then goes WFO before motor warms up. 7 minutes later come to a sudden stop and kills it without cooling down.

they will run a lot of hrs the weak link on optis are the compressor around 500 hrs they are suspect an when they go down it generally put pieces in the fuel delivery system that creates more problems.