Aftermarket parts from China can be a very good deal

[PhilC]

Racor filter housings are a really good example of unreasonable pricing. Take a standard 500 or 900 series housing. This housing is something that is low tech and comparatively high volume. Design was developed many many years ago and remains unchanged. Price has been steadily increased without adding value. There is simply no justification for the price charged. So Chinese manufacturers have tooled up to make them and sell for 1/10 of the price. If you look really hard you might be able to find one at 1/20, that has probably failed the Chinese quality control but is sold anyhow, just at a reduced price. These are often sold on Ali Express/Ebay.

[PhilC]

Someone mentioned BMW aftermarket parts made in China. People who own and work on BMW's know that while generally well engineered they have common failure points. If you look on Ali express and search for parts for the particular model you own you will only see parts that are required to fix these common failure points. In a weird reverse diagnosis process I recently fixed a problem with a BMW x5 transmission by looking on Ali express, seeing lots of resellers listing a particular small plastic gear for the transfer case. I figured i'd replace that gear first and if it didn't fix the problem (which it did) i would start a proper diagnosis process.

[Sailstarr]

On buying Chinese made products....... it depends on how important the item is. I have a Yanmar 50 and change the impeller each season. A season on fresh water Great Lakes usually lasts 3-5 months at best. I used genuine Yanmar impellers for years paying short of $90 each year for them. Then I decided to get one from Amazon for about $25. It lasted 2 months and presented a problem out in Lake Michigan during a time I was single handling my Hunter 410 with no wind but old swells. 7 of the 9 impeller fins were able to be pulled out of the heat exchanger. Interior LED lights, cosmetic fittings may be okay on the cheap however I still don't want to count on the consistency of Chinese made products. "Often mass produced parts are subcontracted to a guy who knows a guy that has a third cousin who can probably do it." They all get a cut and make money on the deal and quality is often sacrificed. After all, the U.S. is a long way away.
Rocna anchors were manufactured off shore and the quality was maintained for a number of months and then the quality suffered. I understand West Marine had a lot of complaints from Rocna customers with bent shanks due to substandard materials. Looked great though and oh, so much less in price.

[Emmalina]

Multinationals produce where its cheap ! Quality control is the only difference. Land of the free ROFL How many are inputting there ideas on ROC hardware I would guess 90%

[goboatingnow]

Interior LED lights, cosmetic fittings may be okay on the cheap however I still don't want to count on the consistency of Chinese made products

Ive passed my 500 order with Ali, in general quality is what "I expect ", and been in general more then acceptable , esecocailly their LED fittings, which I found well made and reliable ( and survived a lightening strike)

[AKA-None]

Let me reiterate what I said earlier that people don’t seem to be quite getting

You absolutely can not test /qa your way to quality

It absolutely must be designed in from concept to production

If you are buying seconds then it’s because the manufacturer doesn’t have a quality control process

To produce a quality product you must be using some version of statistical process control and if this is new to you then please look it up

Statistical Process Control

SPC does not create seconds it always produces a quality product that meets the design requirements

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Let me reiterate what I said earlier that people don’t seem to be quite getting

You absolutely can not test /qa your way to quality

It absolutely must be designed in from concept to production

If you are buying seconds then it’s because the manufacturer doesn’t have a quality control process

To produce a quality product you must be using some version of statistical process control and if this is new to you then please look it up

Statistical Process Control

SPC does not create seconds it always produces a quality product that meets the design requirements

After 30 years spent producing production software , I can say SPC is no guarantee of quality. You can easily produce highly documented junk

[CatLove]

I am not a fan of Chinese products and would like to buy American BUT :


1 - China has overtaken the US some years ago.
See here China :
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbo...china/#economy
Real GDP 23 trillion, industrial production being 40% of it = 9.2 trillion
And the US :
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbo...tates/#economy
GDP 20 trillion, industrial production almost 20% = 4 trillion
The above was in 2020

2 - the garbage we buy on Aliexpress is not representative for what's produced by top Chinese companies. It is mostly very small Chinese companies or individuals finding cheap stuff on the internal Chinese market then reselling internationally at a profit .

3 - the garbage some of our US retailers buy from China is garbage because that is what the US company ordered. They buy the cheapest options, cheapest manufacturing process, cheapest materials, cheapest (non)QC , then resell in the US at tremendously inflated prices.

I could bore you with numbers from products I was directly involved with where the US buyer asked the Chinese producer to cut cost until the unit cost was under $1 , they bought these in the few million range and resold on the US market for around $50/ea . Then US customers were mumbling that Chinese stuff is junk, little did they know that junk was what had been ordered.

4 - when you buy a Chinese product directly from an established Chinese manufacturer and not the bottom of their product line, they are as good or better than made in the USA , with very few exceptions. There are still a few (shrinking) areas where we still have a slight technological advantage but it's vaporizing fast.

5 - the problem for any US individual buyer is that it's not possible to know what quality you buy from China because the large vendors don't even reply to individual requests and the small vendors all lie or worse, they don't even know exactly what they're selling. This is not a problem for US companies , only for individual or small volume buyers.


6 - as individual US buyers trying to buy American vs Chinese, we're left with our retailers pushing Chinese products or barely assembled in the Us with Chinese parts (disclosed or not) . Large companies are multinationals and source parts all over the world. In order to be sure a product is made in the US we'd need to deal with smaller , local manufacturers and these (most of the time) can't be competitive due to being smaller scale operations. So you take your chances either way, buy American in name only, or buy more expensive and not sure if it's American or good, or buy Chinese and not sure if it's crap. But at least it's much cheaper so it's less of a risk to try

[mako]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Geography not your strong suit?
Canada 4000 approx
NZ 5000 miles approx

[mako]

I really hope this Administration recalls the 25% special tariff on Chinese products.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

After 30 years spent producing production software , I can say SPC is no guarantee of quality. You can easily produce highly documented junk

Not if you actually do spc

[kram45]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Geography not your strong suit?
Canada 4000 approx
NZ 5000 miles approx

Lol, this is cold.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by kram45

Lol, this is cold.

But accurate.

[Tetepare]

The risk with buying Chinese made goods is that you don't know what you're getting. It's a crap shoot.

I've had a bad wheel bearing for an auto, which of course isn't apparent until it's installed.

And the aftermarket belt for the autopilot: no matter what I did to adjust the autopilot, it wouldn't work. So I bought the factory part at four times the price. Threw away the cheap knockoffs. Problem solved, but hours wasted. The factory part probably was made in China, but whether QC or whatever, it worked.

With the wonders of the internet, some years ago it was discovered that the Harbor Freight angle grinder ($34) was EXACTLY the same as the Makita, just different color. Bought the HF for 1/4 the price, and it lasted a decade of hard labor.

But it's all a crap shoot. The knockoff impeller may look the same, and fit fine, but you won't know the full quality (or lack) for some time. Speaking of which, yeah I tried the cheap Chinese route on the impeller- thankfully the low quality was obvious enough that it never got installed. But, my final price was the OEM part plus the Chinese part, so my being cheap cost me more.