DieselBound
Elite Member
Way back when, US manufactured automobiles were considered impressive if they went 100k miles. My 2000 VW TDI just clicked over 220k miles and is running better than it ever has: wouldn't trade it for anything! I once had a car (highly modified, of course, well, I was a kid!) that I couldn't keep spark plug in- Champion plugs would last me a day (again, high performance car); Autolite plugs lasted me a week; Bosch lasted me a month.
ANYTHING that's quality is going to have to be comprised of quality materials, quality engineering and quality manufacturing (excellent QA checks/tests). Even the best can push out a statistical piece of garbage, and if you're THAT lucky recipient it doesn't matter how touted something is, it's a piece of garbage. How a defective product is dealt with matters; though, one buys something to work.
Look around at all the stuff one has. It's a numbers game. More stuff means more stuff that's going to be less than great. If you go with fewer things then it's easier to focus on quality (research) and have them be affordable (total budget- less stuff means you can afford better things).
I bought some voltage regulator boards when needing to retrofit a failed circuit (capacitor based) in my 1994 generator. Got two for something like $23. Chinese, of course. Lots of folks in an old generator forum had used these and had stated that they're cheap enough to get a couple in case one is bad. First one I pulled out of its package went into the generator and has been operating now for a couple years: a spare sits in wait- hopefully I'll never have to test it! Output from my generator is insanely steady. I could have opted to pay $700 for an original [US - Cummins/Onan] part that relied upon a huge capacitor, knowing that capacitors only last so long.
ANYTHING that's quality is going to have to be comprised of quality materials, quality engineering and quality manufacturing (excellent QA checks/tests). Even the best can push out a statistical piece of garbage, and if you're THAT lucky recipient it doesn't matter how touted something is, it's a piece of garbage. How a defective product is dealt with matters; though, one buys something to work.
Look around at all the stuff one has. It's a numbers game. More stuff means more stuff that's going to be less than great. If you go with fewer things then it's easier to focus on quality (research) and have them be affordable (total budget- less stuff means you can afford better things).
I bought some voltage regulator boards when needing to retrofit a failed circuit (capacitor based) in my 1994 generator. Got two for something like $23. Chinese, of course. Lots of folks in an old generator forum had used these and had stated that they're cheap enough to get a couple in case one is bad. First one I pulled out of its package went into the generator and has been operating now for a couple years: a spare sits in wait- hopefully I'll never have to test it! Output from my generator is insanely steady. I could have opted to pay $700 for an original [US - Cummins/Onan] part that relied upon a huge capacitor, knowing that capacitors only last so long.