An LED striplight. After 1 month, BANG! A puff of smoke and a hole blown in the side of it. What I think used to be an inductor has exploded with enough force to rupture the casing. Funny thing is, it continued to work for a day, and now works if I tap it.
But you can recycle it. And they use less materials to make it.
Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it isn't. Their battery chargers work but may need sellotaping together. Their LED lights usually work but can give you an electric shock or explode. Their cameras are 10 times lower resolution than advertised, but you moan and get them free. Their Li Ion batteries are 8 times less capacity than advertised, but you moan and get them free. Their meat infects the entire world with a deadly virus.
I do take great delight in seeing how many of their Ebay accounts I can have deleted. So much of my purchase history says "no longer a registered user".
In a thread in another group Baofeng radios came up for discussion. There was one listed on eBay with a miraculous 18W output and a 8000 mAh battery. People on the ham forums were of the opinion a small, handheld transceiver might put out 18W of RF power for a few seconds before the melting plastic became annoying.
I no longer trust anything Chinese that has to have power running through it. I ordered six so-called "20 amp" 12-24 VDC LED dimmers a month ago. Out of the two I tried, one burned up within minutes at only
5 amps at 12VDC, and the other burned after several days running the same. The latter actually went without warning, but at least the first one was running hot so I actually didn't leave the area for fear it was going to burn. Good thing I have a strong fan to evacuate the fumes, which would surely be toxic in short order!
None of this Chinese crap is UL listed and thus just about anything can happen. The ONLY thing I might take a chance on are older ATX power supplies. At least those have a listing and, although still not UL, it is better than nothing plus US PC manufacturers don't want to be sued for their computer burning down a house.
in the side of it. What I think used to be an inductor has exploded with en ough force to rupture the casing. Funny thing is, it continued to work for a day, and now works if I tap it.
** That brown goop all over the place has gone bad.
Light yellow when new, it slowly goes brown with heat and turns a conductiv e.
Yes I suspect a capacitor was at fault here, Inductors tend to smell short out and die quite silently.
I often wonder if these new lamps with inbuilt electronics are ever tested on real life mains voltages, as you do get large spikes up to 1000v at times on the mains. Brian
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This is not a new thing though is it? Back in the days of the USSR we used to get a lot of stuff like cassette machines and radios and even black and whit tvs from Soviet bloc countries. Some were OK, but a little fragile but one I remember made by a company in the Czech area called Tesla had a great design and a great sound as a recorder player that ran form the mains. The sad part was that it seemed to have been manufactured by idiots in that all the riveted bits were loose, the flywheel was not on straight and the motor and induction type, was doubling as the mains transformer and basically over a three month period it gradually fell to bits chewed tape and finally the brackets that held the piano keys fell of completely.
Like most things, a lot of things are designed well but cheap manufacture and lack of quality control and corner cutting on components ruin them. Brian
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I think you could destroy another car if you crashed a Lada into it. All this crumple zone namby pamby shit they put into cars nowadays, it just makes the repair bill higher.
Indeed, you don't need to find a road to where you're camping. You make the road. Then Americans would finally be correct when they said "make a right".
I would say I'd imported something if I arranged for it to get here, eg. going to America, buying a car, then shipping it back.
China has it's own selling regulations they have to adhere to. And credit card chargebacks work on foreign stuff too. At the very least I shall ensure he gets a black mark on his ebay account.
They shouldn't have done, they didn't manufacture them. At the most they should have had to refund, then take it up with the Chinese seller.
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