Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Reefman
Just how much experience do you have with Chinese made fixtures? Based on your comments, I'd say not much. You made a lot of bad assumptions about fixtures made in China.
Yes there WERE and still ARE some bad actors selling some crappy fixtures, TaoTronics, DSuny and others. But then you don't hear their names mentioned very often anymore, do you? Now it's Maxspect, EverGrow, ReefBreeders, OceanRevive and ReefRadiance. More recently MarsAqua has made a big splash in the shallow end of the pool (ultra low cost). And what buyer would expect the same kind of quality from an $86 MarsAqua led fixture that they would from a $750 EcoTech Radion fixture. Let's be serious.
Having 4 tanks and 2 refugiums with led fixtures from EverGrow, ReefBreeders, OceanRevive and EcoTech (all for over 3 years), I'll tell you that in my personal experience there isn't enough difference between the fixtures made in China by EverGrow (they make RB and OR as well) and EcoTech to justify $50 as far as build quality. In fact the EG made fixtures all run cooler than the EcoTech fixtures. As far as my corals are concerned, they are all equally healthy and all grow equally as well. Getting help from EG in China is a bit of a pain, but they do work with you. RB and OR, both based in the USA, do customer service pretty well, RB probably even better than ET.
If I were looking for a quality led fixture with bells and whistles like sunrise & sunset, or individual channel control of every color led in the fixture, I'd buy a ReefBreeders Photon 16 V-2 for less than half of what an EcoTech Radion cost and not give it a second thought.
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I've had a few of the direct imports open, usually in a broken state. Combined with about 8 years experience in hardware and firmware design, including domestic and offshore manufacturing.
There are many reasons the Chinese fixtures cost so little (and cost even less if you were to buy them in RMB on the mainland), and it's not because all the US manufacturers are taking a 500% GM markup. They are designed down to a price, and to do that you cut every corner you can inside (everything from capacitors, heat sinks, fans, thermal design, wire interconnects, semiconductors in use, QA and binning, actually getting the components you specced, critical safety features - none of the Chinese fixtures I saw had any temperature cut outs or even sensing, the list goes on).
Every market has products differentiated by price points: cars, laptops, TVs, blenders, etc etc. Does the VitaMix really justify its several hundred dollar markup on the Hamilton Beach? The VitaMix will last forever and isn't designed down to a price. Both will blend your margarita out of the box. How well will both do it after 5 years of margaritas?
Seeing a lot of cheap Chinese products over the years, I make it a point to not plug anything into the mains outlet that hasn't been tested by UL, CSA or TUV. I've carried products through UL certification, and I know what it entails and value it does add to keep people safe. Neither of the prior fixtures that came my way had that. RB doesn't advertise it for the new Photons either.
I think ReefBreeders is on the right track: no longer just direct imports, but using EverGrow or another manufacturer as an ODM for different specced products. Hopefully they can exert enough control to make it work for them, and have some feet on the ground in the mainland on their payroll to enforce it. Inevitably this costs more, so as quality rises so will the cost.