Chinee stuff

[Gulfalan67]

Here’s my whinge for the day. I wanted to replace my faithful old blower that has lasted nearly ten years. The only serious blower available hereabouts is the Stihl, which costs $1400. Quality German product.

But then I saw a Chinee knock off product advertised for $200. I ordered it from online. It didn’t look too bad when it arrived and I got a good session of use out of it managing a control burn.

But not only does it stream fuel down the back of my trouser leg, but the next day I went to start it wouldn’t work. I drained it, flushed the carby, changed the spark plug and sprayed with WD40 to accelerate, but no joy… it was stuffed!

This Chinee product literally worked for one day before packing up. We all know Chinee product quality is terrible , but this really set a new benchmark for awful. It was a long shot experimenting with a cheap Chinee product but some people say some of their output is getting better…

I remember well when Japanese cars first started appearing in the west. People laughed and couldn’t take them seriously until the mid seventies…

Anyway I’ll be visiting the Stihl distributor in Darwin this weekend.

Alan

 

[1 shot willie]

It certainly looks the part Al.....hope you get it sorted

 

[Matt]

sounds to me like the float has stuck in the carb

 

[Ystranc]

Here’s my whinge for the day. I wanted to replace my faithful old blower that has lasted nearly ten years. The only serious blower available hereabouts is the Stihl, which costs $1400. Quality German product.

But then I saw a Chinee knock off product advertised for $200. I ordered it from online. It didn’t look too bad when it arrived and I got a good session of use out of it managing a control burn.

But not only does it stream fuel down the back of my trouser leg, but the next day I went to start it wouldn’t work. I drained it, flushed the carby, changed the spark plug and sprayed with WD40 to accelerate, but no joy… it was stuffed!

This Chinee product literally worked for one day before packing up. We all know Chinee product quality is terrible , but this really set a new benchmark for awful. It was a long shot experimenting with a cheap Chinee product but some people say some of their output is getting better…

I remember well when Japanese cars first started appearing in the west. People laughed and couldn’t take them seriously until the mid seventies…

Anyway I’ll be visiting the Stihl distributor in Darwin this weekend.

Alan
View attachment 155568

I would have warned you not to buy it, my one experiment was a silver line hedge trimmer…again petrol leaking all over the place and it required twice as much 2/ oil as the Stihl so I was working in a cloud of fumes.

 

[Ystranc]

sounds to me like the float has stuck in the carb

Try thumping it against a rock, it may not fix it but you’ll feel better.

 

[Gulfalan67]

Try thumping it against a rock, it may not fix it but you’ll feel better.

Best advice I’ve had. Actually I’m going to try something more dramatic than that. I’m going to try get my money back from the dodgy online vendor.

Just to clarify my earlier post. I was fairly certain anything of Chinee manufacture was likely to be rubbish but just as an experiment and because the price was so low thought I’d give it a punt.

Also I had read a few articles to the effect that some Chinese products were improving ( cars, for example).

However the evidence from my sample of one is conclusive.

DONT BUY CHINEE STUFF!

I’ve fiddled with it and other bits and pieces have begun to break. The quality of materials is awful.

Matt I assume it is a carby issue too but it doesn’t seem to have a regular accessible carby bowl like my other appliances. It’s literally cast into the aluminium block and I’d need to take everything apart ( if I can) to reach it.

Alan

 

[Ystranc]

The thing is that while a Stihl seems expensive initially it usually evens out over the years. My brush cutter is around 14 years old and still starts easily and my ms660 is probably around 30 years old…we are not even talking about “Trigger’s broom” here, most of it is factory original. Easily serviced with a minimal tool kit and parts are readily available (although many of the service parts for older saws are also made in China and far cheaper)

 

[peteff]

sounds to me like the float has stuck in the carb

They don't usually have floats, more like a chainsaw carb but with a built in primer bulb.

 

[Manthing]

I've read somewhere that "The West" did a deal years ago where China took in loads of waste materials to recycle/dump in a hole somewhere really cheap, but the containers had to be paid both ways. This ment that they could fill and ship hundreds of tonnes of cheap tat back to the west vastly undercutting higher quality products.
This is one of the reasons it costs $50 to ship a $20 item from The US but a similar item from China is £15 delivered.
They have cheap labour and all the containers are in China anyway.
Also they buy in raw materials and stockpile it for their own use thus making things like their steel higher in price.
If you've the money it's a strong plan. Drain the market and flood if with your cheaper product till the other suppliers have gone bust.
How much steel is produced in the UK these days?
How much of anything is produced in the UK these days?
We might assemble/process things but not much comes out of the ground to be made into something, food excepted.