Finally ordered a new power supply for my ozonator. $7 from China, $20 in the US, $50 in Canada

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[–]IkeConn 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I have been known to buy the $50 part, order the identical $7.00 part, and when it comes in take it back as the $50 part.

[–]Zapped 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Amazon has a problem with counterfeit parts. They throw the "same" parts from different suppliers in the same bins, so you could be buying from a reputable seller, but you get a bad part. The same works in reverse, in that you could be buying from a bad seller, but get a genuine part.

[–]IkeConn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't buy from Amazon.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's clever.

[–]Zapped 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Alibaba usually has a minimum count you have to order and shipping is extra. Also, LED drivers have a WIDE range of quality, so the price sometimes matters. An IP67 rating on a Chinese part doesn't mean it has been tested and registered. They often print whatever they need to get you to buy it.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I was surprised how few options there were for 60W power supplies. I don't think there's a non-Chinese option. Or at least nothing I saw.

IP67 rating

I'll keep that in mind. It's not sitting in water though. Hopefully the waterproofing will help protect the components from the O3. That's why I've been going all Ship of Theseus on my ozone generator. It destroys itself.

The driver I bought was just a cost effective option that happened to make all those claims. One thing I don't know if it will be an issue is the driver is 5A and my box has a 1A fuse. It's a standard glass fuse, I figure I could always plug in a 5A one instead if that matters.

I also figure I'm going to have to test run this thoroughly outdoors first, in case of fire. Ozone generators have to be run alone indoors, stuff isn't great to breathe, and I don't want to do that until I'm reasonably confident it won't burn the place down.

Alibaba did claim minimum order was 1, but I dunno. Seemed like a hassle to go through them and I don't want to wait months for it.

[–]Tums_is_Smut_bkwrds 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

When it comes to electronics 'the same as' is rarely the same as, and often the difference is dangerous.

I'm sorry now that I didn't keep the link but I recall a post by an electronics engineer who disassembled an Apple brand iPhone power adapter and a Chinese iPhone knock off power adapter. They looked the same on the outside and the knock off was literally a fraction of the price, but once apart the differences were obvious even to an untrained eye.

In short the Apple product both performed as expected and was safe to use; if was if anything overdesigned. Whereas the Chinese product barely, just barely, produced the correct current and was clearly cobbled together using not only the cheapest components but with the bare minimum of insulation. Once you understood all of the issues involved paying $50 (or whatever it was, I can't recall now) for the Apple product felt like a deal. Whereas $5 for the Chinese product felt like the equivalent of playing with a loaded pistol with a hair trigger.

I'm not saying all Chinese electronics are crap. Nor am I trying to claim that the $50 in Canada item isn't the same as the $7 Alibaba item. I'm just saying that using price as your only metric is foolish.