11–20 of 64 posts
Amazon has turned into "Aliexpress but more expensive and faster". Look up almost anything on Amazon and the results will be a made-up brand attached to a trashy product which costs 1/10 the price directly from China.
After that I stopped buying safety critical things from Amazon.
Several years ago I noticed that the motorcycle oil filters I was receiving from Amazon had changed- much lower construction quality, less filtration material, and didn't include a crush washer. I double checked that I was buying the same product on Amazon as previously, and then bought the same SKU from a different store to compare. Apparently, Amazon was mixing counterfeit items in the same stock as the real stuff.…
- A 2A fuse needs to conduct 2A, no matter ambient temperature, manufacturing variation, age, etc.
- 95+% of the time, what you're protecting from isn't a minor overload condition but a short.
This means a reliable fuse purchased from the best manufacturer in the world won't blow at 2A. Something like 3-4A is perfectly reasonable. 5x rated current is not okay, but 2x is well within norm.
Even at 5x, though, the risk here is not huge:
- You've caught shorts which is the most common failure mode.
- Everything carrying current typically has a ton of safety margin built in, so even 2x isn't really a big deal.
- There's a fairly narrow set of failure modes which (1) won't blow the fuse AND (2) will still be small enough to be less than 5x.
- Those failure modes still need to occur near something flammable.
The key reason why there is a risk at all is that power is a square law of current. If this was 5x heat / power, I wouldn't be worried /at all/. 5x current is 25x power and 25x the heat, which is more of a problem.
Amazon has turned into "Aliexpress but more expensive and faster". Look up almost anything on Amazon and the results will be a made-up brand attached to a trashy product which costs 1/10 the price directly from China.
Wasn't this always the case, but is it now more apparent because we can find the same product on AliExpress?
Amazon has turned into "Aliexpress but more expensive and faster". Look up almost anything on Amazon and the results will be a made-up brand attached to a trashy product which costs 1/10 the price directly from China.
So true. I just had two Meanwell PSUs from Amazon delivered and the package was indistinguishable from the usual AliExpress job.
I understand that people are under cost and time pressure.
But if you buy a fuse set on Amazon to save $10 off what a fuse assortment kit costs on Digikey, you are getting exactly what you paid for.
The signs are obvious: a nonsensical name like HOODOOVOOKOO, sold by BLXXYUSA a seller specializing in children's socks and fuses, quantity listed in "pieces", an obviously cheap plastic box, a ludicrous quantity at a per-unit price that is absurd.
Amazon is giving you what you want: the absolute cheapest possible item in the fastest possible time.
You cannot be angry at them for giving you exactly what you want.
If you cannot be bothered to spend more than 4¢ per fuse or spend more than 15 minutes researching the product, is the device you're protecting even worth replacing the fuse on?
Amazon has turned into "Aliexpress but more expensive and faster". Look up almost anything on Amazon and the results will be a made-up brand attached to a trashy product which costs 1/10 the price directly from China.