I have been reading with much interest the comments about the 3-500z tube
failures.
I sell 3-500zg tubes. I sell a lot of them. I was very reluctant to start
carrying the tubes because the only decent wholesale price I could find that
a small tube retailer like myself could afford was the tubes made in China.
I had so many request for the tubes I finally decided to start carrying the
3-500zg tubes....even if they were made in China.
I had heard a lot of horror stories about the failure rate on the Chinese
tubes...and from what I have been able to learn the horror stories were very
true.....BUT....they were only true for the tubes imported for about the
first year to 18 months or so.
It seems the Chinese were not acquainted with anything along the lines of
"QUALITY CONTROL" in these early tubes. They were a real "HORROR STORY" But
later on as the Chinese became tired of getting case after case of their
tubes returned because they were "JUNK", they evidently finally decided it
was much more profitable to build a single good tube than it was to build
many "JUNK" tubes.
After the first year to 18 months of these "JUNK" tubes, they finally got a
decent quality control program started in their tube factories, and it
really paid off for them.
When you sell tubes, or anything for that matter,it is much more profitable
to sell a product that is going to give your customer a good value for his
money and has a good history of dependability. Believe me it is a real
costly hassle to sell a tube that is no good. It kills all your profit and
it just takes up too much of your time, so no one who sells tubes wants to
sell a tube he cant depend on, and is likely to be returned causing more
shipping cost which will eat up the small profit you get these days on a
tube sale.
I am very glad I was not in the tube business when the Chinese first started
selling their 3-500z tubes in the USA. I am sure it had many a tube seller
pulling his hair out with all the failures they were having back then.
I am very pleased to say that the Chinese have really turned their quality
control problem around and that for the most part I would say the tubes most
of their plants are making today compare very favorable to the tubes that
Eimac made during their prime.
I am not saying there are not a couple of Chinese tube manufacturers that
dont still have some problems, but all in all you will find the 3-500zg
tubes coming out of China today to be for the most part, excellent tubes.
I am sure there are some folks out there that will say "I bought a Chinese
3-500zg last year and it failed after 2 days" or "A friend of my 2nd
cousin's by his 4 wife had a brother who bought one of them Chinese 3-500zg
tubes and it was a piece of junk" Well all I can say is stuff happens....I
dont care if you are talking about Eimac, Amprex, or Taylor tubes, there are
going to be good ones and bad ones right out of the box....but thank
goodness the Chinese tubes I am seeing these days are very very dependable
tubes. If they weren't I could not afford to sell them.
That's just my opinion for what it's worth.
73
Tom....W4TH
Tom's Tubes: Specializing in Amateur Radio Amplifier Tubes, Sockets, & G3SEK
Triode/Tetrode Boards and Kits. http://www.tomstubes.com
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