The biggest problem you're going to find from HK and these other "discount" places is that they do very little - if any - quality control. So you really roll the dice when you want to go cheap. Many people will simply order 2-3 batteries and shrug their shoulders when one of them is bad. It's not like you're going to get customer service from those places. But the batteries that are good from these places seem to perform on par with most expensive batteries. I'm a Hyperion guy and the Turnigy/Zippy/Rhino guys in my club like to give me crap over paying more. It's just my preference; I don't trust those other batteries.

Originally Posted by Mike_Then

The biggest problem you're going to find from HK and these other "discount" places is that they do very little - if any - quality control. So you really roll the dice when you want to go cheap. Many people will simply order 2-3 batteries and shrug their shoulders when one of them is bad. It's not like you're going to get customer service from those places. But the batteries that are good from these places seem to perform on par with most expensive batteries. I'm a Hyperion guy and the Turnigy/Zippy/Rhino guys in my club like to give me crap over paying more. It's just my preference; I don't trust those other batteries.

I have had about 6 months experience with China Hobby Line and I haven't had a single performance problem. And I can tell you the customer service was quite good when I encountered a shipping error. It's been my experience more money doesn't insure better quality. Anyway, this is a great forum to really figure what has high value and what doesn't. So far, China Hobby has been fine.

China Hobby rules

Most these places are just distributors. Unless you know exactly who built your battery you have no clue as to it's quality.

You don't actually believe that these outfits make their own batteries do you ?

It's like TVs. They are all made in the same place and some company slaps their sticker on them and sells them for whatever they can get,

Customer service is basically the only thing you are paying for.

So, yes you do get more for your money, but not in quality. You get it in customer service and support.

Originally Posted by tacx

So, yes you do get more for your money, but not in quality. You get it in customer service and support.

That is a fairly definitive statement on quality. My experience has been that you receive quality products until you don't at this right down to knowing what production line, raw materials, and so forth.
I have experienced very high quality for not much money and quite the opposite in other cases. Getting more for less is always a fascinating challenge.