Equivalent? I don't think so. The Brew Hardware element is Made in USA and comes with what most feel has the best warranty, customer service, and technical expertise in the industry. The other element appears to be a Chinese copy, and while they may appear similar, the copy is of unknown quality and workmanship, being sold with likely zero warranty no customer service, and questionable quality and workmanship.
How you choose to spend your money is your decision. Based upon price, quality, and warrantee, I would suggest the Brew Hardware option. As said above, if price alone is your most important factor, try the Chinese copy, but if you end up needing to buy 2, all economy is lost.
The reality of this is, No one has ever report having any issues with these that I've seen at all. If they did receive a bad one they simply contact the seller who will refund them or send a replacement.. just because its from overseas directly instead of through a middleman company doesnt mean theres no support.. Ebay has made a lot of changed to their rules and has good return support policies as does amazon. I even got refunded for a purchase I just made on aliexpress because it took too long to arrive (showed up the day after the dispute was settles and was refunded and this was a first time something like this happened after many purchases)
The following is just my opinion on it but.
Your comments here make a good point but to me, But it seems your exaggerating things and showing a biased opinion in the process...Or maybe you actually thing thats the way it is I dont really know. If we really avoided all the generic chinese products here companies like auberins, ebew supply and yes even brewhardware I believe would be hurting pretty bad... Does the material for your bags come from a US manufacturer? It most likely doesnt because it would be harder to make a profit. I'm all for buying and supporting local dont get me wrong (which is why I bought one of your bags myself even though I could find them cheaper at the time) BTW did you invent BIAB bags or are you making and selling clones? How is this different? when is it safe to manufacture something that already been invented and not be accused of being a clone maker? I believe the patents on the electric heating element ran out a long time ago now.
The whole point of this thread is the cheapest option,
Because of that you, defended all sorts of shortcuts earlier and shot down options that would cut out functionality that would realistically much more likely have paid off for the OP than paying extra for a warranty if his element was DOA especially since you get that same replacement warranty through amazon or ebay. Again your opinion but you can see how others can see it differently. being what it is and its unlikeliness to fail, I would choose added functionality myself.
BTW from what I read a couple years ago Camco doesnt make elements (or anything) they buy them from a couple different suppliers so I guess they sell clones too (If one of those suppliers is even the company that invented the electric element?) Its usually not as simple as we all want to believe. Camco contracts all different companies to make products to thier specs and sell them as their brand some of their products are US made others come from all over the world...
Yes Bobby at brewhardware gets his elements from a generic OEM american supplier who sells them to other companies like camco and ace hardware to markup and sell so we believe they are 100% made in america and his prices are actually very very fair considering his costs are higher in this case. But honestly this isnt the typical case that this argument is normally made for here.
The more common reality of it would be an American company like ebrew supply who buys these elements for about $3 each
http://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...62175659.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.260.wVmlxj
because they order them in quantities of 100 or more and then resells them as $42 each plus shipping and people think its a fair price because he will sent a replacement if by some chance its defective?
All im saying is just because an american "company" is selling it, doesnt necessarily mean it isnt the same generic overseas item just at a high markup and on that same token, just because its from overseas doesnt necessarily mean its junk whether its bought direct or through middlemen.
The Grainfather w/ only 2000w operates at 100% power to produce a boil, same premise I proposed for the "Cheapest Electric Setup" concept of this thread.
