Name Brand vs No Name Brand: Does it make a difference?

[Rick Cavanaugh]

One subtle difference between green beans and reef equipment: green beans can't be patented. But please, someone come out with generic ecotech gear! who cares about cease and desist letters?! (just stop before the lawsuit)

All joking aside, when it comes to other dry goods like carbon, rodi membranes and other 'genericable' items I'm game. Heck, even "generic" no named corals catch my eye!

Green bean patent

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9622445B2/en

 

[RalphTech]

After 50+ years of freshwater I added a nano reef and had to buy equipment. There are some brand overrides to salt ie; fluval. but in one year of salt I find no advantage of supposedly reliable brands. Everything is more expensive and I've had bad experiences with; instructions not matching features, product being faulty, customer service not knowing what their company sells.
At these costs I'm not taking shoddy products and complain to the manufacturer.
So I experienced defaults in product and customer service.

 

[lapin]

As long as its identical I dont care if BRS or anyone has their name put on something.

 

[Quietman]

Branded for me all the way, assuming they've earned my loyalty. I also don't like rewarding knock-off companies that only do some reverse engineering and skip the hard work of development and testing usually with less than optimal quality and components.

 

[Javamahn]

Items that have continuous moving parts or require precision and are in critical areas, I will buy name brand or if I buy generic I will be sure to have a backup. Return pumps, wave generators all have a continuous duty cycle and so the failure rate as well as the warranty are why I purchased an Ecotech L1 or for my flow I have 2 WAVs and 2 Tunzes in the tank . I would rather buy a used name brand over a brand new generic for heavily used items.

 

[Isaac Alves]

I think it's already been said but branded gear is more likely to have:

• Support
• Longevity
• User community
• Roadmap
• MOST IMPORTANT is Proper safety certifications
• and Whitepapers

 

[K7BMG]

I always try to compare.
I buy both and find the deciding factors lie in the warrantee or features.
The name brands seem to have the edge on features.

 

[Alex Polk]

I am indifferent about branded and non brand name items, but tend to buy brand name. The only reason for that is due to popularity there are often more reviews to look at and consider prior to purchase.

 

[BrandonS]

All depends on the equipment in my opinion. Skimmers you want name brands. Power heads, return pumps not so much. Light undecided, I have grown coral under generic for sure but the name brands definite work better in my opinion. Most times generic works great. Some things name brand is better. There is a reason a reef octopus skimmer or radion cost what it does but a jeboa wavemaker works just fine and can work better and longer without cleaning than an mp40.

 

[tjnorthdakota]

Voted other because I dont care about the name on the package as long as they have good customer service that will stand by their product with some kind of warranty. Good customer service is king, vectra or jeboa they both pump water so I dont really care

 

[Telvis]

I usually go name brand. I try to get the best I can for the money.

i know for certain though that some items are sold under different brands. The problem is knowing which items and brands with certainty.

My first job out of college was as a sales rep for a large dairy. Very well known company and known for high quality. We made several prove label fair product lines for grocery chains across the country. They would just stop the line and change packaging or labels then start back up... all the same stuff. I would talk to people sometimes while I was on the road and they would tell me how much better out brand product was compared to the store brand. I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was the same stuff... Milk, butter, whipped cream, cottage cheese was all just rebranded.

 

[lbacha]

Branded for me all the way, assuming they've earned my loyalty. I also don't like rewarding knock-off companies that only do some reverse engineering and skip the hard work of development and testing usually with less than optimal quality and components.

I was about to post the same thing, there are a lot of no name company’s selling knock offs of products, they use the molds or copies of the molds that made the original in china and sell it under a different name. Unfortunately the materials used are usually cheaper and the design has really just been stolen from the parent company

 

[Roosterjack]

Sadly in this hobby there does not seem to be a strong relationship between price and quality.. Even within the same brands there can be divergent experience. For example I love my Apex and much of my Neptune gear, but honestly the ATO they sell has been nothing but trouble. Same brand, very different results.

That Is why I depend so much on others sharing what they know about different products via honest reviews. Do your homework on gear before you buy, and if you find something that works well, or is a piece of junk, let the community know.

 

[don_chuwish]

It comes down to price difference, quality control, and support for me. If there is a significant enough price advantage then I may go with the off brand. But I know (or I think) that the name brand, even if it looks identical, should have higher quality control standards and support. Less likely to get a lemon and more likely to get help if you do.

 

[Bpb]

I like equipment which carries a reputation for quality and longevity. A track record of bulletproof design is far more valuable to me than having service support who I have to CONSTANTLY be in contact with, no matter how nice they are.
Brands like

Eheim
Askoll
Hamilton
Lifereef
Geo

ect. Those are the Brands that may not be the trendiest, but people have had their products in use for sometimes decades. Longevity trumps features 10 times out of 10.

 

[Pntbll687]

One subtle difference between green beans and reef equipment: green beans can't be patented. But please, someone come out with generic ecotech gear! who cares about cease and desist letters?! (just stop before the lawsuit)

All joking aside, when it comes to other dry goods like carbon, rodi membranes and other 'genericable' items I'm game. Heck, even "generic" no named corals catch my eye!

I dunno, I think jebao does a half decent job of knocking off everyone.

They have a powerhead similar to the Nero 5 from AI

 

[hotdrop]

There are plenty of crappy band name parts but almost no good unbranded parts. There is a reason for that, salt water is unkind to all metals and it’s so easy to cut corners in places that arent immediately obvious

 

[X-37B]

Most of my equipment is Tunze. Return, powerheads, skimmer, calcium reactor, ato.
I do have 2 jebao ow25's and 2 tunze 6095. All running on pulse and at 100%. Wanted to see how long the jebao last. Power wise they are rated about the same and they have been running non stop for almost 6 months now. My money is on the Tunze. I have 2 more 6095's to backup the jaebao's. If I get 2 years out of them at $100 for 2 they will have done there job.
For some people spending $100 for 2 powerheads instead of $450 gets them in the game.

 

[Grigs]

I believe in researching gear before I drop the coin on it. I want to know that it performs as designed, has a good track record, and that there will be customer support. I am willing to pay a premium for the peace of mind.

 

[lavoisier]

I off and on try to disprove the adage that "you get what you pay for." Unfortunately I have found the proverb to be true by and large. I am seldom disappointed in a high quality, higher priced item.