SUPERFASTRACING Diesel Fuel Filter Water Separator

Anyone have experience with these fuel / water separators? They use Parker Racor filters. Much less expensive. Found them by accident on Amazon. Wondering if they are a good value. Looking to upgrade / replace my Separ unit.

Super fast racing is the product name?

They appear to be selling the Chinese knockoff of the Racor 1000. You will find that knockoff offered by a number of online vendors.

When I built my fuel polisher, I thought about buying the knockoff and decided the fuel system wasn't the place to experiment with possibly poor quality components.

Ted

A Racor 1000 is selling from Defender for around $330.00

SuperFastRacing 1000 on Amazon: $69.97

Which one do you think is ultimately ripping off the consumer?

SuperFastRacing

Shrew said:

A Racor 1000 is selling from Defender for around $330.00

SuperFastRacing 1000 on Amazon: $69.97

Which one do you think is ultimately ripping off the consumer?

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I don’t mind paying more for quality but Racor seems to be taking advantage of the market.
It’s just a fuel filter / separator, how complicated can it be? And what can really go wrong?
Just thinking out loud

Capt Mike said:

I don’t mind paying more for quality but Racor seems to be taking advantage of the market.
It’s just a fuel filter / separator, how complicated can it be? And what can really go wrong?
Just thinking out loud

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IMHO-Fuel systems are no where to save on money. You need best system and filters you can buy.

This is one of those times where it would be worth buying one just to tear into it and assess the build quality (especially relative to the name brand). Sometimes the cheap knockoff is junk, other times it's actually decent.

Since the issue is quality control in casting, we are never going to know if the knock offs are just as good. I do know that if you are planning to cross oceans you shouldn’t be willing to take a chance on your casting splitting in the middle of your trip. If you are only cruising the ICW then getting towed to the next marina is probably not a big deal.

All I know is i have never seen a Racor casting fail (except when abused).

Shrew said:

A Racor 1000 is selling from Defender for around $330.00

SuperFastRacing 1000 on Amazon: $69.97

Which one do you think is ultimately ripping off the consumer?

Click to expand...

Does it matter to you if the product is produced with slave labor and inferior quality materials, or is it all about the price? Would you buy Chinese knockoff prescription drugs sold on Amazon?

Ted

If you don't buy anything made in China, you'll have a hard time buying much of anything.

backinblue said:

If you don't buy anything made in China, you'll have a hard time buying much of anything.

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True. But if you buy items from a company such as Cummins that has products produced in China, you have some recourse if it fails.

Do you think the knockoff separator has any product liability insurance? Or have we reached the point where product liability is the consumer's and their insurance company's problem?

Ted

Racor filters

rslifkin said:

This is one of those times where it would be worth buying one just to tear into it and assess the build quality (especially relative to the name brand). Sometimes the cheap knockoff is junk, other times it's actually decent.

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I found this explanation on fuel filter mechanics on the Racor site. Interesting article.
https://www.racornews.com/single-post/2016-1-25-mythbusters-fuel-filters

One issue I discovered is that without the metal bowl the filters won’t meet ABYC standards for an engine room fire. Always wondered what that bowl was for.

I can say that i bought one for fuel polishing. I have not set it up yet. I hope to have a portable polishing unit that I can clean up my tanks with. If it works well for this I would consider adding one but the quality looks pretty good. I should have better answers towards spring when I do my polishing tasks.

I think i read somewhere they ( the knockoffs ) have metric fittings. Maybe Racor does too, don't know. Only a problem if you need one.

They are junk. We use them as throwaway when running old machinery. Poor threads, mismatch sizes. Paint coming off the inside. Bowl cracks

SuperFastRacing

Arc said:

They are junk. We use them as throwaway when running old machinery. Poor threads, mismatch sizes. Paint coming off the inside. Bowl cracks

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Thank you for the first hand experience. That’s exactly what I was looking for.

Shrew said:

A Racor 1000 is selling from Defender for around $330.00

SuperFastRacing 1000 on Amazon: $69.97

Which one do you think is ultimately ripping off the consumer?

Click to expand...

My experience in all things in life that you tend to get what you pay for. Maybe the Racor isn't worth $330 but then the knock off may not be worth $69. I HATE most of the Chinese knock off stuff. They quite often don't pay any royalties due and I had experience as municipal building inspector with counterfeit Smoke/CO home detectors. Some had no UL label and some had counterfeit UL labels. I am not judging the product in question here I just have a generally poor attitude towards any knock off products from the Forbidden Land.

Can you tell the difference?
One is stamped original and one just looks like the original.

Made in the USA, maybe

Made in China

rslifkin said:

This is one of those times where it would be worth buying one just to tear into it and assess the build quality (especially relative to the name brand). Sometimes the cheap knockoff is junk, other times it's actually decent.

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That means you'd have to destroy both the low- and high-cost models.

Racor turbine series fuel filters are still made in California, so probably more expensive to manufacture than even other domestic locations, however, the quality, quality control, engineering, and materials are second to none, they are proven products with an incredible track record. As others have noted, fuel filtration is not a place to experiment with a "low bidder".

Without the heat shield and metallic drain, this is not an ABYC compliant marine filter, but presumably the Racor parts would fit so it could be converted to an MA.

When I visited the Racor factory several years ago they had a small museum dedicated to knock-offs, which brings up another point, do you want to patronize a copy cat, counterfeiter who simply reverse engineered a product that took millions of dollars to develop and patent in the US?

Something that may have faded into history. Made in Japan, they reverse engineered most things, made them as good or better and at a lower price.

Made in America used to mean something, now you can stamp it made in America if final assembly or even packaging is done in the US. It is not a big leap to wonder if some of these filters arrive in bulk, get labeled original (since they are built to spec), put into a nice box and sold at the inflated prices.

Case in point. I almost bought a Lehr propane OB. Then I found out they went out of business after hundreds were sold with components Made in China to increase the profit on saved labor costs. Too bad quality control was not involved by Lehr.

rslifkin said:

This is one of those times where it would be worth buying one just to tear into it and assess the build quality (especially relative to the name brand). Sometimes the cheap knockoff is junk, other times it's actually decent.

Click to expand...

I’ve watched some youtube videos showing technicians and reviewers doing just that to the Chinese knockoff diesel fueled forced air heaters similar to the Webasto AirTop and the like, which are so popular right now due to their pricing. Quite illuminating. Are the corners cut ultimately critical to the application however? Hard to tell.

I’ll just say that you’d be well advised when wiring some of these units to take care to fashion a drip loop into the run.

Soo-Valley said:

Something that may have faded into history. Made in Japan, they reverse engineered most things, made them as good or better and at a lower price.

Made in America used to mean something, now you can stamp it made in America if final assembly or even packaging is done in the US. It is not a big leap to wonder if some of these filters arrive in bulk, get labeled original (since they are built to spec), put into a nice box and sold at the inflated prices.

Case in point. I almost bought a Lehr propane OB. Then I found out they went out of business after hundreds were sold with components Made in China to increase the profit on saved labor costs. Too bad quality control was not involved by Lehr.

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On that subject https://www.smithsonianmag.com/trav...merican-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189/

Japan didn't have to copy US products for long, they quickly found their own, and often better way as we all now know.

Imagine if China decides to have quality control.

Don't underestimate the Chinese. They are capable of producing 1st quality products at competitive pricing. More often than not, an importer tells them what they want and the price point. Doubt me? Where do you think IPhones are made?

Ted

O C Diver said:

Don't underestimate the Chinese. They are capable of producing 1st quality products at competitive pricing. More often than not, an importer tells them what they want and the price point. Doubt me? Where do you think IPhones are made?

Ted

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That's exactly it. They're can make plenty of good products, but not always much cheaper than elsewhere. But they're also good at making crap really cheaply.

O C Diver said:

Does it matter to you if the product is produced with slave labor and inferior quality materials, or is it all about the price? Would you buy Chinese knockoff prescription drugs sold on Amazon?

Ted

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I applaud a person who factor ins a the social aspect when making a purchase. Today Price, price, seems to be the major factor when making a purchase. Human rights, quality of life and freedom should also be factored in. Mysplendido

Steve DAntonio said:

On that subject https://www.smithsonianmag.com/trav...merican-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189/

Japan didn't have to copy US products for long, they quickly found their own, and often better way as we all now know.

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I have seen products made in China that were made to a brand name specification. This subject is focusing on replicas or knock offs which have their own spec. I haven't seen these knock off products compare to the brand name spec'd products regardless of where they are manufactured.

Most buyers shop by price, and many name-brand products are made in China using their cheap labor and questionable practices. But don't blame the Chinese or the manufaturers. The buyers are driving the market. You can buy genuine Nike sneakers made in China for $60. Until the majority of consunmers are willing to pay $200 for the exact same product made in the US, that's not going to change unless govt. regulation forces it or makes it more costly to do business with China. Just be careful with what you wish for as the majority of products today are not manufactured domestically.

backinblue said:

Most buyers shop by price, and many name-brand products are made in China using their cheap labor and questionable practices. But don't blame the Chinese or the manufaturers. The buyers are driving the market. You can buy genuine Nike sneakers made in China for $60. Until the majority of consunmers are willing to pay $200 for the exact same product made in the US, that's not going to change unless govt. regulation forces it or makes it more costly to do business with China. Just be careful with what you wish for as the majority of products today are not manufactured domestically.

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Yup, that's part of why I buy the New Balance shoes that are made in the USA.



Ted