RCBS Easy Melt Pot

[2011redrider]

I have had the ladle only casting pot (Easy Melt)since they were released in March of 2018. It has worked great for the last year and half. Over the weekend the cooling fan gave up and the top got excessively hot!
Called RCBS this morning and all they can do is replace the entire unit, since they have no parts. Hoped it would last longer, RCBS says mine is the first to fail!

 

[waco]

Sounds like they are taking care of you. That's good.

 

[RicinYakima]

Really like mine! Never a problem so far, but I only cast when it is cool in the shop. Can you estimate how many hours you have on it?

 

[Ian]

First to fail....pardon my cynicism, but I seriously doubt it. We had this discussion when they first came out, how RCBS and Lyman went to offshore junk to keep the products affordable but by so doing emiminated any chance of having service parts available for warrany work or to maintain their usual "we'll send you a new part tomorrow" customer service.

I already drilled the rivets and pulled the zip ties and hot glue loose from the electronicals of mine to remotely locate away from the heat, all I need to do is extend a few wires and put the guts in a new box. Last time I used it the temperature was 50⁰ off from actual, it appears nobody bothered to calibrate the sensor on the element to reflect actual pot temperature. Very poor engineering from the start, but it can be fixed.

 

[Pistolero]

Electronics and heat are not a good combination. Moving the electronics to a separate box which will remain much cooler
is a really good idea.
At minimum a block of high heat insulation and a higher powered fan would be a good plan.

 

[Spindrift]

Mine is also 50F off on the thermostat calibration. That was a bit dissapointing.

 

[Ian]

It's a good thing we verify temperature, isn't it? Imagine how many internet board arguments will arise based on that miscalibration and misplaced trust of the end user.

 

[freebullet]

I'm still Le'drippin.

 

[2011redrider]

Really like mine! Never a problem so far, but I only cast when it is cool in the shop. Can you estimate how many hours you have on it?

I've run several hundred pounds thru it.

 

[2011redrider]

First to fail....pardon my cynicism, but I seriously doubt it. We had this discussion when they first came out, how RCBS and Lyman went to offshore junk to keep the products affordable but by so doing emiminated any chance of having service parts available for warrany work or to maintain their usual "we'll send you a new part tomorrow" customer service.

I already drilled the rivets and pulled the zip ties and hot glue loose from the electronicals of mine to remotely locate away from the heat, all I need to do is extend a few wires and put the guts in a new box. Last time I used it the temperature was 50⁰ off from actual, it appears nobody bothered to calibrate the sensor on the element to reflect actual pot temperature. Very poor engineering from the start, but it can be fixed.

Maybe just the first this lady tech has heard of.....i would open it up but since they will replace it, I'll wait till they are out of warranty. Found several 50mm fans on Amazon for about 10.00 yesterday when looking around. Need to search for and old ProMelt!

 

[Ian]

I'm with Freebullet, almost everything I've cast in the past 12 years has been with my Lee bottom pour. All original parts, too. Close to a ton of alloy through it, and it just works. I think my Easy-Melt will do well once the electronics are sorted, but I don't bottom-pour much and will probably just use it to keep the Lee topped off.

 

[fiver]

I was wondering if they had really gone the china-mart route.

I was looking for another pot when they announced the pro-melt and lyman casting pots but decided to wait and see how things went with them.
ended up just buying a new 10lb. lee and shuffling things around to work it into the line-up.
round balls for the black powder stuff out the bottom and ladle casting cores out the top has been working out so far.

my cynicism comes in when they went to china to keep the costs down.
well YA! on their end for sure, but not on the consumer side of things.
5$ more for a little better cooling system,,,, or better yet 50$ less for a rheostat dial I can mark with my own settings or the option of adding in [a separate sourced] PID would have been my choice.

 

[Ian]

You mean, like Magma has?

Rheostats probably cost 5-10 times what the entire PID controller/display unit does. That's why no knobs on appliances anymore, just those slick pushbutton pads....mechanical stuff costs money, PCBs with touch buttons and a numbered sheet of plastic welded on top are practically free.

 

[dannyd]

For the most part they have to go to China because the parts are not made in the US anymore. Your 10 lb Lee is a China Pot too. The Lyman Pot didn't work out so well for me, but the Pro Melt 2 has done okay so far.

 

[Ian]

There's a big difference between contracting with Zing Chow Hochimen to do a one-time run with option to re-order two container loads of a piece of equipment that meets X price point and X function...details to be decided by lowest bidder.... and buying a bunch of offshore components and assembling the unit here, in a shop, where components are stocked and the capability to do service and repair (and even sell "refurb" warranty units on the cheap to mitigate the $$ loss) exists because qualified people and parts are HERE.

US companies have been building all manner of appliances for decades with jellybean switches made in Pakistan, knobs made in Turkey, control boards made under contract with Korean companies, Taiwanese electrical connectors, fasteners made in India, etc. etc. and still produced decent tools and appliances. You don't think Kenmore made all their own parts 30 years ago, do you? AC Delco doesn't make batteries, GM doesn't make tires or wiper blades or manufacture their own paint or bolts, yet they still make vehicles ( the US, Canada, or Mexico of course). Parts not made in the US has been a reality for more than 60 years. The problem now is it's too expensive to pay American workers to assemble or fix stuff (wages, benefits, insurance, OSHA, worker's comp, payroll taxes, personal property taxes, corporate taxes, HR dept. expenses, bookkeeping expenses, manager's salaries, legal dept. expenses, electric bill, facilities maintenance, ad nauseam) so the whole unit is farmed out overseas and the part becomes disposable upon it's first component's failure. The numbers game is a bet against failure rates under the limited warranty time period vs. price point and anticipated sales numbers. That bet is hedged by a "minimum service life" being included in the original specifications for the part.

By the way, GM spec'd the TurboHydramatic 700R4 to go 75,000 miles minimum. And people are still mystified why they quit regularly at twice that number. They could be built to go half a million, but it would cost three times as much per unit.

 

[Pistolero]

I agree totally on the offshoring the manufacturing vs buying some components elsewhere. The idea that RCBS and Lyman
would both go this chickenshirt route is pretty irritating. Quality and serviceablility suffer, and RCBS (more than Lyman) HAS
had a truly stellar reputation for quality and support, which they are busily frittering away with these junk units, badly designed
and unsupportable from China.

But some bean counter somewhere shows that they cost $28.75 each, plus $6 shipping in container lots, and they can sell
for $150 retail and even if they have to give you two, they are making a good profit.
And to hell with their reputation for quality and service, but who cares about that?

 

[dannyd]

Hey the US business community sold it's sole to China and in the not to distant future they will have to pay for it. As for GM remember the 70's the big three put Japan in the drivers seat.

 

[Pistolero]

Not all of them, but too many did.

 

[462]

Yeah, but those ol' tuna clippers were cool cars. Dad had a '63 Pontiac Gran Prix, and while not the biggest, at the time, to a pre-driving teen-ager it seemed a city block wide and two blocks long.

 

[fiver]

yeah, but they had style.
they could build round fenders 100 years back, now they are flat panels with enough of a crease to keep the thing from flopping around or folding in on itself at speed.
I understand weight and mandated fuel mileage, but stuff like a mustang or Camaro has no more parts then a focus or Malibu.
throw the 3.6 in there and make the price point, or draw something up that doesn't look like a shoebox that got beat with a tennis racquet and has a bed.
I don't need a 22 way tail gate with a remote, I don't need a 6 language navigation system with all 7 continents programmed in that steers for me, I just want the stupid thing to tow my trailer and haul some rocks.