Apollo valves

You know me...I like to buy American.

Anyway, a few days ago I ordered some Apollo ball valves from the web. I was very surprised when some rather flimsy looking valves arrived made in China by Apollo International.

Assuming I had been taken for a ride I ordered four more from a reputable dealer.

This time, two of the sturdy Made in USA Apollo valves arrived and two of the flimsy Chinese ones made by Apollo International.

What is going on?

What I am used to:............................................And the cheeky Chinese version:

Outsourcing, cost of manufacturer, and profit/greed. If they are like everything else made in China, they also probably have a high lead content.

But I'd caution against assigning the "greed" to Apollo... they are probably doing what they have to in order to survive. The greedy ones are the plumbers who buy the cheapest rather than the best and the end-customer who hires the cheapest plumber or simply doesn't care about quality.

Hopefully, they will still manufacture the higher qualily ones at a higher price, and I'd buy 'em.

I'm surprised you can actually still buy an american made ball valve. Typically when you start seeing China stuff mixing in with the old US stock it means that they are switching the mfg to China and soon that's all you'll find. Years ago I bought some chinese ball valves from Harbor Freight and they looked to be excellent quality, nice casting, nice machining, all teflon insides- they've been on a compressed air system at 160 psi and no problems. But like HJ said, probably full of lead LOL.

I noticed Home Depot has ball valves made in Italy.

I bought a bunch of vise grips recently and noticed that many of their models are now made in China; they probably all will be soon.

Welcome to the turn 'em and burn 'em throw-way world.

It's just plain disgraceful what our politicians and big business have done to this country. You are right about kids and games. Even any model building like cars and military is mostly an adult activity anymore. I attempt to build cars but mostly I like to make parts out of resin. I'm in a couple of model clubs, it's fun to do.

I have a 5 year old and he can bring me a pipe wrench, or dikes or channel locks, or screwdrivers by size and tip from the van. Took a little work, and sometimes I get a hammer instead, but I have had 20 year old workers that could not adjust a pipe wrench or figure out how to use vise grips.

Instead of banging keyboards, I gave him a 12 ounce hammer and 50 pounds of roofing nails. After he pounded the whole box into the workbench top, he graduated to 16 penny nails. And damned if he does'nt even pick up the hammer without his safety glasses on! Try to find a 20 year old worker that does that reliably.