Chinese fuse fail

I wanted to replace some corroded looking fuses in my 1987 Ford 655 backhoe, and since I could use spare fuses anyway I ordered a boxed assortment of 200 fuses from Ebay ("torpedo" style ). I swapped them in and did think they looked a bit misshapen, since they were not as pointy as they normally are.
Later I was working with the headlights, the worklights and the heater fan on, when 2 of them failed.
I noticed that the fuses looked fine, as in the metal strips were not melted, but closer inspection showed that the fuse body itself was melted on 2 fuses!
Turns out the fuse body is not ceramic as advertised, but plastic. When resistance created heat, the fuse body got soft and the spring holding the fuse in place compressed the fuse until there was no longer enough contact.
I do not normally bash chinesium and try not to generalize, but this right here is garbage. Nothing ceramic about it.
It must be my fault to expect such a simple part to be non-screw-up-able. I was wrong.
I remember a Youtube video of fake chinese household resettable fuses. They were not a fuse at all, only made to look like one.

So this just as another warning to all to not expect the normal.

Note melted looking ends:

Get your money back and write a complaint to ebay.
Wouldn't that be fun, driving down the road and the fuses start popping out.

Full Metal Jacket: "It's a huge shit sandwich and we all are going to have to take a bite".

One good thing. If it's going to fail, at least it failed by breaking the circuit. The bigger problem would be if there was a serious overload and the fuse/breaker failed to open the circuit.

Not that it's much consolation for having bought a box of cr@p.

Getting your money back won't be that hard
Good or bad,the buyer has the advantage and even if you've already left feedback.
A comparison pic of the before and blown will make the point.
Request a call tag/shopping label for return
Chances are you'll just get a refund without having to actually return
I would consider this a safety item that maybe a name brand would be worth the extra $
Agree you didn't have a failure of not tripping

Actually it looks like they never got a chance to even get to that point. No way to say if they would have blown with an overload or not.

So here we are on a BB that discourages discussion of cheap, imported machines, talking about cheap, imported fuses. Why is it that I do not understand that. Is this really more useful of our members' time than telling someone why he should not have bought that cheap Chinese mill or lathe? Seems that those things will last a whole lot longer and do a whole lot more work than these fuses.

Toss the contents of the whole box. Or, better yet, try to get your money back. Buy name brand fuses from a reputable source (not Walmart or 3 A Holes Auto Parts) and replace all your fuses and fill the holes in the, now empty box. And move on.

Mouser Automotive Fuses

TGTool said:

One good thing. If it's going to fail, at least it failed by breaking the circuit. The bigger problem would be if there was a serious overload and the fuse/breaker failed to open the circuit.

Not that it's much consolation for having bought a box of cr@p.

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