Hardness Tester Manufacturers, Value, and Quality

So our Rockwell Hardness tester is down at the moment, but to put things chronologically:

We bought our first tester through MSC in 2003, a Chinese made Acu-pro. It filled our needs but stopped working in 2015. We used to be in the middle of no-where and getting parts and service for stuff could be tricky at times, so the quickest way to get up and running then was to buy another tester through MSC for $1000. It wasn't badged the same as the first one, but was essentially a cloan of it. We boxed the old one up and put it aside.

Now, the 2nd tester is giving us problems. I think it's something to do with the oil filled cylinder in the back, but I'm not very familiar with how these things work. At any rate, we're in the Houston area now and have a lot more resources at our disposal, so I dropped off the Acu-pro unit at our local Metrology shop to see if they could make some adjustments and get it working. They noted that they probably can't get parts for either of our testers and would give us a quote for a new unit if we have to go that route. I'm OK with that as our current units are in the "disposable" realm of tools.

We got a quote for Fowler, Phase II, and Starrett. The first 2 are a little more expensive than the MSC ones, and the Starrett is about $1000 more. I'm wondering if any one has experience with ANY of these brands as far as their quality, repeatability, reliability, ect. I looked up a Mitutoyo as well which is almost $2000 more and out of the budget. They're also the only one's who advertised a point-of-origin (made in Brazil).

I'm the type that would rather go for an American/European/Japanese name-brand tool in place of a "really really good" import. IMO the support you get when the warranty runs out is a huge plus. BUT I'm also not made-of-money either. So I have to find a balance. I've been trying to research where all of these testers are being made, because so many are coming out of mystery factory's in the orient and service could be dropped for them 5 years from now, or tomorrow.

So, I'm open for your input. All the testers We're looking at are Analog and seem to function the same.

Links to what we're looking at:
3814 Analog Bench Hardness Tester
rockwell hardness tester phase II precision analog
Fowler Analog Rockwell Hardness Tester
Rockwell A, B, C Bench Top Hardness Tester 06534051 - MSC

For the last decade I have a Chinese HR 150A and it works quite well. Looks identical to the Fowler in your list.

Wlodek said:

For the last decade I have a Chinese HR 150A and it works quite well. Looks identical to the Fowler in your list.

Click to expand...

Googling HR-150A comes up with a number of import brands, some looking like the Fowler, others like the MSC/Acu-pro. I'm going to assume parts and support is non-existant with them(?).

Our 2 Chinese testers worked well enough... when they worked. It's what we do when they don't work that has me shopping around.

We had a Phase II (Chinese) for a few years and with enough fiddling around it would work, but not consistently. Thought about a used Wilson, but bought a new Starrett a few years ago, and it has been great.

Just an update:

I purchased an old Wilson 4OUR tester at auction. It arrived today and is working well. It's much simpler to operate than the import ones. You have to manually manipulate the weights for different scales/indenters rather than flipping a switch, which I like because there's less mechanical stuff inside to fuss with. The internal mechanism is also easier to access and see what's going on. It takes standard indenters and work plates too, so nothing special, just simple old 'Murican iron.

I contacted Buehler (current owner of Wilson apparently) and they said that parts aren't available new (but sent me a manual free of charge), but we had the same issue with the import testers too, so as long as we don't drop it on the floor, we're still better off.

Wlodek said:

For the last decade I have a Chinese HR 150A and it works quite well. Looks identical to the Fowler in your list.

Click to expand...

You don't know Fowler imports from China?

M.B., that Wilson will give you lots of good use for years to come. Get you a plastic cover to put over it if you don't already have one. Wilson was bought out by Instrum, I think that is how it's spelled. Used to be a guy that traveled around Texas servicing and calibrating hardness testers. His vehicle had a ham radio antenna mounted to the rear bumper. This been almost 15 years since I've seen him. May not even be alive today, I don't know. About six years ago, one of my clients bought a new instrum digital hardness tester. Talking about nice!