Today I am here with a little warning in regards to the company 'MESE' on eBay.
They're sellers of chinese OEM lab equipment (I think I've tracked the real manufacturer down to be BIOBASE via Alibaba).
However, I've had 2 (3 times repair/swapout though) of their hotplate stirrers with me home now, and everytime they've been a real disappointment.
The first one I had didn't heat the ceramic properly - it'd take 20 minutes just to get hot enough to boil some water. I checked with a watt meter and
sure enough it wasn't drawing as much as advertised. I sent this one back, and the customer service was very rude...
Then I figured I'd upgrade to a larger (more watt using) 19x19 cm model. Obviously, this was huge. I didn't realize this when I first ordered it, but
god damn that was a big hot plate. It was aesthetically very beautiful, and worked great on dry glass (mostly just testing the motor) for a day. Then
the motor started doing the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_ofTtFfHA
That sound you're hearing in the clip is the actual hotplate breaking it's own aluminium mesh underneath it. It looked scorched and had an odd burnt
smell. It also felt flimsy and cheap.
Now I've sent this in - waiting to get it back - but nonetheless, I wanna warn other chemists around Europe (they are based in England, but ship
worldwide) about this company, and OEM brand of labware. It's garbage.
Hope you have more luck with chinese hotplates than I have... Let's hope the company will do something magical to the hotplate and make it work for
longer than 30 seconds.
[Edited on 30-12-2016 by coalminecanary]Marvin - 30-12-2016 at 06:05
We could do with a sticky review thread and a wiki summery for goods, chemicals and services. Especially for things that members should stay away
from. This is valuable information.coalminecanary - 6-1-2017 at 00:13
We could do with a sticky review thread and a wiki summery for goods, chemicals and services. Especially for things that members should stay away
from. This is valuable information.
Agree.
MESE has now chosen to hold my equipment hostage for a ridiculous shipping fee of 62$ (It'd never cost that to have something shipped from UK->DK).
Also way less than I payed for shipping originally, even if you double the amount.
Steer clear of this supplier.Jules - 11-2-2017 at 15:42
I agree with Marvin that a review thread for dodgy equipment/suppliers would be a good idea, I've had problems with a couple of suppliers recently and
being somewhat inexperienced with buying online probably doesn't help (I remember when you could order chemicals by 'phone directly from supply
companies) , it would require careful monitoring however to prevent unsubstantiated claims being made.
