OrangeBird

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Joel

I would venture to say you bought an Everco heater control valve in an AC Delco box. AC Delco has started repackaging many products as their own, and usually selling them at twice the price. All you are really buying now is the AC Delco warranty.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

AC Delco has ALWAYS "repackaged many products as their own"; the same as everybody else. They don't manufacture every single piece themselves. They source some parts from various divisions of Federal-Mogul, Bosch, Dana, Hitachi, Borg-Warner, Denso, and on and on, exactly as those companies source some parts from Delphi.

Everco has been supplying HVAC parts to the replacement market for as long as I've been around this business; 45 years or so. They are as dependable a "brand" as any you'll find. For all I know they may manufacture as an OEM for AC Delco as well as buying things that Delphi makes and repackaging them in that direction. 4 Seasons is another one of the parts-store brands in the same category.

I seriously doubt that an AC one will last any differently, statistically, from an Everco. That is, if 1000 people bought the one and 1000 bought the other, and the lifespan was compared between the 2 groups (mean and standard deviation), I'd bet they wouldn't pass the mathematical tests for there being a difference. Individual ones might be different, of course; "luck of the draw"; but in the aggregate, no.

Bottom line, IMO you kinda fell for the "OEM is better" marketing scam designed to take more money from uninformed customers. But, best of luck to you anyway.

eseibel67

This is very accurate to the truth. I work for a major manufacturer that supplies aftermarket parts under our own brand as well as several others including AC Delco. A million years ago a Delco part might have been an OE part in the box. Now, it's usually an acceptable quality part that's the exact same piece you can buy from any parts house that carries that manufacture's brand.

OrangeBird

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OrangeBird

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okfoz

AC Delco is one of those companies that will have you scratch your head...

At one time AC Delco was buying an alternator from a supplier... You want to know where the Supplier was getting the alternator? They were buying from AC Delco...

I just shook my head... Living in Michigan you get tons of stories like this. Some companies are so incompetent it makes you wonder why it took them so long to actually go bankrupt.

John

okfoz

One thing to consider is the AC Delco part might be made in the same facility, but it might actually be a better quality. The other parts might be seconds, or just not scrutinized as tightly.

dstss

This is more common than people think. A lot of well know consumer products companies are little more than design / marketing firms who actually don't manufacture anything. For example almost all the battery brands you see are made by 2 or 3 actual manufacturers.
The other thing is with the parts proliferation in the parts market,it can be unprofitable for any company to make multiple versions of the same part, especially a slow mover.
Sometimes you are just paying extra for a name.

rusty vango

anyone who looks will notice ,when the Chinese junk parts showed up. the quality went away. its nigh on impossible to find a well made part for ANYTHING now days. its luck of the draw.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

No, I don't think you've quite exactly learned the lesson...

It's how America GAVE UP its greatness by a combination of LAZINESS and GREED at all levels from the factory floor to the C-suite, and walking into Wal-Mart, Skip White, JC Whitney, et al. and buying the cheeeeeeepest thing it could find that said "{fill in the blank}" on its box, all while demanding that "they" "give us" "good paying jobs".

The part you pay $10 for that's made by labor that works for $3 a day, would cost $45 if it was made by union-scale domestic workers; and since nobody will pay that, guess what happened to all those "good paying jobs". It's called VOTING WITH YOUR WALLET. "They" can't "give you" some kind of a "good paying job" if nobody will buy the product you make at the price it takes to cover the cost of paying you to make it. Real simple. Happens all day every day in every store throughout the world.

Incidentally, Everco is NOT "by Autozone"; and it DOES have a warranty, no matter what the computer jockey at AZ told you to upsell you to the more profitable part that's otherwise exactly the same.

And okfoz's story about the alt is SPOT ON... remember just a few years ago about how GM split up into "good GM and "bad GM" and sold off the "bad" part for micropennies on the dollar just to get out from under it? Well the AC Delco division was SO BAD that it was one of the first to go, in 1999, even before GM itself was in life-and-death distress.

Here, learn something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Automotive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delco_Electronics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACDelco

As you read that, pay close attention to all the other companies it mentions. TRW, Hughes (the parent today of both DirecTV and Dish Network), even the very Prince of Darkness himself, Lucas.

It's a damn shame our society has descended to such depths as this; and that our hobby relies on such scum and criminals; and that we are SO GULLIBLE that we fall for the marketing pap touting them as "the highest quality" without even researching them.

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

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okfoz

I know that AC, Fisher, Delco, Harrison, Reme, and a ton of other companies were at one time part of GM... GM instead of buying from a supplier, would buy the supplier. At one time they would buy a company just to get a technology, That is how they ended up with Electramotive IIRC...

Delphi was a spin-off of GM companies that were more or less going down the tubes. I think GM saw the writing on the wall with cheap Chinese parts. However GM still used them as a supplier, and it allowed delphi to sell to other car companies as well.