Buying a new prop that needs to be balanced ?

[phillnjack]

Manufacturers of propellers offering a labbing process for extra money is a complete piss take in my opinion., they advertise that the blades will be
perfectly uniform, perfectly balanced and blades will be true etc for an extra $$$$$, is this a wind up or what ?

This might be correct of how it will return to you, but this is also what they advertise their props to be that do not have the special treatment ?

Personally I have not ever seen an advert from a major outboard manufacturer offering props to the general public that are not ready to be put
into service.
Never seen an advert saying " these are our cheap stainless line of props that need to be balanced and have the pitch of each blade rectified and
be equalised to each other. Yes these are our special cheapo end of the line deals, have a nice day.

Unless it is stated that a prop is not 100% ready to be used , then Why are their props not already to this specification ?
mercury, suzuki, brp, yamaha, tohatsu etc are exactly giving these stainless props away, infact they ask a very high premium even for the
average everyday recreational propeller.


if I go to buy a brand new in the box propeller, why is it not perfectly balanced ?, and why are the blades not 100% uniform too ?.
The prop should be as advertised and be fit for purpose, but if its not within 1% of being statically balanced then it should not be offered as fit to
use straight away.

It seems that it has become to the norm to go out spend a shed load of money, buy this great looking propeller then send it to someone else to get
it balanced and the pitch put right !!!! are you mad ?

you would not go out and buy a Cadillac and the sales man say's "oh by the way sir, this model looks a great one, but it dont like going round left turns
and vibrates a fair bit, the door panels are a bit lumpy and the windscreen wipers dont work, but for another $5,000 we can make it just as it should be in
the first place ????
although we advertise our cars are great USA built etc, they realy are not anywhere near finished when we sell them to the public and are infact made.
somewhere else in the world but do come with a "built in the usa sticker"
Oh and just one more thing, the wheels are not all the same size, but nobody seems to moan about this, its an easy fix if you want it right ?

yes I understand that propellers are often custom modified to a particular boat and that is very understandable, and shops like DAH do a wonderfull job.
BUT you should not ever be able to buy a brand new prop that needs to be balanced with say 3 different pitch blades.
This is very bad work ethics and the customer should not have to pay for this service at all.

Why do people put up with this type of thing, I definitely would not pay for a new item that needs work just to be put right.
Once again I am not talking about specials or having it customised, I am talking straight out the box ready for use propellers.

If I decide I am going to buy a new prop I will take my own balancer with me to check it out, might seem a bit extreme, but why would I want to buy
something that is not as it should be. ?

I have seen a few posts on this forum where people state things like
" oh yeah his props are always out of balance or wrong pitch ", so why would you ever go back ?
why not simply return it and ask for a good one.


do any of you ever send the prop back or ask for a refund or atleast ask for it to be put right at no expense to yourself. ?
or do you just swallow it and moan about it on the net due to being to weak to complain to the makers of the props ?

.

[Davidlake]

There is a difference in the performance of a "hand tuned" prop from an experienced hand vs. a mass-produced unit that is, maybe polished at best. To use your automobile analogy, compare a hand-built Ferrari engine to that of a Yugo!

[wicheckmate]

its time and money..... Most recreational boaters the props that come out are totally fine. But there is always better right? yes the oem's do keep there props coming out to a certain spec. but that doesn't mean it can't be better. Unless someone has a pitch gauge and the proper tools they will never know. Slap it on go for a ride and hey its a pretty darn good prop out of the box but that doesn't mean it can't be better. Look at how many people buy sports cars, atv's bikes whatever, they are good for "most" consumers. If you want something that performs a little better than you need to hand tune it. Period.

[David]

Aluminum props, 'standard' stainless props, high performance props, 'labbed' props, I think it stops at the likes of Dewald. I know where my wallet starts and stops on the chain.

[loop]

There are many different tolerances for balancing just as there are for machining. Just like over finishing in machining, over balancing is a waste of time and money.Typical outboard props are most likely balanced to run at about 3000 RPMs. The lab process I assume,includes balancing it to a closer tolerance that matches the higher RPM range.Even after being labbe, any decent balance man could make even more improvements to the balance job.
If its within its tolerance it can be considered perfect, but it can always be improved upon.

[mariawhitetrash]

For the average consumer on a fishing or leisure boat an 'out the box' prop will be absolutely fine and cause no damage - why would they want to pay the premium for a hand finished propeller that makes no difference to the performance of their boat?

It's like complaining that the engine in your family car isn't blueprinted, balanced & ported - there's no point. All of the premium propeller manufacturers offer lab finished or blueprinted props, but you pay the price for that work.

[David - WI]

Looking at the dinged up props going in & out at the boat landing; it's not too hard to figure out why the average pleasure boater / fisherman doesn't want to spend a fortune on a hand finished prop. They want or need to go into areas that are not "prop friendly" and would rather have cheaper, thicker blades that can be repaired more easily.

[phillnjack]

so your all saying it would be unreasonable for me to pay £500 for a propeller and expect the 3 blades to be the same pitch and to expect it to be balanced ?

wow how terrible for me to expect the goods I would be buying to actually be what it says on the box ?


2 points here that need to be addressed..

quotes from above statements.
1/ For the average consumer on a fishing or leisure boat an 'out the box' prop will be absolutely fine and cause no damage - ?

2/ why would they want to pay the premium for a hand finished propeller that makes no difference to the performance of their boat?

first off yes an un-balanced and un-even pitched set of blades can and will cause long term damage to any running gear, ie premature wear to bearings and
possible damage to propeller shaft (stress and fatigue).

secondly, who says a hand finished prop will not make any difference to the performance ? of course it would.

Most of the boats on this forum are not 100% race only boats. yes most are extremely fast boats, but not mostly race only boats.
Are you saying that none of these "pleasure" boats should buy or get their props tweaked and tuned as they will not perform any better ?

[mariawhitetrash]

Your car would perform better with more expensive tyres, if someone is into performance cars but not necessarily racing there's nothing stopping them buying more expensive tyres. If you want to throw money at a boat to gain performance that's fine. I really don't get what you're complaining about? If you want a perfectly balanced prop with a lovely finish they're available, or you can have any prop balanced and blueprinted to make it as perfect as you want - but why would your average boater want to pay £1000 for a perfect prop just to get their rpm into the recommended range? (Which is the primary goal when propping a non-performance boat)

[loop]

If your brand new propeller vibrates excessively out of the box then I would say that its defective and should be replaced or repaired at no cost to you. But remember,propeller imbalance is not always the cause of vibration.
Quite frankly I'm happy that there are different levels of quality in most products. I dont want to pay for a race prop with a lab finish and near perfect balance if i'm gonna put it on my 22mph pontoon boat.
I understand your frustration with shoddy workmanship. I read and commented on your post about the OMC looper ports. What Youre missing is that if the product performs as advertised,then who cares what the porting looks like or the balance tolerances are? If you buy a 225 Evinrude and it puts out less than the BIA standard,and after investigating it shows that it is caused by the substandard porting and machine work,then you have a case. Sucks that OMC/BRP left all that horsepower in there but the customer STILL got the power level they paid for.

[Capt.Insane-o]

LOL. Somebody had an extra big cup of dickhead at breakfast.

[mariawhitetrash]

LOL. Somebody had an extra big cup of dickhead at breakfast.

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