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Quality Warning for Erem E7SA Tweezers from Amazon

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figurativelythedevil:
Hey y'all! I work with small SMT components on the daily for work (down to 0402 generally), so I have a need and appreciation for high quality tweezers. As such, my job was gracious enough to provide me with a set of Weller Erem E7SA curved tweezers. I've used them basically every day since, and knew that I needed a pair for my homelab; they're seriously the best tweezers I ever used. My company bought them through Digikey, but I figured I'd have a look around and see if I could save myself some money, and indeed, I found the same set of tweezers listed on Amazon (shipped & sold by Amazon, not some shady 3rd party) for about $8 cheaper, plus free shipping with prime. Winner winner, right? Went ahead and ordered them, they show up, and I immediately feel something is off about them. The finish of the grips was different, and the tip didn't seem as small or as well machined as the pair I had at work. I didn't want to bring my work tweezers home to compare, so I decided to trust my hunch and I ordered another pair, this time from Digikey. They showed up a few days later and confirmed my suspicion! They were indeed significantly different side-by-side, with the Digikey pair matching the other I use for work. I decided to post an Amazon review to warn others. Since then, I sadly managed to mangle the tips of my work pair and had to order a replacement, this one again was consistent with the quality of the other two Digikey pairs. This leads me to believe that either Weller is binning their tweezers based on what distributor they're going to, their QC is all over the place and I just happened to get a bad pair, or the pair I received from Amazon isn't a genuine pair. I'm leaning toward the third option right now, as it doesn't even look like the two pairs came from the same stamped metal mold (which is how I assume these are made, unsure tbh). Amazon since decided to remove my review after verifying authenticity, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I thought y'all would be ones to appreciate the differences here, so be warned! Stick with trusted distributors!

edit: Disregard the time stamps on the close-up photos, I haven't set the date & time for my microscope, this was just a few weeks ago.

thm_w:
It is a different grind on the tip for sure.
Although their spec sheet gives no actual tip size, all I can find is:

Erem E7SA Specifications:
    Material: Stainless Steel
    Material Category: Metal
    Overall Length: 4.724in
    Point Type: Very Fine
    Weight in g 27.5

I sent the photos to weller email, lets see what they say.

thm_w:
Here is the response:


--- Quote ---thanks and no. We have not shipped that part to Amazon. But yes, these tools are produced only in one location (Switzerland). So it looks like this is at least not a current production from Weller.
--- End quote ---

So that tells me either its a fake, or maybe some very old production run. Not clear on the second part. Was there any date code on the plastic box?
Either way, I think that would give justification to return it to Amazon.

figurativelythedevil:

--- Quote from: thm_w on September 01, 2021, 05:36:39 pm ---Here is the response:


--- Quote ---thanks and no. We have not shipped that part to Amazon. But yes, these tools are produced only in one location (Switzerland). So it looks like this is at least not a current production from Weller.
--- End quote ---

So that tells me either its a fake, or maybe some very old production run. Not clear on the second part. Was there any date code on the plastic box?
Either way, I think that would give justification to return it to Amazon.

--- End quote ---

Interesting! Thanks for reaching out to them! I suppose it could be a fluke and I got some old old stock, I hadn't considered that possibility. Sadly there wasn't a date code on the packaging, just the plain square plastic tube with the barcode & description on it. I couldn't distinguish the packaging of the pair from Amazon from the ones from Digikey, so if it is indeed a fake, they at least got that one right. I don't think I'll be returning the Amazon pair as they're still useful, but I definitely won't be getting another set if something happens to them.

ygi:
Don't expect Weller to publicly throw Amazon under the bus. They will probably settle the matter behind closed door and unfortunate buyers will never know because it's bad PR for both companies.

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