That $400 hydraulic fitting kit I bought off a truck, pure junk

Back in 2019 I was working a shutdown up in Gary and this tool truck rolls through the lot, guy swears these fittings are just as good as the name brand stuff. I dropped $400 on a full assortment, figured I'd use them on this drum replacement job we had coming up. First time I torqued one down to spec, the flare cracked clean across and we had a steam leak that shut us down for three hours. The maintenance super told me straight up, he said 'you bought the pretty version of a headache.' Tried to return the rest but the truck never came back through. Now they're sitting in a bucket in my garage rusting out, I keep telling myself I'll use them for some home project but I know better. Has anyone else gotten burned by those off-brand fitting kits, or did I just catch a bad batch?

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williams.amy21d ago

Wait, are we really blaming the fittings here? I mean, three hours of downtime on a steam line sounds more like a setup problem or maybe the torque spec was off for that application. I've seen brand name stuff crack too when it gets overtorqued or the pipe is dirty. Plus, you bought it off a random truck, that's kind of a gamble from the start. I'm not saying the kit isn't junk, but maybe it's 50% the part and 50% the situation. Idk, I'd probably test a few on a bench before writing off the whole bucket.