factorone33
Member
Dr. Dennis Stouffer said:I think Whelen is skating on thin ice unless they are very forthright by stating that some (or many) LEDs, and speaker drivers, or whatever components are sourced off-shore. The materials may be of excellent quality, the LEDs may be fantastic, and the speaker drivers may blow away the whole world of sirens, but these are not at issue. Deception is the issue. After all, the speaker is a major part of the siren, and LEDs are not after thoughts to critical warning systems.
Whelen isn't the only manufacturer "skating on thin ice". I'd put the American "authenticity" of Whelen's product line against Code 3, Federal, Sound Off, or anybody else without hesitation. And this is why:
dawson75 said:most if not all the LED's are made over seas. The US market could not manufacture the leds as cheaply.
Most Light-Emitting Diodes are either Korean, Japanese, or Chinese (primarily Chinese). American LEDs run 2 to 3 times more expensive than their Asian counterparts (e.g. I can buy warm-white 1-watt diodes direct from China for as cheap as 18¢ apiece, whereas in the U.S. for the same diodes, I may pay as much as $1 per diode).
This doesn't apply to just diodes: capacitors, resistors, transistors, MOS-FETs, zener diodes, etc. Solid state electronics everywhere are designed in the U.S., and often assembled or "manufactured" in the U.S., but 90% of the raw components come from overseas.
I'm not some super Whelen fan-boy hell bent on telling everybody they're wrong. Whelen uses some of the same diodes that everybody else uses--but I support Whelen because of the quality of the parts around the diodes (circuit boards, reflectors, housings, lenses, etc.). And their warranty is worth it.