We get this question all the time. A customer sees our price for our FAG & SKF bearings and compare it to one of our competitors budget bearings and wonders if they’re paying for a name or if the budget bearing is a more economical solution. This is a fair question, so here is the answer.

They’re Not the Same

Budget bearings are not counterfeit and are not a health or safety risk. All budget bearings are made to the same dimensions. A 6203 budget bearing will fit the same space as a 6203 SKF bearing. However, budget bearings are not made with the same tolerances, or manufactured with the same quality control.

The don’t use the same quality hardenend steel, and give it the same level of consistency. The grinding and the level of control is not as precise. This means the budget bearing will not last as long, will not operate as smoothly, and will not perform as well when the bearing is under a heavy load or when the bearing is spinning at a high velocity.

When Budget Bearings Are Fine

Budget bearings do the job when the application is light duty, the bearing is not doing a lot of work, and the consequence of failure is not a big problem. For example, budget bearings are used in garden machinery, home made (DIY) projects, low power conveyors, and hobby machinery.Temporary repairs or testing. If you’re fixing something to get it running while you order the proper part, or you’re prototyping and might change the design. Budget bearings make sense.

Applications where bearings are consumables. Some environments chew through bearings regardless of quality. If you’re replacing the bearings regardless of quality, premium bearings don’t make sense.

When You Need Branded

High-speed applications. Budget bearings don’t run as smoothly and generate more heat at speed. If your application runs fast, branded bearings are worth it.

Heavy loads or shock loading. Better steel handles stress better. Budget bearings might work initially but wear faster under heavy or variable loads.

Critical machinery where downtime is expensive. If a bearing failure shuts down production or damages other components, the cost of a branded bearing is nothing compared to the cost of failure. We’ve seen customers save twenty quid on a budget bearing and lose thousands in downtime when it failed early.

Harsh environments. Branded bearings handle abuse better and last longer where conditions aren’t ideal.

Precision applications.

If you want hassle-free operations with low noise and little to no vibrations, you can consider branded bearings.

What About Mid-Range?

We have bearings across different price categories – budget, mid-range, and premium. The mid-range ones are not so bad – better than budget, less expensive than premium. They are suitable for general engineering you want reliability without breaking the bank. An NTN or NACHI bearing for instance gives you value for your money.

The Real Cost

This is the important calculation. An NTN bearing costs, say, £5. An NTN bearing costs £15. If the NTN bearing lasts a year and the branded bearing lasts four years, you’re better off with the branded bearing – even before you factor in the labour cost of changing it three extra times.

However, if you’re replacing bearings annually anyway because of your applications conditions, or the machine’s only running light duty, that budget bearing might genuinely be the sensible choice.

Be Honest About Your Application

A lot of bearing failures come from contamination, misalignment, poor lubrication, or even using the wrong bearing type – not from poor quality of the bearing itself. A faulty installation of any bearing will not last, whether it be a budget bearing or a premium one.

Before saying that you’re replacing bearings too often, consider the installation process along with the surrounding conditions. Is the right bearing being used for the appropriate load and speed? Is poor lubrication the problem? After getting these things right, then consider bearing quality to be the limiting factor.

We believe there is a value in stocking both premium and budget bearings. If you tell us what a bearing is supposed to do, we will tell you whether a budget one or branded one makes sense for that application. In some cases, a budget bearing is all that is needed. In some cases, using a budget bearing is a false economy. It completely depends on what the bearing is being asked to do.