Sourcing Panel Parts vs Kal's Kit Costs

[kuips]

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For anyone who has sourced all their own parts for control panel, could you share time and cost estimates to acquire all the parts? I'm trying to decide if I want to source parts for myself or just order the kit and I figured that someone here has already done that research. Thanks!

[kal]

Not to toot our own horn here, but I think you'll find it difficult to do an exact part match as we tend to only include better than average parts in our kits. Part quality can vary depending on the manufacturer. After years of trying different components to filter out the less desirable ones, we believe that the parts we supply are higher than average quality. Yes, these parts are more expensive but you get what you pay for. For example, we've been through 3 or 4 switch manufacturers now. The ones we include now (the ones with red and green contactors) are 150% more expensive than our previous ones which were already more expensive than the originals I used on my prototype you see in our build instructions. We place reliability, performance and safety over cost. There are definitely hundreds of manufacturers and sellers of cheaper components, just like everything in life.

Other advantages to purchasing one of our kits:

Save time: No need to order the hundreds of parts yourself from the various suppliers. Click once, pay once!

Get the right parts: No risk of ordering the wrong part by mistake, no risk of the wrong part being sent by the supplier.

Parts that are guaranteed to work: We guarantee parts will work and warranty them all.

Custom enclosure with less work: Our kit enclosures are custom made for us and result in less work for you. There is no need to move the ground post, no need to seal and sand the bottom cable plate, and no need to prime and paint as the enclosure is already professionally powder coated with an industrial flat textured charcoal/black finish. Also available is an optional upgrade to have the enclosure door, top and bottom pre-punched along with the heat sink tapped. (The back plate is not drilled or tapped, allowing you to lay out your parts as you see fit).

Better support: When you buy one of our kits we're best positioned to support you during your build. If you buy elsewhere, it's difficult to assist as we do not know exactly what was purchased. People quite often purchase incorrect parts.

If interested, our order page is here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

Kal

[kal]

Not to toot our own horn here, but I think you'll find it difficult to do an exact part match as we tend to only include better than average parts in our kits. Part quality can vary depending on the manufacturer. After years of trying different components to filter out the less desirable ones, we believe that the parts we supply are higher than average quality. Yes, these parts are more expensive but you get what you pay for. For example, we've been through 3 or 4 switch manufacturers now. The ones we include now (the ones with red and green contactors) are 150% more expensive than our previous ones which were already more expensive than the originals I used on my prototype you see in our build instructions. We place reliability, performance and safety over cost. There are definitely hundreds of manufacturers and sellers of cheaper components, just like everything in life.

Other advantages to purchasing one of our kits:

Save time: No need to order the hundreds of parts yourself from the various suppliers. Click once, pay once!

Get the right parts: No risk of ordering the wrong part by mistake, no risk of the wrong part being sent by the supplier.

Parts that are guaranteed to work: We guarantee parts will work and warranty them all.

Custom enclosure with less work: Our kit enclosures are custom made for us and result in less work for you. There is no need to move the ground post, no need to seal and sand the bottom cable plate, and no need to prime and paint as the enclosure is already professionally powder coated with an industrial flat textured charcoal/black finish. Also available is an optional upgrade to have the enclosure door, top and bottom pre-punched along with the heat sink tapped. (The back plate is not drilled or tapped, allowing you to lay out your parts as you see fit).

Better support: When you buy one of our kits we're best positioned to support you during your build. If you buy elsewhere, it's difficult to assist as we do not know exactly what was purchased. People quite often purchase incorrect parts.

If interested, our order page is here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

Kal

[dp Brewing Company]

A control panel EXACTLY like Kal's, Yes purchase directly from Kal. For all the reasons Kal already described. Could you piece one together cheaper, yes but you would taking a gamble on quality. It may be better but could be worse.

[Tungsten]

Please please please take this with a grain of salt because my panel is not an exact duplicate (extra timer, timers are different, components not the same, some other things added/removed). I'm also not finished yet.

That said, my current projected total is about $1300. However, I haven't bought all the parts yet and I know that some have gone up since I priced them out. I also don't include shipping in my estimates. So it will be higher.

The biggest "cost" to sourcing all of it, however, is the time. You will spend a ton of time doing research and exploring ideas, and then spend it again when you second guess yourself. The time measuring, cutting, perfecting, and then painting the enclosure is a huge time sink. The other thing to be careful about is, as Kal mentioned, ordering wrong parts. There are a ton of components in this thing. You will order something incorrectly - and that's where the costs start to add up. You might just need an extra switch or a low-cost component that wasn't ordered properly, but the shipping for one little part is still a lot.

If you want an exact replica, I'd honestly say go with the DIY kit. Even if it's $50 or $100 more than sourcing yourself, it's worth it for the time saved and all the reasons that Kal mentioned.

[Master]

I bought components as I had money, I maybe saved $100 over the kit price, but that was buying a cosmetic blemish enclosure, I used a different (cheaper) Auber timer, etc.

If I had the free cash all at once, the Kal kit is a good bang for the buck, especially with a prepunched cabinet.

[Ozarks Mountain Brew]

all I can say is you get what you pay for in electronics, Ive bought cheap and replace some things twice just to buy the correct part the third time, if sourcing parts I would start with auberins and stay away from ebay if possible

[kuips]

Thanks all, since it sounds like it may only a little over $100 cheaper to part out, I agree that Kal's kit seems like the way to go.