[BC] Freeland Tubes now gone, taken over by Econco

[Mike McCarthy]

I switched to Randy's operation as an experiment to see how they 
compared to Econco about 3 years ago. They were about 15% less.

My 4CX15000A rebuild from Freeland provided about the same life as 
Econco's.  So that was a win.

Conversely, I had a series of 4CX3500's experience super short life (as 
in completely running through the tube's nameplate emission in less than 
3 months) due to a bad batch of filaments. The filaments ran hot.Randy 
has been warranty'g the series so far and I have yet another one 
failing. I normally get 3 years a tube at the well below nameplate power 
level being run.

Now....this last replacement (5th tube in two years) waiting to go in is 
supposed to be a different filament.  So we'll see, but I fear with this 
last new tube the warranty will get short changed if in fact this 
"different" tube also fails. I've already spoken with Debbie Storz at 
Econco and they have yet to receive all the paper work from Covington. 
So, there is a bit of an unknown still at play.

Thus my total experience with Freeland has been a mixed bag.

And you would do well to make sure you have all your correspondence with 
Randy ready to forward in case the paperwork from their end is 
incomplete should there be a warranty issue.

Bigger picture view is a bit disturbing. Are there any other rebuilders 
out there now worth their services? CPII has now all but cornered the 
high powered rebuilding business and dominates the new tube business.

MM

On 2/15/2012 1:05 AM, jeff at rfproof.com wrote:
> Was not Freeland considered superior to ECONCO in recent years? Is this good news?
>
> Jeff Johnson, CPBE
> WNKU WNKN WNKE
>