Bearing quality

[Hay hay hay]

I have a bad bearing in my drum mower. I will be replacing a 6210 2RS C3. I have found many sources for the bearing,
and prices ranging fro $20 to $60. The cost of the bearing is minor in relation to the amount of work to change it, so
I want to replace it with the a highest quality bearing, one that will last. So my question is..what is the best
bearing and why?

 

[SVcummins]

There are many quality differences in bearings the best thing to do would be to call a bearing supply house and tell them you want the best bearing you can get a 20$ bearing won?t be as good as the 60$ but without going to a dealer or getting the specs it?s hard to go on price alone

 

[Steve@Advance]

Lets look at the part number breakdown.

The 6210 is the size. A very common size, readily available.

The 2RS means both sides sealed, rubber seals.

The C3 indicates it is a deep groove design. That means it is capable of supporting radial load (pushing the shaft in a side to side load) and some axial load (end load).

As long as you cover those specs, and stay with a name brand bearing, the quality will be fine. I have found buying bearings online results in tremendous savings, especially with larger, or specialty bearings. But that is a common bearing. I would not be afraid of a $20 bearing, I would not pay $60 for one!

 

[Steve@Advance]

Forgot this...
Bearing Specs

 

[jtwat]

I've hade best results using either SKF or Timken bearings.

 

[SVcummins]

That?s what can make buying things on the internet a little harder a lot of times the exact same part will have 3 or 4 different prices just have to know how to compare and research

 

[Steve@Advance]

That's very true.

Same thing with walking into a bearing supply and asking the counter man.

Will he actually know and give an honest answer?

Or will he give some line of nonsense and sell you the same product at an inflated price. Or find something more expensive because it's not coming from his usual supplier, or has some minor difference that makes it a limited run and greatly increases the price? I suspect most work on sales commission.

 

[Welding man]

I'd be more concerned where the bearing was made. NAPA for one has two lines of bearings. There is a big difference in price between the two. The low price ones are made in CHINA. Given the quality of most things made there, I'd buy the American made one.

 

[rustyfarmall]

I built a 2 wheeled trailer using the spindles and hubs from a salvaged disk. The tapered roller bearings in those hubs were not very good, so I bought new bearings. Made in China. Good enough for a trailer that sees very little use, and always at very slow speeds. If I had been wanting to use that trailer at highway speeds I would have returned those bearings and bought Timkens.

 

[moresmoke]

SKF is good, NTN is better. Dealer I used to get bearings from always asked what quality you wanted. Those were #1 and #2, they had a cheap line of Indian made bearings, that were good enough for limited use, but cheap.

 

[Gambles]

I agree with buying name-brand bearings.
In a former lifetime, or at least a few years ago, I was the (one and only) mechanic for a manufacturing company that had about 30 total forklifts, of all sizes.
The lifts that got used the hardest were Caterpillar 10,000 lb. lifts with a three stage mast. The company had about 5 of these. They were used hard enough that each lift had the bearings in these masts replaced about once a year. Replacing these bearings was not a simple job and to do it most efficiently, it took about three guys a good hour for a complete replacement. It was also somewhat nerve-racking, as one wrong move could cost you a body part.
This place employed a guy whose sole job was purchasing and I think he purchased SKF bearings. Now these mast bearings were not cheap, so he did a little comparison shopping and started purchasing some Chinese-made, no name bearings instead of the SKF bearings. Instead of lasting a full year, suddenly these bearings were going out about every 4-5 months. A teardown of these Chinese bearings soon told us why. Instead of 8 marble-sized balls in each SKF bearing, the Chinese bearing had only been manufactured with 6.
A little talk with the purchaser and a comparison of the SKF and the Chinese-made bearing soon got us our SKF bearings back.

 

[JD Seller]

Find out the load rating on each bearing your looking at. The higher the load rating the more balls it has inside. The heaviest load rated bearing will usually be the best in quality.

 

[SVcummins]

This is why I rarely buy anything without doing research on it first . eBay is a great example you can find parts with every price in the world sometimes the cheaper price Is the higher quality product . Something like this is usually go oem because it?s normally a quality product you don?t have to worry about

 

[showcrop]

I can save a lot of money compared to dealer OEM by getting bearings at my local bearing store They sell name brand only, mainly NTN and Timken. I see no need to shop on line for them.

 

[DR. EVIL]

Gambles - In days gone by I was that purchasing person at several different places, bought everything from o-rings, huge castings, forgings, telephone system, new fork truck, priced a new company truck but they didn't give me the money to buy that.
I had a situation where I couldn't "Afford Free". Our 2nd shift warehouse guy ground castings I released to the machine shop for machining. Another casting was supposed to fit snuggly into a pocket on the end of the 2-3 arms on the casting. He'd let me know when he got low on the various grind stones. When we were busy he'd use 5-6 stones a day. I'd stuff my pockets full at the foundry, our parent company. Finally they ran out, I talked to their buyer, he gave me a phone number for their abrasive salesman. He came over with several samples, I gave them to my grinder, next day he said he ground ALL night with one stone, cut fast, cool, just lasted and lasted, did over twice as many parts as normal that night. I ordered a Couple 100 pcs boxes. With the cheap stones, guy took a break, bathroom, cup of coffee or bottle of free soda or water, chit-chat with other guys on way to the bathroom, stone change took minimum of 10-15 minutes. I needed the parts he was grinding, I'd do ANYTHING to make his job easier & faster. Darn good worker when I got him good tools. I NEVER got that kind of feedback from his boss.
I couldn't fix every problem, but I couldn't fix problems I didn't even know about. If a change I made caused problems when trying to save some money, I'd change back no questiones asked. As a general rule, I saved my employers 4 to 6 times my annual salary every year.

 

[WGM]

I have found prices of parts including bearings is relative to quality. Good luck shopping by price only.

 

[showcrop]

I have found that the identical brand name bearing as OEM sold at a local bearing store will often be a third of what you pay at a dealer. The same goes for seals.

 

[showcrop]

I have found that compared to buying from a dealer that you can pay about 1/3 as much purchasing the EXACT same bearing at a local bearing store. The same goes for seals.