I really do not see much "regedizing" of any of these thngs since the
materials they are made out of are common every day materials to begin
with., Its the old addage. If its a hobby folks will pay through the
nose for it . Granted there may not be as much of a demand for special
ized chillers or thre high power ights etc so the manuf and scale of
sales is much smaller but I also have a hard time believeing even with
such a small audience these items need to cost as much as they do.

For example ballasts for lights. Ballasts are not rocket science, and
even if the parts inside some of the ones like Ice CAp are slightly
different, odds are th eactual cost of th eparts is not that much
different if at all from a common electronic ballast would consist of.
It is no any harder to solder in a part numer such and such with three
leads as it is to solder in part number such and such that is almost
dientical to the first part except for its values. Its just a typical
rip and gouge of the folks who want and are willing to spend what it
takes to get what they want or think they needs to have.

Just like the chillers, titanium for the most part is not as expensive
as some would have y think it is. There is all kind sof grades and
alloys of titanium.I have lots of it myself. Yes its a might more $$
than say stainless but not overly expensive to warrant the price
differences in chillers.



On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:34:33 -0500, KurtG
wrote:


Why are some things so expensive?

A 1/2 hp chiller runs over a $1000. The BTU's don't even rival a window
AC unit which runs under $100. Or, an office water cooler that runs $150.

Ballasts over $800.
Protein Skimmer for $250. Seems like a simple plastic device.

Sure they need to be rugidized for a salt environment, but Jeez! There
doesn't seem to be enough competition in these products. Or, am I
missing something?

--Kurt



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!