Originally Posted by Dave9
To me it's more about gambling to save 15 minutes.
I can usually get a rebuilt kit for less than the cost of the replacement carb, then spend the time to do that to keep the higher quality major brand carb, OR I can gamble that the specimen of generic carb I receive, doesn't have any defects which make it perform worse or are show stoppers.
If you get a defective one, sure you can maybe get it replaced with extra hassle and time spent, but the process may take longer than that initial 2 days shipping with amazon prime, when usually you find out your carb is bad because you went to use the equipment and may have needed it running sooner rather than later.
That can work, say you are a contractor and you have a couple extra carbs on the truck so if there is an issue you can swap the carb in a couple minutes, but if you have enough of the same equipment then after the first carb swap you can use rebuild kits to rebuild the original carbs in the downtime and have those as spares. If you are a home gamer, you know you're going to need a carb rebuild eventually, so you can just buy the rebuild kit ahead of time so you have it when you need it.
If you don't like fixing carbs, then the Chinese ones are worth it in labour alone. As to the old one being better quality, sure but a brand new carb probably won't have possible leaky floats, or a possible cracked/porous casting that will be hard to detect like an old carb. Rebuild kits aren't much cheaper when you factor in shipping.