FAQs
What is the difference between shielded and sealed bearings?
There are three main bearing enclosure types: Open (no enclosure), Shielded and Sealed.
Open bearings have no protection for the balls and races against dust and dirt. They are generally used in enclosed environments such as gear cases and axles with other seals. They are normally lubricated with a small amount of high-quality grease or the oil from the gear box.
Shielded bearings have metal shields either pressed into the outer race or held in by a snap ring and do not touch the inner race. These are best for places where you are not likely to encounter much dust and dirt, such as bicycle wheels and motors. They are normally lubricated with a small amount of high-quality light grease.
Sealed bearings have rubber seals pressed into the outer race and seal against the inner race. These are normaiil used where dust and dirt are expected or to retain fluids on one side. Seals can come in several types depending on the application. They are normally permanently lubed with a high-quality grease.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this FAQ or any other bearing questions.
What is the difference between bearing steel and stainless steel bearings?
Bearing steel, also known as AISI 52100 steel, is the main type used for ball bearings. It is easy to machine and hardens very well to the hardness (R62C+) needed for long life. It is considered a high carbon steel containing some chromium (about 1%). It has low corrosion resistance so should be used where there are no corrosives or moisture present.
The most common stainless steel used in commercial bearings is 440C. It is also a high carbon steel with much higher chromium content (around 18%). It has similar hardening characteristics to bearing steel but is normally limited to R60C hardness. It is also a magnetic steel where other types of stainless are not.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this FAQ or any other bearing questions.
Payment Information
What payment types do you accept?
Since we are an online only store, we only accept credit card, Paypal and Apple Pay currently
Can I be reimbursed through the original payment method?
When refunds are processed, we prefer to process them through the same method as the original purchase. This happens 99% of the time. If this is not possible, we will issue store credit to your account
Can the country receiving the shipment be different than the country of purchase?
The only way we can do this is if you use a mail forwarding service based in the USA. This is for your protection to prevent fraud.
Orders and Returns
Delivery charges for orders from the Online Shop?
All delivery charges are calculated at the time of order for the shipping method requested. Please be aware that we have no control over how much shipping costs.
What exactly happens after ordering?
Your order is passed to our warehouse for processing.
At that time, US shipping address is validated as much as possible using the USPS address validation tool.
Addresses for International orders cannot generally be validated but we make our best effort to make sure they are correct.
You are responsible to make sure your address appears correctly on your order.
Any order paid for with Paypal is required to be sent to the address in Paypal.
Then, your order is pulled, packed and taken to the post office. This happens every weekday, depending on weather.
How long will delivery take?
Most domestic shipments will take between 3 days and a week.
International shipments can take a week to a month depending on how customs and postal services in your country handle small packages. All international orders have a tracking number that most countries can track as well.
How can I return an item?
We accept returns under two circumstances:
1. If we sent you the wrong item and we request it back, we will credit you for the return postage as well as the product itself.
2. If you ordered the wrong product and would like to return it for credit, it must be unused and in the original packaging. We will credit you for the product cost only.
Miscellaneous
Which browser is best to use the site?
Most up to date browsers work well with our system. We have noted some rare problems with Firefox. We use Google Chrome.
How do I subscribe to the newsletter?
We do not currently have a news letter but you can keep up with major items through our FAQ page. Feel free to ask us questions through the Contact Us page.
Will I receive the same product that I see in the picture?
Pictures for most engine kits will contain the same bearings as shown. At other times, pictures will represent the type and style of bearings. Since we stock so many different bearings, it is impractical to store pictures of every different bearing.
Will you restock items indicated as “out of stock?”
Unless a product is listed as "CLOSEOUT", we fully intend to restock that product. We cannot guarantee when that will actually occur.