About 2 years ago, I ordered a set of universal poppets on Amazon for my kegs. They are the generic open spring type. They've mostly worked ok, other than being a bit too stiff. However, in the past few weeks I've had 2 of them utterly fail on me. In both cases, I pulled off the ball lock QD, and the o-ring mushed its way out of the post, losing all pressure. See pic.
Looking online, almost all of the universal poppets look exactly the same as the ones I have now (Morebeer has some fancier looking ones for $7 each). Is there any difference in quality between what the homebrew stores are selling and the imports from Amazon? Are the fancy ones with the little feet worth getting? Or should I just stock up on o-rings and plan on replacing them once a year?
Looking online, almost all of the universal poppets look exactly the same as the ones I have now (Morebeer has some fancier looking ones for $7 each). Is there any difference in quality between what the homebrew stores are selling and the imports from Amazon? Are the fancy ones with the little feet worth getting? Or should I just stock up on o-rings and plan on replacing them once a year?