Everyone loves a bargain. And, why wouldn’t they? That feeling of spotting a great deal on a product or service that other people pay full price for is undeniably satisfying.

On the other hand, it’s also important to be mindful of false economies. “What you pay is what you get” and “if something sounds too good to be true…” are old sayings that frequently apply.

Let’s take an example. In recent years, we’ve noticed some other sports suppliers offering cheap tennis nets imported from countries outside of the UK. To many buyers, these nets can seem like a good purchase, however they may also have subtle differences that set them apart from nets designed specifically for the British market.

We’ve noticed a growing number of customers reporting that their tennis post winders have broken. On further investigation, the root cause of the problem was determined to be the type of net being used. But how is that possible?

Many nets not specifically designed for use with British tennis posts are supplied with a 4mm thick headline wire, whereas British net winders are typically designed to accept wire 3mm thick. Whilst a thicker headline wire might sound like an upgrade, it does create a problem…

As the tennis net is tensioned up, the headline wire is designed to neatly spool around the winder’s spindle. The image below nicely demonstrates how a winder should function correctly.

As British winders are designed to handle a 3mm thick wire, use of a 4mm thick wire means that the spindle overfills, often leading to the wire overflowing into the gears, which then breaks the winder. Suddenly a £10 or £20 saving on a ‘bargain’ tennis net has cost £100 to replace a broken winder. Not such a good saving in the long run.

The moral of the story is of course obvious.

The good news is that all tennis nets and headline wires supplied by sportsequip.co.uk are designed to work correctly with British tennis posts. If you’re unsure about which posts you may have or need expert advice on tennis posts, nets or winders, give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.