Been looking at some old posts when trying to find out about mums.  I noticed that someone bought one off eBay for 50p bucks that ended up being Chinese.  And another poster said they bought the same one off Alibaba for cheaper just to try it.

Quality was less than impressive from what I could tell.  Anyone know about these things?  I'm surprised that Chinese knockoff housings would actually work with real tubes.

Also brought up another question. Are the pvs-14 kits on eBay Chinese made?  The guy who bought one from eBay got it from the same seller that has pvs-14 kits always listed for 750 bucks. I'm assuming those are from Alibaba/china as well?

I appreciate any first hand experiences.

I bought o e of the Chinese MUMs off Ebay. It was an ok housing and it did the job. I had a couple of gripes about it though. There was a safety feature that was a pain in the ass. You had to turn it on then back off then back on in order to power it up. There was also a green LED that shined through the light pipe that washed out the image. It was supposedly a power on indicator. Was totally unnecessary. I ended up sending it back when a deal on a used ENVIS housing popped up.

There is a seller on ebay that is an arfcommer that has two used ENVIS housing for sale and a smoking deal. He also has the clamshell adapter that will allow you to use PVS-14 mounts. Something to think about if you need a good housing.

if you can get the chinese housings for around 300 its a fair deal, since it includes glass. They work reasonably well. The eyepiece is fairly small, but the quality, fit, and finish are good. The movements are smooth, too.

The switch thing is annoying and some of them have it and some don't - it just depends on which revision you are sent. I didn't run into the green light issue - but I did notice that the yellow low battery light liked to kick on prematurely. It would almost be better not running the light pipe.

They are basically the same housings that ATN and Armasight used and you can also order them directly through the manufacturer. I ordered a bunch to test them out, but ultimately, after you start stacking up customs fees (if you want to sell them commercially), it lost the $ savings.

I also bridged a set of these together using an Armasight dovetail bridge and it was ~$800 total for the bridge and housings, which is about half the cost of a typical Bridge kit without glass... They aren't a horrible option, but I would certainly take a PVS-14 or real MUM housing over one.

Thanks guys.  Been trying to find a cheap home for an extra blem 10160 tube that could ideally be helmet mounted.  It would be something I'd loan to a friend or my daughter/nephews when we go camping. The 14 kits aren't terribly priced,  but would be something I'd have to dip into some other funds for.  A 300-400 dollar china-mum or envis woukd be the ticket.

I briefly thought about rigging up a single pod anvis setup, since I have experience with those.  But it'd probably just look dumb and wouldn't be able to be handheld as a monocular.

Envis might be the winner of I can get one of those c clamp mounts

I'm the king of these housings.

Drawbacks: The older circuit boards had a habit of failing, the new revision is tight. The eye relief is annoying and smaller lens (which means more light! your tubes will be brighter), Most have two screws to keep housing on and you can crack the housing due to shitty plastic if you torque even a little too much. Bridges that work well: none. Factory mounting solutions are garbage.

Benefits: Cheap. you can get two for less than the price of one pvs-14 housing which means w the right blem tubes you can do dual nods for 1k-1.2k (bridge will cost $800 though so...) fun to work on! you can still do manual gain if you order the right housing and pop the IR light out, otherwise just drill into housing and mount a pot. The glass tube version is heavy af, BUT OMG THE BEST TIME EVER SHIMMING FOR FIT #1 QUALITY. Did I mention they are cheap and awesome to work with?

well that does sound fun, may get one if I cant snag an envis. Any particular cheap source for ordering one or two at a time?

LOL! Sounds like ATN housings, I`ve got two of their riflescopes I`m going to have to cut open with a dremel to get the tubes out, 20 lbs of torque and they wont unscrew...

They're not bad housings considering the price point and the price point of a PVS-14 housing. Have a few satisfied friends that got into NV on a budget with those housings.

If a $300-400 knock-off seems reasonable, what price range are you looking for a real MUM-14/MUM-14A housing?

that's a good point. I haven't seen any real ones come up for sale except for a set of duals. And it was a real tempting deal but I did not have tubes for them at the time and it sold real quick.