Tungsten Carbide Wedding Bands, often referred to as "Tungsten Rings" for short, have quickly gained popularity in recent years, especially among men. Retailers have caught on to this trend. If you take a look on-line, you will see there are countless retailers selling wedding bands made of tungsten carbide. However, Tungsten Rings like all new products that have gained in popularity in such a short time, there is little knowledge, regulation or standardization of tungsten wedding bands. How do you really know if the retailer you are buying from is selling you a high quality tungsten ring? In many cases, the jewelers themselves do not even know if they are selling you a high quality tungsten ring or a low quality tungsten ring because the product is so new and popular they have not properly educated themselves on it, but they want to carry it to increase their sales. The only fact that just about all retailers mention is that high quality tungsten carbide rings use trace amounts of nickel in the composition of the ring and low quality rings use cobalt. There are many more factors to pay attention to when making a decision to purchase a tungsten wedding band. This article will cover three things every consumer should attempt to find out before they purchase a ring from a jeweler.

Purity:

When purchasing Platinum, White Gold or Palladium Rings, people tend to ask about the purity of the metal used to make a ring. For example, they might ask if a gold ring is 14 karat or 18 karat. 18 karat is better because it is made of 75% gold whereas 14k is made of just 58.3% gold. Based on this logic, one would assume a 24 karat (100%) gold ring is even better. Well, not really. Jewelry made of pure gold is too soft and would easily bend that is why you will not find any pure gold rings at a reputable jewelry store. When it comes to Tungsten, an alloy with a purity of 85% Tungsten Carbide is the standard for producing the best quality rings. If there is too little the rings are not as hard and scratch-resistant as they could be. If there is too much tungsten carbide, the rings will become too brittle and crack easily. Ask your retailer what is the percentage of tungsten carbide in the rings they sell. The answer should be 85%. If they do not know, then you should not purchase your ring from them.

Price:

Just because a tungsten ring is made of 85% tungsten carbide and uses nickel instead of cobalt does not make it high quality. Often times, shoppers just compare prices when deciding which retailer to buy from. One of the most important factors that many shoppers do not pay attention to is the quality of a ring. Normally, price is an indication of a product's quality. Beware of extremely cheap tungsten rings. Rings that retail for less than $100 usually are an indication of poor quality. Since tungsten wedding bands are each made by hand they are labor intensive and a cheap ring means less labor hours were put into that ring. Tungsten carbide rings are unique because they are not made the same way as gold or platinum rings are made. Because of the high price of gold and platinum, individual molds are created for each ring style and then molten metal is poured into the molds. Once the metal cools and hardens the ring is nearly finished. It only needs minimal polishing work. This leads to less material wastage and less labor hours spent polishing and grinding the ring into the desired shape. On the other hand, tungsten rings are not cast into the shape of its design. Each ring starts out from a rough cast that looks exactly the same. Through intense labor and machining, the ring acquires its finished design, much like a statue is chiseled out of a solid block of rock. Hence, low prices equate to less time spent on making a precision ring. When comparing prices, the consumer should not only consider the cost to purchase the ring, but also the cost of owning the ring.

Hidden Fees:

Cost of ownership is something consumers never think about. They think once they purchase, that's it, no more money will leave their pocket. Well, they could need a refund because they do not like the ring after all. They could need a different size because they made a mistake on their finger size. Something could happen to the ring and they need to replace it. When looking for a reputable on-line jeweler of tungsten wedding bands, another sure way to tell if they carry high quality rings is by checking if they charge any fees for refunds, size exchanges, lifetime warranties and lifetime sizing. Just because a jeweler says they do not charge fees for the previously mentioned types of transactions, that does not mean you are home free. Many retailers claim 30 day refunds/exchanges, but they fail to mention they charge a re-stocking or processing fee. Some do not tell you their "free shipping" is only free if you keep the ring. When you try to return it, they deduct the shipping cost from your refund. Be sure to find out if they charge any or types of fees associated with their "Free" services. Retailers who know they do not carry high quality products try to deter you from returning or exchanging a ring you bought from them by charging fees. They are hoping when you see the fees you will reconsider and just keep the ring because it is "not worth it" to return the ring.

Another sure sign that a retailer is offering inferior tungsten carbide rings is when they try to make it look like their rings are high quality by offering a Lifetime Warranty stating if the rings should fail to live up to its standards you can send it back and they will replace it with a brand new one. Customers often do not ask if there is a fee to exercise the lifetime warranty. They just assume it is free because, quite frankly it should be free. Then to their surprise when (not "if") something does happen to these low quality rings, the consumer is slapped with a $50 fee to replace the ring. There are some unscrupulous retailers who shameless advertise they offer a Lifetime Warranty on their rings, but when you try to replace your defective ring, they charge a $50 "deductible" which purportedly covers the cost of processing your replacement ring, not the cost of the ring itself. I doubt a consumer feels better about paying a $50 processing fee instead of a $50 fee to use the lifetime warranty. Reputable jewelers who stand behind the quality of their rings should offer a free lifetime warranty that is truly free. Jewelers who charge fees to replace rings have no incentive to carry the best quality rings because they actually make more money when the consumer wants to replace their inferior tungsten rings. These kinds of jewelers are really just interested in locking you into a lifetime commitment of paying those fees. If there is no extra revenue to be made off of consumers who exercise their lifetime warranties, then the jeweler has every incentive to carry only the best quality tungsten rings.