Poor quality chains

[Footie]

I had trouble with my derailleur yesterday, so today I carried out a quick spot check.
Discovered (to my horror) one of the links was popped and close to buckling. If it had gone the chain would have broke and things could have got nasty.
Ten minutes on the kitchen floor with a pair of pliers, a centre punch and a hammer and it's all back straight again. A five-mile ride in the 13 mph NNE wind (burrrrr) confirmed ok.
The bike is now just 18 months old and done less than 1500 miles – I didn't expect the chain to give trouble for years.
Anyone else had problems with poor quality chains?
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[dazzie]

What bike is it? Was it lubbed and cleaned often? Sounds pretty scary. I ride motorcycles too and the thought of a big heavy chain snapping *right next to my leg* is sphincter-loosening stuff.

 

[Footie]

The bike is a Cougar Mountain Electric Bike fitted with a LiFePO4 battery. The model is now no longer available. The chain is kept well oiled. I can only surmise that there was a flaw/weakness there from the start (pin not full seated) and it took until now to work loose. I’ve given the chain a good examination and it appears fine. Although the metal is much thinner than chains of old. I would consider changing it for a better one but wouldn’t know what to get.

I ride motorcycles as well (have done for 28 years) and I've had two motorcycle chains snap in that time; one just fell off on to the road (MZ175) - lucky. The other was caught by the all-enclosed chain guard (Suzuki A100) and chamfered the back cog to a knife-edge by the time I stopped
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[flecc]

I've had the odd bike chains snap on me over the more recent years, and there's no doubt that many are poorly made. Never been injured by one, though anyone hearing my expletive each time might think I had been.

For quite a while now I've been buying SRAM chains from SJS, reliable quality and reasonable prices.
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[Mussels]

Fortunately I've not had a motorbike chain snap but my cycle chain did a few weeks ago. The chain was fine but it was the rubbish connector I bought from Halfords that fell apart, it took 5 minutes to put a new one on and I was away. That one lasted a couple of days before it properly snapped in half, what a load of rubbish!
If you carry a multi tool with a chain splitter and a spare SRAM link then it's quite an easy job to do and makes broken chains nothing to get worried about.

 

[Footie]

My derailleur is a 6 speed Shimano so, I presume, the chain I would need (from SJS) would be:

Shimano CN-HG40 6, 7, 8-speed 116 link chain

Correct?
It seems to be the only Shimano chain listed.
Can anyone confirm or advise against?
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[flecc]

That will be fine Footie, but is it long enough? E-bikes often need a bit more then the standard chain, something I overcome by having an extra one to take the extra bits from each time.
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[Footie]

Thanks for confirming flecc.
For now the chain seems fine, so I will give it a little while.
Just had my last pay check for this year (paid monthly) so I think I will wait until January now - (sales) when I will order two and replace
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[Mussels]

when I will order two and replace
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You'll have to count the links at some point so you may as well do it before ordering to see if you really do need 2.