Houston Propeller

[Tony]

He still has a website up, not sure if he is still in business though.
Several of my friends had bad dealings with him.

[smittyseng]

Years ago I bought a 32 pitch merc labbed from him,a std 32 showed up,he then told me any time someone ordered a labbed prop he wanted them to run a std prop FIRST,I already had a std 32,shortly there after his business fell apart and I was afraid to even send the prop back (couldn't reach him,there were others saying they were ripped off) so I ended up with a fairly expensive std 32,fukstick never did answer my continued E-mails or calls,Smitty

[Tony]

One of my buddies sent him a prop to be labbed, he sent back the wrong prop, TWICE!

Another friend of mine sold Darren some props, Darren never paid him, for two years my friend called and e mailed him to no avail. One night on OSO some new guy was getting flamed by the general population for calling Darren a ripoff, I posted the entire story complete with names dates and phone numbers. Five minutes later POOF!

[Griff]

I guess I was lucky with Houston Prop. Sent one prop in to be tweeked and got it back with no issues. Gains were minimal. This was before he had a bunch of personal issues in his life that ended up hurting his business. I know of others who had good results, but this was all at least 6 months before it fell apart.

[kr1276]

I too had problems. His brother-in-law was selling props on ebay and then shipping them from houston propeller. When there was a problem, neither would stand behind it. Heard all the stories but still never took care of my problem.

[US1Fountain]

I'm with Griff and 1 of the lucky ones in a way. I sent him 3 Hydromotive props when he was having a xmas special; polish and balance. 2 for the special and 1 to be looked at as it had a crack in the hub. Once he recieved them, they needed a little more work than originally sent in for. So he said. Of course for more $$. The cracked prop repair cost was same as a used one, so said just send it back unworked. He wouldn't take no and insisted he would fix it. I gave in and let him do his thing. Keep in mind his practice was to charge your CC as soon as you called and said you'd be sending him your props. The charge showed up before I even sent them out! Thinking he was 'THE PROP MAN' I didn't see the light. In the end, my 2 good props do feel balanced even though no gains were seen, and the cracked one was welded and polished. Ended up having as much $ in these 3 props by Darin as 2 brands new ones would have cost. Not counting my intial cost of buying them off an OSO'r saying they were brand new just a month earlier. Darins polishing had a LOT to be desired.
At least I got them back before chit the the fan.

[sleeper]

I too had a less than favorable experience with Darren. I was going to have him lab some props for me and I called and he needed my credit card number prior to shipping them. After reading online about his personal problems, I decided not to ship them. I let him know that I had changed my mine. I noticed on my statement when I got it that the same day I gave him my credit card number, the card was charged for the lab work. I called him and left messages and only when I posted a negative comment on the board did he return my calls and after several months I got my money back. He seems nice and just going through hard times, but still you have to do what you say you will do

[KENNYO]

Ruined one of my props with the old "BRAVORATOR" lab job!

[J.T.]

I was one of the lucky one's too.

[danh63]

My dealing with him was also bad. He kept his thing going long after everyone had figured it out also

[Traviss]

I must have been lucky also, My first prop I sent out on a monday and had it back that friday, he rushed the job for me and it couldn't have been better, It was a labbed 24 with the excellerator design made my boat run like a raped ape. Then I did the same thing a few years later, sent him a 25 laser, back on my doorstep same week. I still run this prop today, he treated me real well. but all of this was at least 3-4 yrs ago If I remember.

[danh63]

Mine was about 4 or 5 months late and he sent me a used prop

[DonMan]

My experience with Darin wasn`t bad or good, I guess I would give him "neutral" feedback.


I sent him a perfectly good 23p Mirage Plus to have the "Xcellerator" treatment done. 4 weeks and $250 later, I received my prop and didn`t see any real results. Only difference is that my prop looked like it had been sandblasted . . .

[danh63]

you got a deal with that price. My farts still don't make noise on the hosing I got