There were a lot more things, both good and bad, that I was going to put on the list. But in the end I picked just 5 of each. Don't get me wrong - I really do love this little Chinese Mini Digger and it has done everything asked of it. No trouble with so far! Cheers Dave.

Thanks for the video Dave. Here's a tip for scooping dirt up against the blade - twist the boom to the left, it will shorten the effective length of the arm, allowing you to scoop against the blade. Or at least much closer than before.

I have a ume10s and have just over 250 hours on it. As a whole I’m very happy with it. Especially when you consider it was 13k vs over 40k for the equivalent kubota plus attachments. The only issues I’ve had with it were a rotting fuel pipe, easy fix, and a weeping drive motor seal that has somehow healed itself. Yes the travel is achingly slow and the machine is not as smooth as a kubota but it’s a million times better than digging by hand!

Good video Dave. There's good and bad in everyone and the same applies tom Chinese diggers. To start with I got a Rhino XN12 and I really worried about the drive motors on that on my very rocky property, they just looked too vulnerable. People do waffle on about cheap Chinese junk but I'm very happy with my XN20 which now has 400 hours on it and running like a dream. And you are right with the best feature, value for money which is very important to small land owners like you and me. Cheers.

thanks dave bought one 6 momthx ago. your videos are great and precise and let us know the good and bad

Hello again, Dave. I agree with your list ... 100% I have the same good and bad points with my CX-15B made by Ningbo Yinzhou Chuangxin Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. - But I too am happy with it. Overall, it is a very good value for what I paid. Good video, Dave.

Great video Dave! I've got a similar Chinese one ton excavator up in Canada. My good and bad list would be very similar to yours. I got a different quick hitch on mine. I just have to pull out a button and use a short piece of pipe to get my buckets off, and no tools are required to put a new bucket on. I really like it.

I could add a lonnnng list to each too and I have made quite a number of mods to mine to alleviate some of the things I don't like. A word on the fuel tank on these - That stupid capillary gauge only reads on the first third or so of the tank's capacity. When it reads empty the machine still has approximately two thirds of the tank capacity still full. That's cos with the change to Rhinoceros Gen 2, the tank became two pieces, they kept the normal larger oblong tank under the floor and added a smaller tapered part onto the top of the tank which sticks up above the floor. To make the gauge readable from the seat they took it from the side panel of the digger where it used to read the level in the oblong tank and moved it up to the tapered part of the tank above the floor which means the gauge now only reads the fuel that's in the tapered part of the tank. To fix this inadequacy, I replaced my UME12's tank cap with an American cap that has an inbuilt dial gauge actuated by a float that actually reaches to the bottom of the tank which means I'm no longer refilling my digger every two hours and I know exactly how much fuel I have without having to look inside the tank with a torch. As for the "fit" aspect of the panels, I used a die grinder and chainsaw file to enlarge each hole in the tight direction on each panel part and I can now remove and replace all panels very quickly, makes a huge difference.

Pretty spot on in describing the issues, but overall still a great machine and I'm happy with my purchase, although the UME12P would have been nicer . That fuel tank is nowhere near 10L, I reckon it would be closer to 3L unless I've got a magical 20L jerry can that refills itself😃 Instead of reversing further back trying get that elusive mound of dirt collected, just push it forward with the bucket and retry collecting it. I find I don't use the blade, but it more efficient just to push with the bucket.

Agree with the dozer blade - such a pain being so short and have looked into modifying it to extend it. If anyone has done this let us know.

Hi Dave, I love your channel. I have the next model with expanding tracks and the Kubota engine. I have learnt lots from your videos. Strangely enough I have never slipped a track, nor adjusted them. They just always seem to be at the correct tension. i had replacement of the grease nipples on my to do list, just never got around to getting my thread gauge out. Thanks to you I now know they are m8/1.0 and an odd ball M6 which I wasn’t aware of. I agree with most of your list, but would replace your fuel tank size on the bad list, with the boom swing foot pedal.. It didnt matter how gentle I tried to be with the foot pedal I regularly slapped things. I modded the foot pedal and made it a hand lever. No more wall slapping. Fuel amount has not been much of an issue in the 200 hours I have used it, as i have a portable electric fuel supply, and the Kubota engine works great in the lower rev range and I get nearly 5 hours out of a tank. Mid range it vibrates which only goes out at high revs which i only use for travelling. Yes too slow travelling, but I have found that sometimes if I position 1 lever full open and not have the other one open as far it goes a lot faster, but still travels in a straight line. No idea why, but guess more oil is forced through one motor. My other gripe was not being able to easily get the canopy off to the height of the slip on front bar supports to get it into a 2.0 m door height. I modded the rear support bars to make them quick release so its height can be easily reduced. Panels not fitting was a pita, so I milled slots in the panels to give them some relief. I have also made up a towball attachment to manoeuvre my caravan into its parking spot which only had about 50 mm either side. tried power tow units and they were useless compared with how I can manage it with the digger. Should have had one years ago..Too old for digging stuff by hand any more. Keep the videos coming.

Great video, Dave! I recently purchased a Mini Excavator UHI UME 10s, and I have to admit, accessing the maintenance engine was quite challenging due to its complicated design. Additionally, I noticed that the running meter doesn't accurately record the engine run time; instead, it measures the duration the power has been on.

Great video, great honest rea life experience video. Thank you, i am buying those from China and import to USA, this video really help me a lot and keep doing the good work! How many hours on your machine now? any issues so far? thanks

Great review mate . I been looking for a while now and must admit struggling to make a decision. Its a lot of money sitting around when its not earning you money. I really would like something around 2.5t but might have to settle on something smaller. 🍻👍

Been thinking about getting a machine and this is some great food for thought. Won’t feel like such a newbie when I shop around. Is there a UHI in Victoria?

We visited the UHI shop in Sydney last week. The three smaller excavators look good, especially for the price. We were steered towards the larger machine which costs around $26K. It would be a better machine for a farm with hills and not having to go into tight spaces all the time. I don't think it is worth buying one though at this point of time. We can get an experienced operator in with a five tonne machine for $120 an hour, minimum of five hours so $600. In that time he is able to do a lot of work. Last time he worked on our farm he dug around 500 holes for tree planting, and removed four big stumps. He said the excavator costs around $150K.

I'm curious what caused your tracks to come off, and was it difficult to put them back on? I have sand to dig in, with no rocks other then a few small limestone remnants of the last glaciation. My projects are the install of a 200 ft long power wire from the house to the back garages. And a new septic system. I figure just those two projects will pay the $6400USD cost of the machine. I have a small skid loader to do any moving of earth piles and filter rock, as I can see the small blade on these machines are limited.

That's a nice machine you have there. Yanmar diesel, swing boom, and all your attachments. I just bought a plain old garden variety Miva VA 15 and it's only claim to fame is it has the pilot controls which means you have to shut the machine off if you want to geton it or off it or it will take you for a ride! I only have about 3hrs on it. Right now I'm sorting out all its shortfalls like, not having cooling fans, and heat proofing hot engine parts to keep the temps down, and putting an oil drain hose on the Briggs motor so it doesn't puke oil all over the place when changing the oil.

Does it have a lot of grunt? Is the power high or moderate does it compare with say a whaker neuson? Also are the booms and movements or actions slow or fast ?

Have you dealt with any hydraulic line fittings to determine the size/type? I have a different machine. AGT Industrial agrotk QH12 from China. I bought a VICSEC tilt bucket and the hydraulic shops are struggling to find the right fittings.

Oh, and PS, I hate that quick-attach. As well as being a pain to have to turn and turn the bolt, it relies entirely on that thin bolt to keep the hook in place and that bolt is known to break because it has the lynch pin hole drilled though its shank weakening it. I change buckets and implements so often that I now use a Jaguar wheel nut crank to loosen the bolt and spin it off and on fast but I'd much prefer they'd supply a proper spring loaded quick-attach that you open by simply jamming in a bar and pulling down to open the hook. Faster and much less likely to break in regular use.

Has anyone had issues with their slewing / swing bearing? It seems built well enough, but mine makes a funny noise sometimes which I'm still investigating. Might just bee some sheet metal scrapping somewhere I can't see, like on the dust cover.

How did you change the battery

Hi Dave, looking at buying the 12P I am on 20 acres with some slight hills does it go ok on hills,

That’s an extremely wide bucket for a small digger.

Keep in mind these are priced at half or more the price of a kubota John Deere or jcb so I think a person needs to accept that maybe the quality isn’t going to be the same. If you want good fit and finish and productivity maybe spend more on a higher quality machine.

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Never mentioned the price. Fail.