[Seahunter]

Depends on what you mean by ordinary. Racor is a vey well-respected and trusted name in the filtration industry. The Tempo and the other are distributors. You have no idea about the origin or quality of the filters they sell.

Here is some comparison testing done on marine fuel filters

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/fuelFilter.pdf

 

[Seahunter]

The Racor uses 3 seals on the filter and a plastic bowl all of which start to disolve over time while exposed to ethonal fuels,should the ethonal mix highly exceed 10% the drain plug seal will disolve,dump fuel into your bilge and in some causes siphon the fuel from your tank as we have seen on several occassions. The Racor also uses a cheaper exterior coating which rusts quicker and are twice as expensive as the Yamaha canister.

The Yamaha canister you cannot visibly see the water in it but it only has 1 seal on it, is 10 micron rated, does not tend to rust and streak your boat, and are half the cost of the Racor replacement canister. Yamaha also only has 2 sizes (sm & LG) and is standard stock at any dealer and many marinas, whereas Racor has many different models and if you happen to need one away from home it isn't as easy as asking where the closest dealer is.

Couple of questions.
1. What filter heads do they fit?
3. What consitutes "highly exceeds 10%"? What compound does Yamaha use for the seals?
4. Last but not least, where can we get Yamaha replacement filters for 1/2 the price of Racor?