What is your preferred brand name for bearings

I am not too particular on the brand of bearing, but I am particular on where they are made. Mexican and chinese are pretty much junk. American and Japan have been good so far on some pretty high pressure speed applications.

SKF, Fafnir, Toyo, Timken, forget some of the others. As Beer mentioned, try to stick with USA or Japanese, but then my brother texted me a pick a while back of a Chinese Timken he ended up with, go figure...
RBL is one of the better lower end offshore ones it seems, have had some good service with them. If at all possible I often will always even change up to a greasable bearing, one thing about having a large amount of stuff to rob parts off does supply greasable flangettes as I do keep a fairly large supply of standard sized and common bearings on hand. With that said, the grease can dry out over time, condensation can be an issue as well during storage. I also own several different needles and such for greasing sealed bearings, have found if you don't over fill them and are patient to let it completely cure, on bearings you only grease maybe every few years or more, and run at high speed, carefully using silicon you can seal up a hole drilled in the side shield. Don't want to use too much as you don't want a gob inside the bearing.

In some of the comparisons I have seen, most common is the cheaper bearings have less and or smaller balls, a plastic separator and often insufficient grease.

Was taking some shafts off the elevators on the combine this summer to change some sprockets and stuff. Saw a couple bearings made in China. Still fine but figured would go with something else while apart. Shoulder style with grease hole in a different spot on race, turns out only Fafnir makes it so gave Applied Technologies in Regina 3 cracks at getting me the right bearing, even after showing them what I need. A month into it and finally said screw it and went to Young's (case IH dealer) to get what ever crap they were selling - and it was the Fafnir they stock.

I don't know how bad the China bearings are. Personally can't say I notice anything different in life span. But I will hunt around for other than made in China until time crunch becomes an issue.

Actually my biggest issue that is a recent development is where I can even get bearings in Regina. There is Applied Technologies and I have had a couple instances now of them not getting it right, there is Motion who I liked dealing with but now have a $200 minimum order, and Wajax which has also moved to a minimum order policy (don't remember what it is now but seems to me they are not even able to serve me now). It's almost to the point I can't get bearings without going to dealer. Both Wajax and Motion adopted these policies this summer. With Motion I can get my minimum order up by buying some roller chain or something else, it's the direction of things that bothers me, should the minimumoorder go to $500 or I need a corporate account then I am in trouble. I actually understand the minimum order idea, not against it as long as it stays where it is.

I completely agree with greaseless bearings. They seem to last way longer. I can't remember off hand how many bales I have on the baler, but all but 3 bearings are geaseless. The 3 that are greaseable are ones I put on. Every sealed bearing is still factory. I also try to grease at the end of the day or at least after an hour or so of running the equipment. If it comes down to a pinch and I have no choice but to get a bearing with the hole in the race, I put one pump of grease into the bearing and seal the hole with a dab of silicone. A old parts guy told me that many years ago and knock on wood it has worked.

Correct. I should have said non-greasable bearings.  They are pre-greased and sealed.  As long as the seal is not breached, they seem to last a long time for me.  Given the choice, for many applications I would take non-greaseable bearings over greaseable any day.

Good point about washing combines.