gotta join the hope band wagon. Had mine for years, took it apart once to check it was clean. Never skipped, every engagement is always loud and positive.
Echo sl's are really hit and miss. i've got one good one out of 4/5 dodgy ones (with a couple of them, being brought from new).
I found with the echo sl's, the pawls wear against the center casing, which then allows the pawl's to 'pop' out of the casing a bit, getting jammed and therefore becoming useless.