I have bought and using the genuine Flow Hive Super(not the complete Flow Hive). It was easy to assemble with the well laid out instructions. I bought the pine version for two reasons, the cost and that it was to be painted white to reflect the heat of my location.
In use I brushed on melted bees wax onto the Flow frames and the bees accepted them with no issues. My first extraction went well taking care that there was 5 degrees of lay back tilt to the hive and that I only opened 20% of the frames at a time to avoid the much talked about flooding, I didn’t have any problems. The mechanism worked as expected.
I have seen the Chinese copy cat and the owners are all having similar issues with jamming mechanisms and the queens getting through the bamboo queen excluder and laying in the ‘flow frames’. All of the owners I have spoken to regard them as a mistake in buying them and the purchase was made thinking they were buying a ‘bargain’. One chap was having total rejection of the super by his bees, I helped him paint wax on the frames as he had not done that but a month went by and still the super has not been touched by a single bee.
My assessment is that the copy is a waste of money, the genuine Flow Hive is not cheap but I have after painting the wax on the frames have had no issues. My apiary began as traditional Langstroth hives and bought the Flow Supers as an experiment and I am happy with the result in that it causes no stress to the bees to rob the honey.
Welcome to the forum.
Regards