(Failed with first 60 days) First look at Pentair's new IntelliChlor Plus30

[Turbo1Ton]

This does not seem like their usual MO on the IntelliChlor units. From what I typically see here is people call in with an issue, they walk them through troubleshooting steps, and determine it is a bad part (traditionally a flow switch because that was basically all their was on the old units), then send a new one out or a tech out to swap them. I wouldn't expect them to send a tech in this case since it is a unit that was already sent out because of warranty, but I am surprised they are not doing that.

Unless something has changed with the warranty, replacement cell warranty's are fully available to the homeowner. It is just the system as a whole that is only warrantied if installed by a professional.

I think I would call them back and escalate to the next tier. Ask them to provide you the warranty language where it states that the cell must be diagnosed by a professional.

--Jeff

 

[Skenn81]

I think I would call them back and escalate to the next tier. Ask them to provide you the warranty language where it states that the cell must be diagnosed by a professional.

--Jeff

I made it to their level 2 support, a domestic (USA) person who said sorry, because this is a courtesy unit that was sent to you and you only have a 60 day parts only warranty there is nothing they can do to help, but that parts warranty only applies if a professional comes to diagnosis the issue. I do not have a typical warranty on the unit because I did not buy it from a "pool professional".

I told him the error that was on the unit, which is also in the manual, and he said sorry, unless you are a pool professional who diagnosis the problem there is nothing we can do for you, and that cost is on me. So it sounds like I have to spend the $100 to have someone come out and then tell me the error code that is on the unit so I can call them to say the same thing but because they have an LLC or whatever their words carry more weight with Pentair.

I have since sent emails to a few of their higher ups I have from before letting them know and also contacted their social media accounts which sometimes do respond.

 

[HermanTX]

I worked in product development in another industry. When a new product was launched, it was all hands on deck if there was a fault. It seems Pentair product development or technology group is not aware of the issue with a new product and the warranty department is just quoting their policy.

One idea - do you have a neighbor that uses a pool service? Ask them to stop by and for $50 cash, see if they will write up an error report.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Seems ridiculous. I hope you get a positive response from higher up the chain.

This is a family site so I will keep my other comments to myself and just say people are dumb.

--Jeff

 

[Newdude]

I'm annoyed I gave them free press on here

Let the spiteful part of you rejoice that its bad press.

I know jokes were made here about it but in no way did I actually expect this thing to break so quickly.

Neither did we. It was all in good fun until it wasn't.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yeah. I was thinking earlier in the season of going with these new units but I’m just going to replace y failing cell with an old school version and let Pentair sort the bugs out. They didn’t have a good track record with the roll out of their newer automation panel, the IntelliCenter, a few years ago. It was very buggy when they released it and they took forever to get basic new features working right. It’s probably in a mostly customer-friendly usable state now but that’s years after its launch.

The main problem is that the manufacturer doesn’t actual manufacture anything anymore. They assemble parts from global suppliers and hope to get it all working. When things fail, they have to correct them but they can’t just shelve all the broken/buggy parts because they’ve already paid for them or have contracts in place to buy them. So they have to make the revisions on parts which takes the components manufactures a lot of time to fix, they continue selling the junk units to recover sunk costs, and then they hope to push through with warranty and service claims to keep customers on the hook. It’s ridiculous and annoying but that’s the state of global manufacturing.

 

[JamesW]

Wait a week and Amazon will have Chinese generic parts available.

 

[Lake Placid]

Does anyone know of any SWG manufacturers that actually work with homeowners or is it like the HVAC market where they only deal with pros? Someone needs to make a direct to consumer unit and shake up the system.

Circupool is the most DIY/user install friendly with their warranties. The big 3 tend to stick with the traditional pro install/support model.

 

[Skenn81]

Seems ridiculous. I hope you get a positive response from higher up the chain.

This is a family site so I will keep my other comments to myself and just say people are dumb.

--Jeff

I have been contacted directly by Pentair (on a Saturday of all days so it must be important) that I will be contacted again by the pool team on Monday to get the unit sent back to them for investigation to see what is going on.

I'll report back on Monday on what happens next.

What an adventure this is...

 

[Newdude]

What an adventure this is...

The life of a Beta tester can be wild. But the greater community thanks you for your contributions to progress.