Sorry to dig up an old post, but Hammacher Schlemmer, Sam's club, and Costco have "THE BEST" return policies for pool cleaners, or any products, in general. Sam's Club will definitely give you warranty support after the 4yr original manufacturer warranty. In fact, you don't even need to bring it into a Sam's Club, since you can call a 1-800 number and have someone pick up the unit from your home. They will either repair it on the spot, or bring it into their service center for repairs.
I plan on buying them a new unit, and the Blue Diamond with or w/out remote is definitely the way to go if you consider the extended warranty. Blue Pearl has 1yr warranty plus 1yr extended for ~$29 or 3yr extended for ~$79. Total cost would be right around $855 shipped for 4 full years of trouble free operation. The Blue Diamond costs a bit more, but has a full 4yr manufacturer's warranty for $1055 shipped. You're basically getting the better unit with the same warranty for $200 more, and you can extend the warranty for a full 7 years further for another $199. That's about $400 more for a better unit and and 3 extra years of guaranteed operation from Sam's Club. If you opt to go with the remote control version, the extended warranties cost the same as the non R/C version, so that's even better.
Had Sam's Club carried this unit 5+ years ago, I would have had my parents buy their Blue Diamond cleaner from them. Instead, their unit has been retired sitting in a garage for the past year because the drive motor went bad, which costs over $500 including parts, labor and shipping to and from the authorized service centers. That's almost ½ the price of a new unit, and much more than the cost and peace of mind for the extra $199 for an extended warranty had Sam's Club carried this product several years ago.
Bottom line, if you use your pool cleaner regularly, then the extended warranty will pay for itself after the first major repair. However, if you only use the cleaner occasionally to complement your pool maintenance, then you can probably save a few hundred bucks and still be ok without any extended warranty contracts with the fact that Sam's Club, along with Costco, have a more than fair return policy.
Water Tech's Manufacturer Warranty on the Blue Diamond is the following from Sam's Club site:
Warranty:
4 years
2 years/400 cycles on plastics (excluding wear and tear, such as belts and brushes), power supply (transformer), cable and remote control
4 years/400 cycles on motors only
That comes out to ~3-4 months of daily use per season. However, I asked Sam's Club on the phone if I exceeded the 400 cycles per 4yr warranty period, then would my extended warranty still be valid, and the Sam's club employee said, "yes we go by the years of service contract you purchase with the unit, not the manufacturer's grandfathered warranty conditions during their warranty period. If your unit is defective in anyway, we'll work with the manufacturer to either repair or replace your purchase item. You may also bring the unit into any of our locations for a full refund". I'm sure if anyone wanted that in writing from them, you could simply e-mail Sam's Club's customer service and they would tell you the same thing.
