Warning to Profilux Users

[Aqua-Digital]

ONLY to clarify warranites - GHL warranty document is available to you by email sales@aqua-digital.com or visit our forum

As said above by us and the OP we are not posting any further on this thread. We are available by email for any further concerns anyone may have. We have an open disclosure policy with such things so the requester is more than capable and in their rights of posting their gained reply in the public domain for complete transparacy but, we are not going into open debate on public or non official support forums, this is not how proper support is provided by any company.

We appreciate any concern or support case and will be answered 7 days a week, by email at sales@aqua-digital.com or on one of the support fourms.

[Matthias Gross]

This is the official statement from me (GHL):
- The floater or optical sensor don't expire when lying on the shelf! Correct storage assumed.
- pH- or redox electrodes do have an expiry date (no suprise I guess)

and no, there is not a common issue with the opto-levels

Was this clear enough?

I hope all the confusion has been cleared up now.

This is my last comment to this topic here, all further discussions will be between spshelps and us directly.

[sphelps]

I'll add this which is the response I got from Michael Hall

We (Aqua Digital) personally recommend that float sensors are changed every two years when in use due to the harsh nature they are working in. However sensors unused need to be carefully checked for any degradation prior to use,(cable gone hard, actuator stuck in on position, cat chewed the cable) for these reasons the manufacturer can not assure reliability, If they could then warranties would start from time of use not time of purchase. So we advise caution when using such stored parts and would go as far as saying do not store critical parts for later use. One obvious reason would be if it turned out to be faulty your warranty would have expired.

[Slick Fork]

Thank you Matthias and Michael for clearing that up. I don't think any reasonable person would expect a warranty to start from date of use rather than date of purchase (or if a cat ate the cable!). Your recommendation on not storing parts long term for the simple reason of ensuring warranty coverage in case of a rare faulty part is also quite good.

Thank you as well Sphelps for posting the followup and keeping the focus in this thread on real issues/concerns and not letting it degenerate into a flame fest. This thread has been very informative and caused me to double check everything on my profilux ATO!

[DiverDude]

This has been an interesting read. However, I can't help but notice that there is an important concept being ignored and that is that the Profilux device is a life support system; albeit for fish and invertebrates and not humans, it is still largely responsible for the well being of these creatures.

As a life support system, there is a requirement that it accept failures of sensors and respond in a known, predictable manner. There is a limit to what can be done in firmware, but sphelps' tips on max timer settings (or similar) should be in the manual.

The manufacturer should be aware that the product can't do everything in every conceivable situation -but often, how the unit is programmed can mitigate catastrophic situations.

Perhaps the most important 'lesson' to be learned is not to rely entirely on ANY system. As Mathias is no doubt aware, no system is perfect and as users we should always plan based on the premise that it WILL fail (and hope that it doesn't). With that in mind, it makes sense that the USER regularly inspect and replace mission-critical components that wear and are known to be prone to failure (given the environment). Even the highest quality products can fail unexpectedly; simply paying more for an item does not guarantee it will last longer than a lesser item.

Considering how sphelps went to great pains to present an informative and level description of a product shortcoming (with detailed insight on how to work around it to boot !) might cause a serious problem for others with this equipment, I am disappointed that some members took this to mean that the Profilux product is 'no good' -and even more disappointed how the commercial interests have responded. Leveler heads should have prevailed.