Jul 09, 2004 03:13 PM
12873 Views
(Updated Jul 09, 2004 03:13 PM)
This is a long term use review. I bought two of these units five years ago at the same time for two identical bedrooms measuring 13x14x12 feet for my house in Chennai. Very efficient room chiller and very very quite at most fan speeds except at the highest.
Both were running fine for about six months, that is until one of them spontaniously caught fire in the middle of the night and it was bellowing tons of smoke into the room and visiblity was reduced to zero. It was a nightmare of the first order as I was the sleeping occupant of the room. Eventually things were brought under control by switching off the mains, opening out windows and door and dousing out the unit with water!!
The top brass and technical guys from Amtrex arrived next morning and were just as baffled as I was. They tested the mains socket where the AC was plugged into and found the mains protection system installed in the house worked perfectly. So, any error in the house wiring was ruled out. To date, though they have never admitted to any kind of fault with the unit, it was quite clear where the fault lay - the AC unit. It could have been anything from worn out dielectric (outer covering) on a cable inside to friction caused by a non-conforming fan axle.
All the same, after much arguments that contained terms like 'consumer forum, courts' etc., the dealer agreed to replace the unit free of charge with a new one and also repair all the smoke related damages to the room and it's contents at his cost. This might have been a freak incident, but today after five years, the original and the replacement unit, both are working but they are ready for new replacements. The cooling fins on the outside radiator have all erroded and naturally, the cooling efficiency has come down.
The use of cheaper material is probably the cause for both, the incident and the shorter working life. The third and the fourth AC in the house are Yorks (imports) and both are more than twenty years old and working fine.
