Insinkerator quality questions

[Boborann]

I bought a new home that was built in 1999 and since then I've had two Insinkerator products fail in a way I would never expect and was wondering if others have seen this About a year and a half ago I has a septic tank compatible garbage disposal rot through the metal case that the grinding blade pushes food against. This was some of aluminum type metal that simply corroded. When I called and complained and was told that it was out of warranty I refused that reply insisting a unit that cost $200 shouldn't rot in 5 years whereupon they sold me a discounted unit

Then two weeks ago my wife wanted hot water and I connected water to a HOT-1 when it took a long time to deliver water I noticed that it was leaking which wasn't easy to spot because it was way back on a granite countertop)when I removed and inspected it I found that the copper tank had rotted through in 3 to 4 places where the edges are soldered together. I again called Insiinkerator complaining about quality and was told that the unit was 5 years old and out of warranty . when I pressed them they admitted that the expected life of these hot water dispensers was 5 years. So my question is an I that naive to expect these things to last 10 or more years before they Rot out? I open to recommendation for a dispencer that will last more than 5 years I can post pics of teh dispenser if requested BOb

[Art]

Some water supplies are unusually corrosive. Do you use a well?

[Boborann]

No we have city Water from a reservation

The water heater and all other plumbing have been fine I changed the sacrificial anode in the hot water tank and that was shot but thats probably fnoormal for 5+ years

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Get your water tested. I've seen machine corrode in a short time because the water was very acidic. I've seen boiler tubes fail in a short time in spite of chemical treatment for the same reason. Pay particular attention to the pH and the amount of chlorides in the water.

Over the years, ISE products have been good quality and durable. Certain regions of the country do have very corrosive water and things go bad fast. Finding the cause and fixing it may save you a lot of problems over the years.

[Roger]

We installed an ISE instant hot water heater last June. It failed in October. The serviceman said the tank of this top of the line model was made of plastic (a worry), and this model was known to have problems. They replaced the whole unit, within warrantee. I suspect it is an engineering design fault, and will fail again, and ISE will eventually return to st. steel tanks. We have had good luck with ISE garbage disposals, tho. Like other posters, I would suspect that your water may be corrosive. Our last house had a 12-15 year old ISE water heater under the sink, and it worked fine for the 3 additional years we lived there.

[Art]

I would add that only 2 or 3 companies make all of the disposals according to Consumer Reports with Insinkerator being one of the best.

[SJF]

But note that Insinkerator makes their units in several quality levels. Materials used in the grinder parts seem to be the principal determinant of the life of disposals. For the Insinkerators, longer warrantee for some units seems to reflect increased quality of materials used in the grinder. I believe this is generally true for other brands as well.

SJF

[Boborann]

Happy to report that after sending photos and a note to insinkerator they did the right thing and ofgfered me a discounted unit given teh early failure BOb

[Art]

Before you bite you might want to compare prices with the same unit at the local stores. Their discount might be off of an inflated retail price.

[Boborann]

[Art]

A water filter will probably not fix the problem if it is a question of pH unless there are some special units out there. I suspect you have very soft and acid water.