Have just returned my Paintpod for the second time

[Bigsiqc]

Hi have just got a refund from B&Q. I bought it about three weeks ago and after just one session it stopped working. I took it back to the local store and they were very cagey and tried for almost 15 minutes to get it working. Eventually they established that there isa a radio transmitter in the handle that sends a signal to the base unit to pump when you press the handle. This was not working so they exchanged the handle.

All worked fine until this afternoon when my mobile phone started to ring as I was painting. The paintpod just stopped working. A little annoyed to say the least, I took the paintpod back to B&Q for a second time and exlained what happened. They were not the slightest bit suprised and said that they have discovered that there is a chip in the paintpod which is suseptable to radio frequencies and if a mobbile is used near the paintpod it breaks! They also showed me a pile of about 8 paintpods that had been returned today alone!

The idea is great. when it works it is great, but save yourself the hassel and buy acouple of rollers instead!

Simon

[stuart noble]

And how many stores do they have? Boy, what a cockup!

[George]

Stupid technology in such a piece of equipment that probably didn't need it. What the hell was wrong with a wire coupling to the base unit?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Doubt it's impossible to make a radio link that doesn't break so easily. Might even be cheaper than a decent bowden cable.

[tony sayer]

In article , Bigsiqc scribeth thus

O dear!, a little EMC problem. Bet they overlooked that one;!...

[Andy Hall]

I would love to see its CE Declaration of Conformity.

If a mobile phone buggers it up, it is almost certainly falling foul of Directive 2004/108/EC, since it's a typical usage pattern for a user of said paint pot to have a mobile phone on them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've never seen or used one, but this begs the question, if you start painting with it, what stops the transmitter also turning on you neighbour's one, spewing out paint whilst he's making a brew? Or even just two painters working on the same job?

[Rod]

Wonderful images appear before my eyes!

But, really, it seems more likely that the thing just won't respond. Surely the thing has some form of code to check the signal is being sent from the attached controller? Please. Or will we see mobile phone hackers distributing paintpod malware to do just that?

[Adrian C]

I used to work in EMC testing some years ago. The offered story banded about (possibily DTI sourced) to explain on why EMC testing was important went like

"There was a chap up a ladder working with a chainsaw, operation of which caused some inteference to the previously quiet walkie talkie he had cliped to his toolbelt. That made him jump..."

and the story can be embellished with whatever gore you see fit to extract testing fees from the customer. 'Twas useful ;-)

[George]

I've noticed the ad is not forthcoming on the TV lately.

[Bruce]

I saw it earlier this evening. :-(

[winsoar]

When you first press the trigger the handset is paired with the base station. Dulux have thought of that but they still do not pump the paint! I'm on the third one now, it doesn't work, and we are having to get a Dulux engineer out.

I believe a faulty batch has been sent out so Dulux are happy to send engineers out to replace them for free because stores like B&Q are stopping selling them. B&Q have removed Dulux Paintpod's from their website at the time of writing this.