OT: Watchman Oil Tank Alarm

[Davey]

We had one of these installed in February of last year, and recently it lost some of its transmitting power, so that I cannot now have the receiver sat next to me when I'm in bed, it loses radio contact with the transmitter. It works at a closer distance, though, so is not a total failure. I complained by letter to the folks who supplied and installed it, and they called me back to tell me that that alarm model was having lots of problems, and that the manufacturer was being absolutely no help with tackling them. Since it is well beyond the 1-year warranty period, there was nothing that they could/would do, and I was lucky to be one of those whose unit was still actually working, as many just died. Is there anything that I can do? Can I confirm what they say? The manufacturer will presumably deny any problem exists. I can't find any discussions of problems by Googling. And if this fails totally, are there any recommendations for a substitute?.

[Dave Liquorice]

How far is your bed from the tank and what is in the way?

Ours didn't like being in the boiler room over 10m from the tank through thick solid walls and no windows. It would occasionally go into alarm mode for some unknown reason, sent it back to the makers, "no fualt found" got it back a good 9 months ago and it hasn't done the false alarm bit since *BUT* it's now within 3m of the tank with a window in that general direction...

TBH I'm not that convinced about it's alarm function. When it was playing up I unscrewed it from the tank and carried it indoors facing the ground the distance way more than that of the oil to Tx in the tank and varying greatly. Did it alarm? Nope. Seems to me all a scroat has to do is unscrew the thing and leave it facing a static surface while they pinch your oil...

[Andy Burns]

Try to get any admission of faults in writing from the supplier, as it's beyond 6 months the automatic assumption that it's a manufacturing fault has passed, but for an item like that it's non unreasonable to expect a longer life, EU consumer regulation says you have a 2 year warranty

[Davey]

I did some reading about the 2-year warranty, and the general conclusion was that it was un-enforceable in the UK, more of a principle rather than a law. But I'll follow up on your link, certainly. And I can easily ask the supplier for written confirmation of what he told me on the 'phone. Thanks, all good thoughts.

[Mark]

>

There's a lot of misunderstanding about that EU directive. It is about getting all EU countries to bring their consumer protection legislation up to a basic minimum standard. Since the UK already exceeds the minimum this directive has no effect here.

The good news is that you could still be protected by the Sale of Goods Act or the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act but you may have to prove that the fault was inherent at the time of supply. Any claims under this legislation would be with the retailer and not the manufacturer.

A lot of retailers will tell you there is nothing that can be done when the manufacturer's warranty runs out but, very often, it is not true. They just don't want to do anything since they would have to bear the cost.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mine periodically fails to communicate. Its seems -5C screws it.

Occasionally I have to unplug the receiver and leave it half an hour as that loses synch, too.

[Dom Ostrowski]

I've got a Watchman Sonic and it's just packed up entirely at about the

3 year mark.

A bit of searching on the net shows these units to have appalling reliability, I seem to have been lucky to get 3 years.

I believe this is the same receiver unit as yours.

The problem seems to be excessive susceptibility to mains-spikes/brown-outs damaging/destroying the receiver.

Report after report is saying manufacturer support is unbelievably awful.

There are alternative wireless tank monitors from Apollo - but they're expensive.

Or get a mechanical gauge.

Or a stick.

[Davey]

That matches what my installer says is happening.

Mine is the 'Alarm' version, but similar.

It might be worth looking at putting it behind a surge suppressor, or similar, then.

That's what the supplier/installer says.

Not sure how that would be now installed on my full bunded tank, and it would provide a new easy-to-break-into connection to the tank contents.

That's what I used to calibrate the Watchman indicator bars. Unfortunately, I can't use a stick to warn me if the level drops suddenly at 3 am.

What is ironic is that there was a working older model of Watchman, but non-Alarm, that the current one replaced.

My installer, although happy to work with me, says that I will have a problem making any claims stick, as my unit still works, just not as far from the transmitter as it used to.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I take it you HAVE fitted a new battery?

Other possible wheezes may involve reflector plates of foil covered something strategically placed..

[Davey]

No. I was originally hoping that the supplier and/or manufacturer might come up with some solution, and the battery is supposed to be good for ten years or so. The general plague of faults does not appear to be battery-life related, but rather hardware or software. Also, I am wary of doing so in case removing the old battery might actually make things worse. It might stop, and never start again. Since it does work, and it sounds as though I am lucky that it still does, I am loathe to do anything that might actually cause its current level of performance to deteriorate. If it was dead, then I would try that.