Rena Filstar Problem - Son, I am dissapoint..

[Pofke13LT]

So last Christmas I asked my fiancee for a Perfect canister filter for my 55 gallon aquarium, instead she decided to order a Rena Filstar XP3. I was totally stoked because it was a much nicer filter than I asked for but a few days ago I ran into a problem. I was cleaning out the filter media and the quick disconnect refused to push back down. Upon close inspection I noticed that the little plastic rings that rotate with the handle. I emailed Rena, what a disappointment! I have mostly Marineland products, filters and heaters. When my 10-15 year old hood (which I got for free from a friend) blew out a ballast they sent me a replacement at no charge no questions asked when I asked them how much a new one costs. When the discontinued discount heater failed they sent me the updated model at no cost. When I had another heater fail they sent me replacements at no charge. Even when they asked me to send them the defective ones they had FedEx pick them up at no charge to me.

Back to Rena: I told them how the disconnect broke after only 7 months and they responded that "at times the lever may get stuck, when it does push the lever handle all the way back as far as it will go and then try to push it forward. Try not to apply pressure as you do not want to disconnect mechanism to crack or break." They went on to tell me that if I wanted to replace it under warranty that not only do I need to ship them my defective disconnect, I had to enclose a check for $5 to cover the return shipping. :swear: I flipped. Why should I have to not only wait for them to send me a replacement but also spend money and waste time sending my defective disconnect to them.

What a joke. Do we have anybody from Rena that is on this forum?

P.s.- Sorry for ranting but I was really upset when a "cheap" company such as Marineland goes above and beyond the call of duty and Rena makes me jump through hurdles to get something that is half a year old replaced.

 

[mott]

Be glad you can even send it back to get fixed, 5 dollars is not so bad, look at it this way if you had the perfect,sun sun and it broke you would be out of luck with no warranty whatsoever.

 

[Pofke13LT]

Be glad you can even send it back to get fixed, 5 dollars is not so bad, look at it this way if you had the perfect,sun sun and it broke you would be out of luck with no warranty whatsoever.

If it was an air pump or other non necessity I would not mind as much, but to be without a filter for weeks is a little absurd

 

[RNeiswander]

Another example of why it's a good reason to run two filters on one tank.

Do you have a picture of what broke? If the disconnect is not in the canister the lever will not close. There is a tab that prevents the lever from opening when the hoses are disconnected.

 

[fshfanatic]

So last Christmas I asked my fiancee for a Perfect canister filter for my 55 gallon aquarium, instead she decided to order a Rena Filstar XP3. I was totally stoked because it was a much nicer filter than I asked for but a few days ago I ran into a problem. I was cleaning out the filter media and the quick disconnect refused to push back down. Upon close inspection I noticed that the little plastic rings that rotate with the handle. I emailed Rena, what a disappointment! I have mostly Marineland products, filters and heaters. When my 10-15 year old hood (which I got for free from a friend) blew out a ballast they sent me a replacement at no charge no questions asked when I asked them how much a new one costs. When the discontinued discount heater failed they sent me the updated model at no cost. When I had another heater fail they sent me replacements at no charge. Even when they asked me to send them the defective ones they had FedEx pick them up at no charge to me.

Back to Rena: I told them how the disconnect broke after only 7 months and they responded that "at times the lever may get stuck, when it does push the lever handle all the way back as far as it will go and then try to push it forward. Try not to apply pressure as you do not want to disconnect mechanism to crack or break." They went on to tell me that if I wanted to replace it under warranty that not only do I need to ship them my defective disconnect, I had to enclose a check for $5 to cover the return shipping. :swear: I flipped. Why should I have to not only wait for them to send me a replacement but also spend money and waste time sending my defective disconnect to them.

What a joke. Do we have anybody from Rena that is on this forum?

P.s.- Sorry for ranting but I was really upset when a "cheap" company such as Marineland goes above and beyond the call of duty and Rena makes me jump through hurdles to get something that is half a year old replaced.

Just another reason why I only run Eheim canisters on my tanks..

Be glad you can even send it back to get fixed, 5 dollars is not so bad, look at it this way if you had the perfect,sun sun and it broke you would be out of luck with no warranty whatsoever.

Thanks what you get for buying cheap Chinese knock offs.

 

[Jannika]

I'm sure they're aware of the breakage problem with these disconnects, so asking for them again and again from customers is lousy customer service. Requiring them to pay both shipping costs is even worse.

 

[mott]

I'm sure they're aware of the breakage problem with these disconnects, so asking for them again and again from customers is lousy customer service. Requiring them to pay both shipping costs is even worse.

Maybe it's just me but I have never heard of anyone breaking this part on a xp, I don't own one but I would imagine they are built pretty good if I have never read about this problem.
I do own an Eheim proII and I have read a lot of people breaking the QD on those, I believe most manufacturers would do the same as rena did with this part as it is a part that is handled often.

If you drop a canister and the body breaks is it the company's obligation to send you a new body free of charge and shipping? I wish company's would but in all reality it just isnt feasible.

like I said before be happy it isn't a cheap knockoff with no warranty whatsoever, you would be really screwed if that was the case.

 

[mellowvision]

There is a difference between defective and broken. I generally don't expect anything for free after I've forced something too hard and broke it.

 

[SubRosa]

I currently maintain over a dozen Rena Xps of various sizes. Never had that problem, but I have on occasion found that the lever didn't want to go down and lock in the hoses. Pushing the disconnect down into the recess a bit harder solved it.

 

[SPL15]

I agree that paying for return shipping on a warranty replacement before anything is determined is kinda bunk...

I almost busted the handle off when I first got my Xp3 and thought what a piece of crap until I took the time to see what was hanging up the handle. Really a smart design to prevent possibly thousands of dollars of damage to your home as well as the safety of your family. The only way that this piece can break is by forcing the handle down when the valve assembly isn't fully seated. The handle is locked into place by two tabs that prevent the valve from opening if it is not fully and firmly seated onto the top of the canister. The design is to prevent the user from opening the valve assembly if it is not fully and firmly seated to the canister top, this prevents people from damaging the hold down guide rails that seat the valve assembly which would eventually lead to a nasty water leakage which would make customers even madder than $5 and being without a filter for a week or so. If Rena made it so the handle was not the weakest link, damage to the locking mechanism could happen if forced down and leakage could occur. People are sue happy and the company I work for (unrelated to fish keeping) pays out hundreds of thousands to customers who damage their own property from improper use & mistakes instead of going through legal BS. It's sad companies are forced to design failures into their products to save the user from their own mistakes, but it's what is needed to stay profitable. The TYPICAL warranty return process is where you return the faulty part and it is inspected to determine cause, if you were found at fault, you pay shipping both ways as well as the FULL retail cost for the new part. If it was a manufacturing defect, the part is free and the return shipping is paid for by the company. Rena's policy is kind of a weird mix of the two and I'm guessing in your case that the failure was from th valve assembly not being fully seated which in normal warranty processes would make you liable to pay the $50 or so for a new part. $5 seams reasonable, but I agree it is kind of backwards

Sorry about your luck though... The Rena XP series really is a great filter if you learn all the little tricks to make sure it stays in top order. Make sure you push down hard & firmly on the valve assembly when you push down the locking handle. You'll never have this issue again if you do this. Like I said before, I almost did the same exact thing and it's an easily preventable issue. Don't give up on that XP3 yet!