AFCI's, product recalls, salespeople
AFCI's, product recalls, salespeople
Two stories:
OK, three. . .
I worked at a place that bought a machine that was supposed to mimic a microprocessor. Many problems, many calls to the company, and the salesman denied, denied, denied.
Then one day they came out with version B which they said solved all the problems in the first version (the same one which the salesman denied had any problems)!!!
Some people are sometimes bothered by reality, but not these guys.
A housewife/customer with a heavy French accent had drain lines put in, in the backyard, and they didn't work properly. She left many messages, to no avail. As long as I was already there, I offered to call for her.
I left one message on the landscaper's machine: "the drain line you put in was suppposed to be pitched downward 1" in 10'; instead it is either level or pitched upward in places."
They called her back before I left, and I wasn't there that long.
Some car makers have unannounced recalls, for their "special" customers. I saved a neighbor lady $1800 on an engine rebuild by hearing about an engine design defect through a "grapevine", an auto grapevine.
Maybe customers who buy lots of a thousand of these AFCIs are already enjoying call-back-free workdays.
OK.
I would like to call an AFCI manufacturer and see how many barriers I have to jump over before I talk to the guy on the factory floor who designed the thing (if he still works there).
Let's see if he can dazzle me with brilliance (or the other option).
Some companies play hardball, and you'd have to subpoena the guy.
Let's say I want to design an AFCI.
First I must take many scope photos of arcing and group them into "normal" and "abnormal". If there are clear differences then my job is somewhat easier. If not, if there is considerable overlap, then I must make a statistical or arbitrary decision as to what is "normal."
Then to test this gadget I would need to build a versatile arc generator, not a trivial job, and expose my design to all these arcs.
If the AFCI could flip a coin, it would already be right 50% of the time, but I'd hope it would approach 100% in correctly classifying normal/abnormal arcs.
Once a month someone would push the test button and the AFCI, which is by now the size of a breadbox, would regenerate all these arcs and see if it classifies them correctly some minimum percent of the time.
NOT!
So the test button MUST take some shortcuts. It might just hook up a resistor. If I get a chance I'll take one of these things apart someday.
IMHO:
I'd think almost any company who makes an AFCI tester can afford to more nearly simulate an arc according to the UL standards than the manufacturer of some little box mounted in the wall.
If the AFCIs had no problems, these AFCI tester companies would go out of business.
And it is in the financial interest of the AFCI makers to tout the wondrous things that the test button will tell you (but see first story above).
I know! They need an AFCI with a synthesized voice and a tiny loudspeaker that says "look 10.4 feet north-northwest, in back of that ugly wall painting."
Yeah, that's it. . .
Here's an excerpt off the Internet from someone's lawsuit over implied merchantability. I'm not a lawyer, but I think the AFCIs slip right past this without a scratch.
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"Whether a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability has occurred is a question of fact. However, before the issue of a breach can be addressed, there must be a finding that an implied warranty of merchantability applies to the item sold. That is a question of law.
2. There is an implied merchantability for goods sold if the seller is a merchant with respect to goods of that kind. To be merchantable, the goods must be fit for the ordinary purpose for which they are used.
3. To establish a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, the buyer must prove the ordinary purpose of the type of goods involved and that the goods sold were not fit for that purpose. The buyer must show that the goods were defective, that the defect was present when the goods left the seller's control, and that the defect caused injury.
4. A buyer of a used car has a right to expect that it will not turn out to be completely worthless but cannot reasonably expect that the car will be the finest of all possible goods of that kind. The implied warranty of merchantability varies with the particular car. A late model, low mileage car, sold at a premium price, is expected to be in far better condition and to last longer than an old, high mileage car.
5. An implied warranty of merchantability warrants the operation of major components that are necessary for the car to operate, such as the engine and transmission, and it is the responsibility of the buyer to ensure that the components incidental to operation are in working condition."
