warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

[charlie tuna]

ten years ago we installed two 75 h.p.toshiba variable speed drives in a hotel complex. the original system had bypass dampers that would maintain a designed duct pressure for system operation. we converted this pressure signal to control the speed of the motor and cut fan operating costs by fourty per cent. we had a happy customer, and the building engineers like the idea of taking the labor intensive variable dump dampers out of the system.

five years ago,during a lightning storm one of the drives failed and they contacted us to service the drive. the drive required factory service and they instruced us to find a replacement drive and wanted the original drive repaired and returned to use as a standby spare. at the time baldor motor company was advertising in electrical contractor magazines that they had a drive that was so good that if it failed during the warentee period they would replace it with a new one, repair the original unit and ship it back to the customer as a spare. i thought this must be a good drive and ordered one and installed it. it had all the same features that the toshiba drive had.

after three months of operation the baldor drive failed. by this time i had the toshiba drive back and used it to replace the baldor drive. the baldor drive was then air freighted back to their factory. the first said it was lost - then they found it but forgot to repair it - then said it wasn't supposed to get repaired because now the warentee expired - then said it was repaired but not shipped - and now they don't say anything!!! four years getting the run around. has anyone else had problems with baldor???????????????? this is an expensive piece of equipment!

 

[dacreman]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

Baldor lost our business due to poor service and not able to keep their dates. We used Baldor motors exclusively and started having major quality issues with rewinds and warrenty work.
We tested the VFD and I was not impressed. Our plant has ran the gammot on trying to find the best VFDs and the best price (more importantly best service and turn around time) and Baldor could not suit our needs.

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

we have been installing drives since 1989 and have been through all of them - - toshiba has had the best record and the one we recommend. i have sent letaters and e-mail to baldor with zero response - i really don't want the drive at this point, luckily i found a rebuilt toshiba 75 hp unit drive when this building needed it. you can be a big supplier but your only as good as you company's service record. stay away from baldor!!!

 

[jasons]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

I have had the same problems with toshiba drives. We made electrical connections to a lot of pre-fab conveyors with toshiba drives on them about 1.5 years ago. Within six months all 42 of them went bad. The toshiba rep made about 30 trips to the plant and could find nothing wrong with them. We have since replaced all 42 toshiba's with Allen Bradley 1336+ drives and have had no problems at all. I guess it is like they say "you get what you pay for".

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

aren't allen bradly drives builtby yascowa???? same as magnetek until they went out of business?
what was the drive's application???

 

[wattsbiz]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

Our Company installed 8 Baldor drives for an evaporative cooling system about 8 years ago. The drives were provided by the company that engineered and provided the cooling system.

We have had problems with the drives ever since. I have had numerous phone conversations with the several Baldor reps. and the customer has even had a rep on site with no resolve. After years of replacing and repairing these drives I will be replacing them with Square D drives next month.

 

[jerod]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

i will not use anything but abb drives. in 1996 i installed and programmed 29 drives 3ph 480v. 22 at 3hp,3 at 5hp and one 40hp. most of them using the factory macro. some pump and fan and 4 pid. i have had absolutely no problems. i have been amazed at the seemingly endless parameters that can be manipulated to fit your system. i was constantly tweaking the pid control cards from a modicon plc, now a thing of the past. they are installed in 2 mccs one is dirty and one is clean, no difference. i have performed no maintenance and have not adjusted any of them since start-up. i don't know anything about there support in case something does happen. i am not affiliated with abb or any of its vendors in any way.

[ June 24, 2003, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: jerod ]

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: warning! baldor variable speed drive ripoff!

i met with the baldor drive supplier on wednesday on another product and he is still surching for my drive. he cannot believe this situation! he told me five or six horror stories about baldor - i was involved in one where i have been waiting six months to get paid for warentee work on a baldor drive in a foam molding plant. he is going to a nogotiation hearing next month??? this is a problem where the drive was sold to a company who didn't listen to people's recommendations concerning the limitations of a particular drive.
the application is wrong and damaging the drives. i have worked and installed ABB drives and have been satisfied with their products. they make some real big drives too! seftronics is another good unit. the big suprise about baldor is how they treat a customer - how did they ever get as big as they are????????