Have had a pool in my house since 1989. From 1989 to 2009 I had a mechanical timer with a spring reserve, so if there was a power failure, it would not lose the time. In 2009 I bought the first of 4 Ellies electronic timers, as I was visiting their Ndabeni store and they were promoting them.
In the past 6 years I have gone through 4 timers, their useful life starting out at 2 years and deteriorating to the last two which operated for under a year, the last one stopping in March this year. The pool pump is a 750 watt motor with a starting condensor and the relays on the timer states 15 amp contacts. I queried this poor life with Ellies who ignored emails for 6 months, so called their head office in Jhb who undertook to see what the matter was, since they say they have never had a failure in many years of selling them (oh yes, I believe this). At any rate, this technician arrives yesterday, he wants to see the installation and the timer. He looked at the wiring in the sub DB and poked around. "There is too many times" he said. I asked him to clarify and he said the timer had been set to switch on and off too many times. I asked him how he could figure this, since the timer was not connected to the mains and the battery (2 years life) had failed since I disconnected it in March, so he could not read anything on the display. So he thought a bit and then said, "the pump is too powerful". I pointed him to the label on the Stewarts and Lloyds pump which states 220 volts 750 watts, and he said "yes". So I said, but 750 watts at 220 volts is only 3.4 amps whereas the label on the timer states 15 amps, ie nearly 5 times over-specced. He obviously did not understand this, so I asked him if he understood the correlation between watts and amps. No answer.
Eventually, he came out with the magic words, "there is no guarantee". I told him I was not asking for a new product, I just wanted to know why these fail (I already know the answer but wanted him to tell me). Alas, his training did not extend to fault finding, he can only do the wires he says.
Obviously they sent the wrong guy
He left the house, only to ring the bell again, he had locked the keys in his van, could I help, so I got out my slim-jim and opened the door
In the past 6 years I have gone through 4 timers, their useful life starting out at 2 years and deteriorating to the last two which operated for under a year, the last one stopping in March this year. The pool pump is a 750 watt motor with a starting condensor and the relays on the timer states 15 amp contacts. I queried this poor life with Ellies who ignored emails for 6 months, so called their head office in Jhb who undertook to see what the matter was, since they say they have never had a failure in many years of selling them (oh yes, I believe this). At any rate, this technician arrives yesterday, he wants to see the installation and the timer. He looked at the wiring in the sub DB and poked around. "There is too many times" he said. I asked him to clarify and he said the timer had been set to switch on and off too many times. I asked him how he could figure this, since the timer was not connected to the mains and the battery (2 years life) had failed since I disconnected it in March, so he could not read anything on the display. So he thought a bit and then said, "the pump is too powerful". I pointed him to the label on the Stewarts and Lloyds pump which states 220 volts 750 watts, and he said "yes". So I said, but 750 watts at 220 volts is only 3.4 amps whereas the label on the timer states 15 amps, ie nearly 5 times over-specced. He obviously did not understand this, so I asked him if he understood the correlation between watts and amps. No answer.
Eventually, he came out with the magic words, "there is no guarantee". I told him I was not asking for a new product, I just wanted to know why these fail (I already know the answer but wanted him to tell me). Alas, his training did not extend to fault finding, he can only do the wires he says.
Obviously they sent the wrong guy
He left the house, only to ring the bell again, he had locked the keys in his van, could I help, so I got out my slim-jim and opened the door
