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Samsung Joule Wriggling Out Of Their Warranty

Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs)

Last Post by Mars 6 months ago

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RickK54

(@rickk54)

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Topic starter 01/02/2023 11:50 am

We have a Samsung Joule ASHP which developed major issues during the recent cold snap. We were getting E461 errors which were caused by compressor start up issues. The compressor sounded rough too. Our installer checked it out and diagnosed that it was a compressor issue which likely needed to be replaced.

With that I called Joule to say I was looking at a warranty claim. They sent an engineer out who spent the first 30 minutes looking at the software and hardware for any reason to void the warranty.

He did find something. Back in June we had power failure to the outside unit. It turned out that the connector block was burned out. Our site electrician fitted a new block and we were back up and running.

The Joule engineer made a big thing of this and said the unit had been tampered with. He made a big thing of this in his report.

Technically he might be correct but it is the finest of fine lines here. It’s the house connection to the unit. It’s not like we changed a PCB or anything!

I’ve just had a call from Joule saying that they will call Samsung but they’re not hopeful.

It seems mad to me and we could be losing a 7 year warranty over a technicality.

Has anyone else had a similar experience and how did they handle it?

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HughF

(@hughf)

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01/02/2023 12:08 pm

Five words - 'I'll see you in court'

Off grid on the isle of purbeck
2.4kW solar, 15kWh Seplos Mason, Outback power systems 3kW inverter/charger, solid fuel heating with air/air for shoulder months, 10 acres of heathland/woods.

My wife’s house: 1946 3 bed end of terrace in Somerset, ASHP with rads + UFH, triple glazed, retrofit IWI in troublesome rooms, small rear extension.

😂

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Mars

(@editor)

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01/02/2023 6:02 pm

@rickk54, I'll see if I can get you answers on this. Will keep you posted.

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RickK54

(@rickk54)

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Topic starter 01/02/2023 6:51 pm

@editor Thank you. Joule are taking it up with Samsung. Hope to hear the final judgement tomorrow. Fingers are crossed!

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Mars

(@editor)

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02/02/2023 9:34 am

@rickk54, let us know what the outcome is.

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RickK54

(@rickk54)

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Topic starter 04/02/2023 11:55 am

Thank you for your advice. We’re not out of the woods yet but it seems like we’re winning as Samsung are going to provide a new compressor and termination block under warranty. We’re still discussing labour but a result so far. Shouldn’t be like this really. We’ve been without it now for almost 2 weeks and relying on old fashioned electric radiators and an immersion with a COP of 1!

👍

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RickK54

(@rickk54)

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Topic starter 19/02/2023 12:11 am

An interesting twist with this one. The engineer from Joule was on the verge of sanctioning a replacement compressor and mains connector under warranty when his boss overruled him and said that it wasn’t a warranty claim. He said that the failed isolator back in June last year caused the compressor failure in January this year.

it also turns out that Joule engineer was wrong about an electrical component missing inside the Samsung unit. This was the connection from the isolator switch to the Samsung box…it turned out to be a Buck standard plastic isolator block which is still in the unit….not tampered with after all. Surely this would be enough to convince them to cover it but no!

In the end we have paid a Samsung approved engineer to replace the compressor at our cost of just under £1,000. We were hoping that this would fix things. It did for 15 hours and then we got an E464 error. Basically the same issue.

This is starting to rack up costs as chances are our engineer will want to change the PCBs too.

I officially hate Samsung Joule - potential buyers look elsewhere!

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Mars

(@editor)

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19/02/2023 11:41 am

@rickk54, did the Samsung engineer do any diagnostics before replacing the compressor to ensure that the compressor was indeed at fault?

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RickK54

(@rickk54)

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Topic starter 19/02/2023 7:14 pm

@editor he did the usual resistance checks between phases but it wasn’t conclusive. He has subsequently had it tested and he sent me the videos which proved that the windings were damaged. The assumption is that these were damaged in June and became apparent in January’s cold snap. I worry that the new compressor is also damaged by something within the unit.

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