Big Fight! Me vs. Heater Vendor-please vote if I am an idiot

[jdent]

I have a heater that had a copper water line with a pinhole leak recently. A pinhole leak on a pressurized water line turns it into an effective squirtgun/misting device. This vendor runs the line a few inches above, then down one side of all of the electronic circuit boards with worthless protection for the electronics. In my opinion, routing that copper line next to electronics is completely stupid. The guy in technical I called thought I was mad at the copper line getting a hole, and he reminded me, "it is copper, in a heater, with chemicals in the water, and stays outside all year." I am not mad at the water line (for the reasons he cited, I would expect it to fail), I am mad they would put a water line (in the environment the tech reminded me is so harsh) near electronics. If you were designing a car would you run the fuel line next to the spark plugs? NO? Why? because if the fuel line gets a hole, you will probably have a fire. The design sucks and the $50 line cost me $800 in electronics. I want the vendor to cover part of it under warranty. My reasoning-they have a horrible design, and need to take responsibility for it BECAUSE 1. They could have routed the water line 5 other ways and avoided the potential circuit board problem 2. They could have (which I will do after I fix it) put in $5 of galvanized steel between the water line and electronics. Yes, it is that simple.
Please tell me if you feel a vendor with this stupid of a design should have to take responsibility (remember, there is a $5 fix they could have done, OR just ran the line elsewhere)?

Note-the vendor of this heater did not design it, it was designed by a different company which they acquired, so you would think they want to duck the liability, BUT they have been more than happpy to sell me ignitors, limit sensors, fuseable links, tempature sensors and a few other parts every summer for the past 5 years. In other words, they are happy to make a profit off of me, but wash their hands when they need to take responsibility for a stupid design.

[PoolDoc]

No votes.

But, manufacturers do not warrant products against bad design. If it works for the warranty period, then as far as they are concerned their warranty obligations are satisfied.

That's how they all think. End of story.

Also, EVERY heater manufacturer will assume that premature failure of wetted metal parts was caused by the pool owner's failure to maintain the pool's chemistry. My own personal experience suggests that that viewpoint is not always correct, but it usually is.

Best wishes.