Not sure how you reckon Feked are not being responsive...seems they have worked a lot of contact back and forth with you and habe agreed to send a replacememt unit. 9+ days to ship from UK is not out of bounds these days, esp if they are using a lower price point shipping option for a warranty replacement. Poor response on subsequent communications may be due to any number of issues (perhaps the individuals is on summer va-ka etc). Cut them some slack.
Seems like you ball valve may just need a little deburring or shaping of the seal area to get it fully closing.
Tornado
To be clear, I think the Feked design is good. The ball valve tap they use is a standard item, and they should be able to rely on it being manufactured correctly. I think it's highly likely that the manufacturing defect in the unit I got is extremely rare.
My concern with Feked is how they communicated with me about this problem/defect in the part they sourced (which I found particulalry troubling in light of the fact that I went out of my way to provide them with details that they could forward to the supplier and/or manufacturer).
I did not say it's taken 9 days to ship something from the UK. What I said in my post was that, after several emails in which they (
reasonably) suggested 1) that I had simply failed to fully close the handle and 2) that maybe some debris had gotten into the unit and was blocking the ball from closing all the way - what I said in my post was that after those emails, they said they "would post (aka ship) a new ball valve (tap) unit. That was last Friday. It's now Wednesday,
and despite sending them follow up emails, they've gone radio silent and I've received no word from them (or royalmail.com) when this will ship. ...
It is now 9 days since I first emailed them to notify them of this product failure, and I have no word of when the promised replacement unit will ship." I omitted the details of the email exchange for brevity, but here is the sequence of emails with Feked that,
in my opinion, show they were not responsive - at least to a level that I think would have been appropriate. Others may find Feked's comunicatioins sufficiently responsive.
These are all listed here in UK time. I often emailed at night where I am so they’d get them early in their day.
6/15 Monday 11 pm UK time - ME: I notified with pictures that it was dripping oil when handle was as far shut as it would go.
6/ 16 Tues 6 am UK time - FEKED: Feked suggested operator error by me not turning the handle all the way to 90 degrees “try turning the tap OFF. It’s not in the fully closed position.”
6/16 - 3 pm UK time - ME: I explained the tap would not physically go farther than 70 degrees. “This is not an operator error.” And 4 minutes later I added that the unit was also leaking oil, which it was.
6/16 - 10 pm UK - ME: I sent them a short video showing that the handle would not go to 90 degrees. "The tap handle only going to 70 degrees is how it came out of the box.”
6/17 Wed - 8:40 pm UK - FEKED: They suggest inspecting for debris in the tap and bench testing the handle's range of movement. “sometimes they are a little stiff when new.”
6/17 10 am - ME: I explained it was not a little stiff that it “absolutely does not move beyond the approximately 70 degrees” and that I would disassemble it to see if there was an obstruction.
6/17 11:15 am UK - ME: I reported that on disassembly the ball moved freely the entire 90 degree range and that “As I start to screw the end with the white plastic seat back on, the ball begins to snag - gets resistance before tap fully closes.
And when that end is screwed all the way down (but not wrenched tight), the valve stops closing.” I also let them know that the red sealant on the threads was not all the way around, which explained why it also was leaking.
6/18 Thurs - 2:30 am UK - and again at 12:20 pm UK - ME: I asked them to do a quick zoom video call so they could see for themselves, and sent a zoom link for that.
6/19 Friday - 1 pm UK - ME:
after two days of no response, I emailed “Hullo??”
6/19 Friday - 2:35 pm UK - FEKED (from “sales”): “we are not able to zoom. We will post you out another tap body …”
6/19 - 2:45 UK - ME: I thanked them
6/19 - 3:25 am UK - ME: Going out of my way to educate them so they can take it up with their supplier, I sent a link to a video showing how the handle stops moving the full 90 degrees as you tighten (hand tight) the end with the nylon seat onto the rest of the unit.
No Reply
6/22 Monday - 10:14 am UK - ME: I asked if I would receive an email from royalmail.com when they post it. (When they shipped the original, I got emails from royalmail.com updating me on the shipping.)
No reply
6/23 Tuesday - 12:30 pm UK - ME: I wrote “Sorry to bug you, but any word on when the tap body will be posted? Thank you.”
No Reply
6/24 Wednesday 6:40 am UK - ME: (
This was now five days after they said they would post a replacement with no further communication from them) I wrote “??? Hullo??
6/24 8:15 am UK - I posted my experience to this forum.
6/24 6:40 pm UK - ROYALMAIL.COM: I received an email from Royalmail.com that they received a parcel from Feked.
But still nothing from Feked since the 19th.
Folks can have their own opinion about whether that shows sufficient responsiveness to a customer who got a defective unit.
With respect to "deburring" the nylon seal, if you had this in your hand, I think you'd see that's not realistic. First because the nylon surface is smoooooooth and the picture shows there's no "burr" to deburr - and also because trying to re-shape it would be a blind effort. You can't see where the ball is hitting the nylon before it fully closes because that only happens when the unit is assembled. So you would have no way of seeing where or how much material to remove.
