Hitachi 200GX2 Water Pump - FYI

[55Jay]

Pump running continuously yesterday morning, but no water pressure to house.

Checked the normal things, then drained water from pump, tried a restart, no dice. Motor sounds free spinning, no load.

Took off the impeller housing cover and the impeller came out in my hand. It had been severed from the motor shaft.

Global pump guy said they've had a few Hitachis returned with this issue.

Bought and installed a Mitsu 205w to restore water service to the house this afternoon.

[55Jay]

Forgot to add, this pump was purchased/installed just 11 months ago.

[eyecatcher]

I bought the same model a month back. Its still in the box.

Is there any reason why it snapped....and dont suppose the supplier is interested in the slightest in replacing the part.

[wayned]

If it's the same design as Mitsubishi, it could be repaired by replacing the motor. The pump shaft in the Mitsubishi that I have WP-255Q#, is the motor shaft. IPL for reference attached.

WP-255Q3 IPL.pdf

[55Jay]

I bought the same model a month back. Its still in the box.

Is there any reason why it snapped....and dont suppose the supplier is interested in the slightest in replacing the part.

Not sure. Wife said it was making a terrible noise, then went back to normal sound, but no water pressure after. Perhaps something jammed the impeller, although I saw no evidence of impeller damage or debris in the casing; although could of gotten flushed out just before the break. Engineer mate of mine thinks it was a bad batch of shafts, faulty heat treatment + the comment about Global's having a number of them returned for same issue.

If it's the same design as Mitsubishi, it could be repaired by replacing the motor. The pump shaft in the Mitsubishi that I have WP-255Q#, is the motor shaft. IPL for reference attached.

WP-255Q3 IPL.pdf

Only 11 months on the 5 year warranty. Guy at Global said bring the receipt and broken pump, he'll give us a new one, same model, no need to interact with Hitachi service. Nice! I had a Mitsu before this Hitachi, it went for 7 or 8 years, so I bought another Mitsu (205 watt constant pressure) yesterday, and will keep the replacement Hitachi as a ready spare.

[Artisi]

Appears to be a typical fatigue failure --- why --very difficult to say without a full metallurgical analysis and full study of the pumps operating conditions. Although a failure of this nature on this style of pump would not be expected. But if being replaced why worry unless a new one suffers the same fate.

[55Jay]

Final follow up on how the warranty swap went at Global yesterday.

As before, Hitachi rep was great - show me receipt, give me broken pump, here's your new pump. He walked us through the whole process, even carried the new pump out and loaded it in the car for us.

It was going great until the main (approving) Global manager showed up. He and his group discussed for 10 minutes, how to accomplish this apparently exotic transaction. Wife said he seemed to be looking for a reason to say no, or avoid having to make the decision at all. Out of the blue, this manager told my wife we had gotten a 300 Baht discount (promotion) the day we bought the pump 11 months ago, so we had to pay back the 300 Baht in cash, then we could take the replacement pump.

We objected, which caused another 5 minute conference, then never mind about the money, we left with new pump shortly thereafter.

So, it took a while but still nice that we got it done at the retail vendor vs. finding/visiting a Hitachi service center.

[RichCor]

It was going great until the main (approving) Global manager showed up. He and his group discussed for 10 minutes, how to accomplish this apparently exotic transaction. Wife said he seemed to be looking for a reason to say no, or avoid having to make the decision at all. Out of the blue, this manager told my wife we had gotten a 300 Baht discount (promotion) the day we bought the pump 11 months ago, so we had to pay back the 300 Baht in cash, then we could take the replacement pump.

We objected, which caused another 5 minute conference, then never mind about the money, we left with new pump shortly thereafter.

Wonder why the Global shop manager was making all the fuss? Unless their buyer/reseller contract requires them to be fully or partially on the 'hook' for providing warranty replacements, I'm not sure why they would care (outside of being the one having to filing the paperwork and being down a stock item until Hitachi replaced or reimbursed them).

[Pib]

You can be guaranteed Global was loosing some money on this warranty swap-out or they wouldn't have made a fuss. But usually when you buy an item from a store like Global House after one or two weeks you need to go to the manufacturer's service location to get the item replaced or repaired. But maybe Hitachi has a special deal with major retailers like Global to handle certain warranty issues differently...and maybe like Jay55 said that Global stands behind some of its products it sells and instead of a 1 to 2 week return period you have up to a year in certain cases.

But one time about 4 years ago I bought a portable Philips DVD/CD player at a Lotus and the sales rep said if it failed within it's 12 month warranty period that Lotus would handle the warranty repair/replacement with the manufacturer for me....just bring the item back to the store. The Thai wife was with me at the time and heard the same story. Cool...just bring it back to Lotus, they will take it and send it to the manufacturer for repair/replacement. However, the player did developed a problem about 3 months later, we took it back to the Lotus store, and was told we had to deal directly with the manufacturer....what that sales rep had told us (who is no longer working there) was not true. I had suspicions on the day I bought the DVD/CD player that the Sales Rep was just lying to make a sale or needed more training on how warranties usually worked. Anyway, we took it to a Philips service center and they repaired it. Then it broke again a year later...piece of crap.

[55Jay]

The Hitachi rep kept telling the Global guys it was a simple swap, which from his perspective, I'm sure it was.

Being (former) management (but not retail), I understood the Global guy wanting to document and account for things properly. So I just let them do their thing, until they tried to make it my problem with that 300 Baht curve ball.