After Sales Service from Pentair

[muchael falcini]

Hi Guyys,
Just a word of warning. I live in Spain in an are where the water is extremely hard so I decided to invest in a Pentair 5600 Water Softener which I purchased online July 2020 from a firm called ManoMano. Slight issues with delivery but it arrived and the plumber fitted it. A few weeks later I measured the water hardness which was through the roof high. The water softener was not working. I contacted several plumbers to check the unit. 5 months and 3 plumbers later no change. I contacted Pentair to explain the problem and would they send an engineer to sort it. I was given the total runaround and sent from one email address to another. No one seemed to be able to help. After months of no help and no solution at all. Around march this year, 2021, Having exchanged emails with any and everyone who was connected to Pentair. They never sent anyone or even suggested any solution. This May I went to a local shop Fontalmanzora who also deal with Water softeners. They sent out a chap the same week. He investigated and found that the granules in the inner tank had solidified. Ordered the packet of chemical came back and put the chemical in the tank. A few days later, thank Fontalmanzora in Albox Spain, the water softener was finally working.
I informed Pentair, who told me
"I would like to inform you that all the softener is composed of several components, the only component from Pentair is the valve, all the rest is not from us."
Or to put it another way NOT our problem. They are happy to have the Pentair name on 'all of the water softener' but when it goes wrong. Not our problem. The Unit has one or two years Guarantee but when needed no one is prepared to help. After Sales Service is ZERO . I have spent hundreds of Euros getting Plumbers to check the unit and eventually repair it. Pentair are not interested in my problems.
Sorry for the long Story but I want to warn people NOT to buy Pentair products if that is the standard of their, in my case, Non-Existant after sales service. I informed Pentair I would be posting on Forums to warn people not to buy their products. I hope if you read this you will pass it along to everyone you can. I am absolutely disgusted with Pentair's lackadaisical attitude once they have your money.
Please don't waste your money with them .
Many thanks for your patience.
Michael

 

[Reach4]

They are happy to have the Pentair name on 'all of the water softener'

EDIT: I found https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pentair-Water-Softener-System-for-3-to-4-Bathrooms-35921/316362209 with some help.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Old]

This is exactly why clack went to dealer only sales...

Could you post a few pictures of your water softener?

 

[Old]

He investigated and found that the granules in the inner tank had solidified. Ordered the packet of chemical came back and put the chemical in the tank.

Do you know the chemical that was used?

 

[Reach4]

his is exactly why clack went to dealer only sales...

That way it's up to the dealer to tell them that they are out of luck, and the thing they need is a paid maintenance item rather than something covered by warranty. Oh, wait. I'll bet that is what ManoMano told him.

 

[Bannerman]

It was not specified that ManoMano was even contacted to provide warranty coverage for the system they sold.

Pentair is a manufacturer of various components for building water softeners, but Pentair does not normally build and supply pre-assembled complete systems. Pentair is not the only manufacturer of water softener components as there are a wide number of manufacturers, many of whom are located offshore.

Systems are often assembled by individual dealers or by unnamed companies that assemble systems for many online dealers, with the online dealer never actually seeing the product.

Online dealers will often advertise systems equipped with Pentair/Fleck control valves as a 'hook' since that brand is recognized and known for quality and reliability. Many of those systems are assembled using cheap, low-quality components such as tanks, screens, brine pickup assembly, riser and resin. Those components brands are typically unspecified and usually appear identical, but as the softener is marketed as a Fleck system, most customers assume the entire softener is produced & assembled by Pentair/Fleck.


Unfortunately, there are inexpensive clones of Pentair/Fleck 5600 also produced offshore, which makes it difficult to be certain an online system will be actually equipped with a genuine Pentair/Fleck valve.

For those reasons, there are many threads on this forum that advise and warn against purchasing water treatment equipment online. Although you may not be necessarily assured a softener purchased from a local water treatment dealer will utilize all Pentair components, local dealers will normally utilize reliable, higher quality components since they will lose money providing warranty service to replace a failed component they are unlikely to receive compensation for, compared to the savings realized by using a cheap, less reliable component.

No disrespect to plumbers but, most plumbers are not in the water treatment business. While they will be able to connect the plumbing and drain lines to a softener, many will not understand how to correctly program a softener or to diagnose an issue when the unit is not functioning properly.

Since it seems your softener did not soften water even when first installed, I suspect it was not assembled correctly and was either missing the O-ring seal at the top of the riser tube where the tube is to connect to the bottom of the 5600, or, the tube diameter may have been too small compared to the connection at the bottom of the 5600. In either situation, hard water entering at the top of the softener will not flow down through the resin, resulting in soft water flowing up the riser tube from the bottom of the tank and out to your home's fixtures. but will instead allow leakage of hard water, directly to the softener's outlet connection and out to your fixtures.

It seems likely Fontalmanzora recognized the cause of the problem during the initial visit, and once correcting the seal inside the tank, proceeded to regenerate the resin. During the backwash stage of regeneration, water will flow in the reverse direction, down the riser to the bottom of the tank which will cause the resin to loosen, lift, expand and reclassify within the tank, which will not have occurred when the seal was leaking at the top of the riser tube.

In your initial post, you identified the issue was not caused by a malfunction or deficiency with the Pentair 5600 valve, yet proceed to blame Pentair.

Your misplaced anger should rightly be directed at ManoMano since they sold you the system. Each dealer is to warrant and repair the systems they sell. Even if the problem had been caused by the Pentair 5600 valve, as a 'dealer', it is ManoMano's responsibility to obtain warranty support from Pentair, not you.