3 Cheers for Fischer-Panda!

[svHyLyte]

The weekend before last I discovered that the water pump">raw water pump on our 2002 era Panda 4.2KW generator was leaking from a weep hole between the impellor chamber and the shaft gallery that houses the bearings supporting the drive shaft. Upon contacting Panda the following Monday, I was put in touch with the head of the Technical Services department, Mr. Bob Grubert, who explained that a rear seal in the impellor chamber was likely the culprit and patiently explained how to replace it and how to remove the pump from the motor to do so, if necessary. The Company’s parts department forwarded the new seals and an impellor kit which arrived the next day at a cost very little more than I had been paying for impellors alone from a local vendor.

This past weekend I set about replacing the seal but, as Mr. Grubert had suggested, the position of our generator made it necessary to remove the pump, a tedious but not difficult job, to gain the necessary access. With the pump extracted and impellor and old seal removed, I discovered that I could hardly turn the shaft/drive pulley by hand. Upon disassembling the shaft gallery assembly and extracting the shaft and bearings, I discovered that an O-ring shown in the schematic drawings of the pump was missing; and, that the rear bearing cage and bearings were completely wasted, evidently due to the water leaking from the impellor chamber having penetrated the shaft gallery. Even without the missing O-ring, I couldn’t fathom how so much water might have made its way into the shaft gallery until my sharp eyed wife spied a break in the side of the gallery wall due to an obvious flaw in the casting of the pump body. When the gallery was machined by Johnson Pump, this flaw left a small but clear pathway into the shaft gallery from the back of the impellor chamber.

This, and the missing O-ring, was an obvious manufacturing defect—by Johnson Pump—that Fischer-Panda could not possibly have detected when our generator was assembled but which, had it been discovered sooner, certainly would have been covered under our original warranty. Unfortunately, almost 7 years (to the day) had passed since we had taken delivery of the generator and I steeled myself to the idea I was in for a $450+ (USD) replacement part as one could hardly expect Fischer-Panda to honor such a claim, however worthy, after such a long time. Never-the-less, we photographed the damaged parts, and the flaw in the casing (no easy task given my poor eyesight!), and sent these and a note of explanation to Bob via email. The following morning—yesterday—he responded with a note simply asking for our address as his technicians were readying a replacement pump assembly for shipping to us (without a word about charging us!). And a brand-new pump arrived here today!

Now that—ladies and gentlemen—is an honorable Company of men, particularly so given the flaw was the fault of a supplier that F-P could not possibly have discovered unless we brought it to their attention, which we did not for almost 7 years!

If any one is considering the purchase of a small generator—one that is so quiet that it cannot be heard above the whoosh from the fan on an air conditioner—and is backed by a good, reliable, manufacturer, we heartily recommend Fischer-Panda. Tell them s/v HyLyte sent you!

[Therapy]

Unreal.

Good to hear though!

[Scottie2]

Always good to hear a feel-good story over all the negative stories out there ... This definitely reflects well on Fischer Panda. Thanks for sharing!

[s/v Jedi]

Impressive service indeed; much improved since 2003 when I had my last dealings with them. Now, all they need is a good product. There are still no posts about their new line of gensets so we don't know.

cheers,
Nick.

[svHyLyte]

Nick--

The only problems we've heard of with F-P have been with some of the older raw water cooled units. Everyone we've met with the fresh water versions has had no complaints. The one thing that makes a difference with these units seems to be religious attention to maintenance. The one prior problem I had with our unit was due to my own misunderstanding of the maintenance requirements which was certainly not F-P's fault. They did, however, help me get the matter corrected. Our current issue resulted from a manufacturing defect in a part F-P did not make. It was undetectable unless the part had been completely disassembled, which would not be necessary unless/'til it failed. F-P had no obligation to handle the matter but elected to do so, which I appreciate, and think needs be lauded.

FWIW...

[Cheechako]

Good to hear they currently have better service. I had nothing but trouble with a couple of their units we installed on new boats when I worked at a boat manufacturer a few years ago. Factory support was less than good at that time. Actually had to tell one customer there appeared to be no solution. Their problems always seem to be in the cooling system somewhere. As I remember it, on one unit there was a cooling sensor that would shut it down all the time. Evidently any bubbles or etc in the intake would set off the shut down system.

[s/v Jedi]

HyLyte,

Yes, my FP was the really bad one with raw water through aluminium block and generator and it was all seized up. FP didn't want to talk to me about it. But unfortunately, I've met many cruisers with the heat exchanger equipped models that have lots of trouble with them too, mostly cooling related like Cheechako wrote in the previous post. I was actually happy with the bad service I got from FP because it made me buy a Northern Lights instead, one of my better decisions.

I've read some good stories about FP sets but those are for sets that are rarely used, like a couple hunderd hours in years. We've run our NL for 5250 hours in 6 years without a hickup outside regular maintenance and I've yet to encounter a FP that reached that many hours without replacements, overhauls etc.

cheers!
Nick.