Having spent just under $1,500 each on two Caroma Metro BTW pans & soft-close seats, Invisi II in wall cisterns & separate button/access panel sets, one set of which is yet to be installed, the soft close hinges on the one in use have failed after 2 years service. As these hinges are “blind fixing” types the replacement of them is fiddly & at $115 a set, expensive but I guess the price is commensurate with the over all cost of the suite. My problem is that they were & remain, in my opinion, not fit-for-purpose as they are zinc/galvanised mild steel for something exposed to a damp atmosphere & in the line of fire for acid attack from poor aim of some users. At the price I would’ve though stainless steel to me a minimum requirement.
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We had a few much cheaper soft closing suites installed seven years ago and not one has failed, so after two years use a failure isn’t acceptable.
Write a letter of complaint to your supplier first. You could use the general letter of complaint template Choice has created. The failure of the soft closures is a minor fault, so perhaps you could ask for replacement closers to be installed.
If the supplier doesn’t respond, or the response is not to your liking you can write to Caroma using the information below.
GWA Bathrooms & Kitchens, Australia
Caroma Industries Limited
Level 24, 100 Mount Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
AUSTRALIA
Telephone 61 2 8825 4400
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For your amusement (or shock horror), my experience with Caroma…
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Thanks, that’s great advice but as I bought the suites on “special order” from a BIG hardware store years before they were installed by my plumber (2 years ago) would you suggest the retail supplier or the manufacturer as the first port-of-call?
Cheers
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The retailer ‘owns’ warranty problems under the ACL. If they tell you otherwise the ACCC might like to hear about it, so get that in writing/email. For renovations it is sometimes the case that the receipt for installation is effectively the purchase date although 2-years may be pushing that.
We did a kitchen reno and purchased bits over a good 6 months prior to work starting. We had a few warranty issues and nobody knocked back the invoice from the reno as the ‘purchase date’.
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Usually warranties are from the date of purchase and not from the date of install. If it had been sitting around your house/shed for a number of years, the lubrucants could have gone off/leaked out if exposed to hot condition, seals deteriorated due to lack of lubtication and the closing mechanism damaged/stressed (as it would be under load stored flat/closed). Such won’t be covered by a warranty nor it could be problematic trying to claim under the ACL, as the storage could have caused the premature failure.
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The failure is with the blind fixing which goes through a hole in the porcelain & is tightened prior to the hinge itself, & seat being attached. That part is zinc/galvanised mild steel & has rusted, distorting & forcing the hinge & seat up, causing the hinge to break. Given the part that has failed is intended to be used in a wet area & is to put it politely, in the firing line during use by anyone misjudging their aim, I feel it is just not well designed. So rather then being a storage issue, given it was all stored in original packaging & inside the house, it’s more that the material used isn’t what I’d consider suitable.
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As an update to my problem, I stripped the seat/hinges down & while still unable to remove the hinge mountings & detected what appears to be incorrect alignment of the hinges on the mountings & felt this could place stress on the hinges trying to work in unison. Once realigned they’ve beet flawless so I guess it was the plumber who created the problem to start with?
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