New Elma SE heater quit working - Could use some advice - Photos attached

[JohnR725]

7 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

However, he and I have spoken and texted by phone a number of times. We discussed the unit when he got it. It was relatively new but he did not buy it from Elma.

 

On 4/8/2023 at 10:22 AM, JohnR725 said:

thinking about shipping out of curiosity where did you order your machine from and do they package the machines well for shipping? Maybe a problem is something worked its way loosen from shipping if they didn't properly package it.

one of the reasons I specifically asked the question that I did was that I know someone who purchased it new from cousins exact same machine. then unlike in this case where they're getting prompt email response of how to fix the problem Elma apparently is dragging their feet on an issue. The issue being that when he received his machine one of the jars had disintegrated and glass was literally every place so there is a concern over what the glass might do if it works its way into the motor. Plus there was a concern over whether the head itself is even properly aligned. In other words Elma packages there machines very poorly for shipping and doesn't take responsibility for that at all. This is why asked about how the machine was packaged as I was curious as to whether it survived transportation and that could be the issues were having here.

 

8 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

For that matter, do timegraphers need to be calibrated?

that is an interesting question it depends upon who you ask, or who is using the timing machine. Ideally yes they should be calibrated but not all machines can be calibrated. this was always one of the amusements with earlier timing machines is that people typically never get there timing machines calibrated because they just typically don't. Then there is the little problem of how would you do this? If you have a witschi timing machine they offer a service and I think some other dealers also offer the service to get your machine calibrated. Or if you have the money you can buy their special GPS receiver which is not the same as the normal GPS receiver that are sometimes recommended for calibrating a timing machine. Their GPS receiver is a special timing GPS receiver so it has a much better oscillator it synchronizes the more satellites and is only really valid if you've a timing machine that can measure things that small a regular GPS should be just fine. But yes if you are doing warranty work for a company like Rolex for instance where your watch has to be within a very narrow timing or else getting your timing machine calibrator a regular basis would be an absolute must probably just even have your account. But for the rest of us nobody really cares it isn't really that important if your timing machine is off by a few seconds still never notice.

https://www.witschi.com/en/service/kalibrierung/

https://www.witschi.com/en/additional-products/gps-receiver/

 

 

[LittleWatchShop]

22 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

But for the rest of us nobody really cares it isn't really that important if your timing machine is off by a few seconds still never notice.

Yup!

[thor447]

Thanks @LittleWatchShop.  I should have clarified earlier.  The machine was basically 'new', but I bought it from a private individual.

[Endeavor]

On 4/9/2023 at 12:14 PM, HectorLooi said:

Granted, they may not be 100% accurate but none of them have drifted off by more than 5 %

Just as a side note; many years ago I constructed a "box" with high-quality components, just to check (or for calibration) some basic functions (mainly for electronics) of my (5x) Fluke multi-meters. An opportunity to buy these low-tolerance components against fair prices is hopefully still available to you. As you may know, the "wonderful" EU has closed that door firmly .

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Endeavor

[thor447]

Positive update.
 

I called JB and spoke with Kyle that was previously identified in this thread. I explained the situation to him. He is going to arrange for the machine to be shipped to the service center in California. It still has a warranty. Unfortunately, I’ll be without my machine for a month or so, but it will be good to get it repaired properly. 

Edited April 10, 2023 by thor447

[JohnR725]

On 4/10/2023 at 2:55 PM, thor447 said:

I called JB and spoke with Kyle that was previously identified in this thread. I explained the situation to him. He is going to arrange for the machine to be shipped to the service center in California. It still has a warranty. Unfortunately, I’ll be without my machine for a month or so, but it will be good to get it repaired properly. 

I'm curious about how did the repair go?  The reason I'm curious is I saw this interesting video on YouTube apparently another less than satisfied customer.

 

 

 

[rehajm]

This was going to be my splurge when the reaper comes for my Pearl . Let me k ow how it turns out

[GuyMontag]

I have one and have not had any issues. Mine did not come on a pallet but was packaged well.

[thor447]

8 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

I'm curious about how did the repair go?  The reason I'm curious is I saw this interesting video on YouTube apparently another less than satisfied customer.

 

 

 

Mine was in the original Elma box with all the original packing materials when I got it.  The packaging was quite impressive actually.  I did not have any damaged items, and the machine worked beautifully for several months, until the day the heater decided to stop working.  When speaking to the repair shop about my machine (and kudos to Jules Borel for facilitating everything - they were absolutely great to work with), the person at the repair shop told me that the control board had failed, causing the heater not to work.  Perhaps a blown capacitor or something.  I didn't ask any further details about what specifically on the controller board went bad.  The shop got my replacement part from Elma in Germany.  Shipping took quite some time, but the shop was very consistent in providing updates and the ever changing ETA on the new part (DHL took forever to deliver it).  Once received the machine was repaired quickly.  The shop kept the machine for 4-5 more days and did some testing on it.  He even sent me pictures of his oscilloscope hooked up to the machine, and them making sure that everything was in order.  After I received the machine back, I haven't had any issues with it whatsoever.  The shop told me that he hardly ever sees a part fail on these fail, outside of user induced damage.  He said most of the time when he gets them in it is because the machine had been dropped when moving it.  

I'm sorry to see that the person in the video had such issues with their machine.  I can say that I have not had anywhere near the same experience.  My speed adjustment works beautifully, even at lower spin speeds and I found the packing of my machine to be very good,  Mine did not see any damage.  Overall I am very pleased with my purchase.

[nickelsilver]

I have an Elma ultrasonic 2l (2.5?) that seems to be bulletproof, it's at least 20 years old and runs hours everyday. For watch cleaners, I used a 60s Greiner for many years, iconic model using water based cleaner rinsing in iso alcohol with built in distiller. A few years back I bit the bullet and got their industry standard ACS 900, secondhand. Mine came without ultrasonic, but a quick email and they sent me the driver board and ultrasonic tank for a reasonable fee. I asked the tech if they happened to have the schematic for my old machine and after some digging he found it and sent it. I had asked like 5 times before, just had the wrong person.

 

Their tech I corresponded with by phone and email couldn't have been nicer, cooler. In my industry there's a lot of CNC buying, and end of the day a machine that's a little more accurate loses to a machine with better support. I'm astonished at Elma's support.

[JohnR725]

14 hours ago, thor447 said:

I found the packing of my machine to be very good,

I'm curious how were the jars packed?

the classic problem with shipping cleaning machines is what to do with the jars. Oftentimes you'll find orphaned cleaning machines with no jars I once got one for free because it had no jars. Then of course in the video glass jars in a box with a little bubble wrap in my mind just doesn't cut it I have no idea what they were thinking when they did that.

 

 

 

[thor447]

28 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

I'm curious how were the jars packed?

the classic problem with shipping cleaning machines is what to do with the jars. Oftentimes you'll find orphaned cleaning machines with no jars I once got one for free because it had no jars. Then of course in the video glass jars in a box with a little bubble wrap in my mind just doesn't cut it I have no idea what they were thinking when they did that.

 

 

 

I bought mine second-hand, but it was only a few weeks old.  He had all of the original packaging and had it re-packed when I picked it up.  Mine had styrofoam inserts sized to fill each jar.

[JohnR725]

On 8/27/2023 at 4:15 AM, thor447 said:

He had all of the original packaging and had it re-packed when I picked it up.  Mine had styrofoam inserts sized to fill each jar.

What I'm curious about is if you look at the video versus your description of how the jars are packaged the video gives the impression that Elma is clueless on how to package jars for shipping versus what you describe.

On 8/26/2023 at 8:11 AM, GuyMontag said:

I have one and have not had any issues. Mine did not come on a pallet but was packaged well.

So for my second quote packaged well versus the video? I wonder if the people who sell the machines repackaged what Elma does because the video gives the impression of very poor packing for something that Heavy.

[GuyMontag]

1 hour ago, JohnR725 said:

What I'm curious about is if you look at the video versus your description of how the jars are packaged the video gives the impression that Elma is clueless on how to package jars for shipping versus what you describe.

So for my second quote packaged well versus the video? I wonder if the people who sell the machines repackaged what Elma does because the video gives the impression of very poor packing for something that Heavy.

I know that I filmed myself opening the box but I can't find the video. I don't remember exactly how it was packaged but I do remember thinking that it was well packaged as it took me some effort to get everything out of the box.

[thor447]

7 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

What I'm curious about is if you look at the video versus your description of how the jars are packaged the video gives the impression that Elma is clueless on how to package jars for shipping versus what you describe.

So for my second quote packaged well versus the video? I wonder if the people who sell the machines repackaged what Elma does because the video gives the impression of very poor packing for something that Heavy.

I bought mine second hand, but it had the original box and packaging and was only about a month old.  Mine was well done.  Perhaps they are packaging them differently now.  I couldn't really say.  I had no issues with how mine was packaged though.