Cracked Cassette Fascia

[Daddy Cool]

I've just heard a tale of cracked cassette fascia panels; it goes something like this; a series of fascia panels have been cracking after installation, the engineer that told said he had heard from several distributors that this was caused by a leak, and the synthetic oil had reacted with the plastic and caused the cracks?

my feeling is that is a tall tale to get out of warranty, as it would have been happening for years now, not just recently, and even if this were the case, wouldn't it be a design fault by the manufacturers?

i'm suspecting that the fascia's are made by a few manufacturers for all of the big A/C companies and they have had a 'bad batch' that are cracking.

Has anyone else heard of this problem?

[The Viking]

No, I haven't heard of that one but I seen a few fascias with a lot of synthetic oil on top of them...(without cracking)

[chemi-cool]

Synthetic oil is kept in plastic containers...........

[Daddy Cool]

Indeed, but i think the line they were trying to take is that 'this' plastic reacts with synthetic oil, whatever plastic that maybe. i think it's a wild excuse that they are trying to blind some poor bugger with science and does the installer really want to admit to a leak....

I understand that several distributors have been reeling this story out when it comes to warranty claims for these fascia's. As far as i know, it's only one manufacturer.

[eggs]

I had this a while ago. Ring any bells? (http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2582)

Eggs

[chemi-cool]

They crack because there is something missing if the plastic mixture.

There are special polymers that should be added to keep the product flexible.

They simply save money and what is easier than blaming the installer.

Sue them!!!

[frank]

We had a Daikin Cassette grille tested to see what it was made of because we wanted to paint it a colour to match the ceiling (dark Blue)

The local paint shop wouldn't paint it until we told them the product as they did not want to be responsible for any reaction with the paint.

The results came back as a bit of a shock - Polystyrene!

- not plastic!!

[Daddy Cool]

These weren't Daikin Cassettes, or LG, but two LG distributors have passed the same comment on. Slightly around the houses, but many years back a UK company that's changed its colours since those days, decided to have it's 'own brand' and sent some lads to China to find a manufacturer, when it came to how thinsg looked, they were taken to a large factory that moulded plastic, and they were asked how they wanted the cases to look. The factory said they moulded fascia's etc for just about every brand name, so pick one as they owned many of the tools. the engineer that asked me about the problem is worried that he's going to get stung for the replacements. i told him it's down to them to prove this problem, and if this is the case, it is still a manufacturing fault...stand your ground!

Out of interest Frank, did Daikin tell you it was Polystyrene or did you have someone independent test it for you?

[l'robot]

I've just heard a tale of cracked cassette fascia panels; it goes something like this; a series of fascia panels have been cracking after installation, the engineer that told said he had heard from several distributors that this was caused by a leak, and the synthetic oil had reacted with the plastic and caused the cracks?

my feeling is that is a tall tale to get out of warranty, as it would have been happening for years now, not just recently, and even if this were the case, wouldn't it be a design fault by the manufacturers?

i'm suspecting that the fascia's are made by a few manufacturers for all of the big A/C companies and they have had a 'bad batch' that are cracking.

Has anyone else heard of this problem?


This was a problem that LG had when they changed from R407c to R410A. The fascia panels reacted when there was a leak and the gas/oil combination caused embrittling of the plastic. The plastic would shatter into small pieces. It is the composition of the plastic material. Most are manufactured from a polystyrene.

[Daddy Cool]

do you know what the reaction from LG was? admission of a problem, and honour warranty, or just general mumbling, and offer warranty if pushed?

[l'robot]

They offered warranty when pushed. The distributors knew about the problem as they had a pile of them that they exchanged.

[Daddy Cool]

Sounds like the distributors are making this 'the' excuse. In essence, it was an Hitachi unit that has had the failures, but SWM and i think (don't quote me) D&W who are saying the problem is the oil. Hitachi just said they are aware of the 'rumour' and are asking the factory in Spain to investigate, though didn't confirm or deny any problem, just that they were aware of the word on the street. They did have some problems with fascias not lining up properly, and stress causing the fractures....the plot thickens.

[multisync]

These weren't Daikin Cassettes, or LG, but two LG distributors have passed the same comment on. Slightly around the houses, but many years back a UK company that's changed its colours since those days, decided to have it's 'own brand' and sent some lads to China to find a manufacturer, when it came to how thinsg looked, they were taken to a large factory that moulded plastic, and they were asked how they wanted the cases to look. The factory said they moulded fascia's etc for just about every brand name, so pick one as they owned many of the tools. the engineer that asked me about the problem is worried that he's going to get stung for the replacements. i told him it's down to them to prove this problem, and if this is the case, it is still a manufacturing fault...stand your ground!

Out of interest Frank, did Daikin tell you it was Polystyrene or did you have someone independent test it for you?


Not Climate and that ****e Axair ?

Multisync
London

[frank]

It was someone independent that did the testing, via the paint shop.

[Andy AC]

I went to look at an lg cassette the other day -ok it has had oil on it before due to leakage, but what really fooked it was an unfortunate incident involving a weight lifting bar.:D (extremely bad choice of unit in the wrong position - exposed cassette in gym with very low ceiling height) a disaster waiting to happen.

Andy

[Imp]

As a former senior distributor employee for a few companies I can clear up a little of this.

I can tell you from experience that it was LG who had this problem. How they reacted was that they stuck their heads in the sand as normal.

Hitachi, to the best of my knowledge have not had this problem.

The polymer argument is arguably correct, the problem is how long it took to explain it. This was a classic case of the factory taking cost out of the manufacturing process without doing correct R&D. This was followed up by poor after sales.

[paul_h]

Interesting thread. I've only had experience with fujitsu and daikin cassettes, as that's all that sells here. I've seen panasonic and other brands like LG, samsung, but they sell stuff all in comparison, so I never worked on more than 5 or so odd units of those brands, though I've worked on 1000s of fujis and 100s of daikins.
Mainly it's Daikin in commercial installations, fujitsu in domestic installations.
I normally did the domestic side of the business, so 90+% fujitsu and I've never heard of badly cracking fascias.
I've seen badly warped ones, and maybe a single crack, but that's all been due to faulty installation, (too tight against the ceiling), not oil or bad manufacture.
If it was because some dodgey chinese manufactures all brands and the are all made out of polystyrene, I would have thought I'd seen more cracked fascias in my time.
Interesting fault.