sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Now you might wonder why they are so expensive, well sure there's some technology in them that makes them expensive, I mean hell you haven't seen the Chinese knockoff clones yet have you?? 
Well here's another reason, let me recount the story...
So I bought a Gen2 upgrade kit to install on a used one I recently purchased. Well unbeknown to me there was a flaw in or something, after a couple days I noticed it made too much of a rattling sound... so I take it out look at it, send EcoTech an email, and while their customer service is great, the first response isn't want I liked, "I can't see anything wrong with it from the pictures you sent, go to http:/... and make sure you install it correctly, send us an email if problems persist"..
Well I'm not an idiot, it was installed correctly, problems did still persist. When I took it apart again I did notice something, the screw head was actually counter sunk on the magnet, which looking at my others shouldn't be the case. So back on the horn to EcoTech, told them my problem, of course they pointed the finger back at me saying I didn't put something in place (even though it was), then I noticed something else, the plastic screw threads were stripped near the bottom, so basically the nut couldn't hold it all on correctly. So in the midst of sending emails back and forth, they mentioned me needing new parts, send a CC# and all that jazz, but before I did I wanted to get a parts list down so I didn't miss anything. Well I tested on another pump to see if I could recreate the rattle and sure enough something else went wrong the the impeller got pulled through housing.. guess them magnet was quite powerful!
More emails etc etc.
Finally, kept asking for a invoice BEFORE he sent, so I could double check everything.. and of course I got nothing in return. But from what I gathered I needed a new wetside/impeller, and a new magnet kit. I also asked for a couple o-rings because the ones on my current were a little on the rotted out side. Between the two damaged vortechs though I did have enough parts to make a single working one, so no big deal.
The day arrives when my package gets here in it was, one magnet kit! (good) one wetside w/ impeller kit (good), another wetside w/ impeller kit (WTF?) and no O-rings (SUMMABITCH!). Again to the email, asking what was up, why I got two wetsides? Pointing fingers back to me... ok whatever.. he asked what I wanted to do (i.e. send one wetside kit back) but I said I'll keep it as a spare should anything bad happen again, just send the O-rings in an envelope or something, no problem fixed... within a day a package from EcoTech shows up.. sweet! O-rings.. wtf is with the box though... open it up and inside I find.... one magnet kit, two wetside + impeller kits, and 2 O-rings. Oy vey... ok whatever I got my O-rings! Then a few days later... an envelope shows up... and in it are two O-rings! *sigh*
So there you have it folks, the reason why the Vortech costs so much, is because they use twice as many parts as they have to
Well here's another reason, let me recount the story...
So I bought a Gen2 upgrade kit to install on a used one I recently purchased. Well unbeknown to me there was a flaw in or something, after a couple days I noticed it made too much of a rattling sound... so I take it out look at it, send EcoTech an email, and while their customer service is great, the first response isn't want I liked, "I can't see anything wrong with it from the pictures you sent, go to http:/... and make sure you install it correctly, send us an email if problems persist"..
Well I'm not an idiot, it was installed correctly, problems did still persist. When I took it apart again I did notice something, the screw head was actually counter sunk on the magnet, which looking at my others shouldn't be the case. So back on the horn to EcoTech, told them my problem, of course they pointed the finger back at me saying I didn't put something in place (even though it was), then I noticed something else, the plastic screw threads were stripped near the bottom, so basically the nut couldn't hold it all on correctly. So in the midst of sending emails back and forth, they mentioned me needing new parts, send a CC# and all that jazz, but before I did I wanted to get a parts list down so I didn't miss anything. Well I tested on another pump to see if I could recreate the rattle and sure enough something else went wrong the the impeller got pulled through housing.. guess them magnet was quite powerful!
Finally, kept asking for a invoice BEFORE he sent, so I could double check everything.. and of course I got nothing in return. But from what I gathered I needed a new wetside/impeller, and a new magnet kit. I also asked for a couple o-rings because the ones on my current were a little on the rotted out side. Between the two damaged vortechs though I did have enough parts to make a single working one, so no big deal.
The day arrives when my package gets here in it was, one magnet kit! (good) one wetside w/ impeller kit (good), another wetside w/ impeller kit (WTF?) and no O-rings (SUMMABITCH!). Again to the email, asking what was up, why I got two wetsides? Pointing fingers back to me... ok whatever.. he asked what I wanted to do (i.e. send one wetside kit back) but I said I'll keep it as a spare should anything bad happen again, just send the O-rings in an envelope or something, no problem fixed... within a day a package from EcoTech shows up.. sweet! O-rings.. wtf is with the box though... open it up and inside I find.... one magnet kit, two wetside + impeller kits, and 2 O-rings. Oy vey... ok whatever I got my O-rings! Then a few days later... an envelope shows up... and in it are two O-rings! *sigh*
So there you have it folks, the reason why the Vortech costs so much, is because they use twice as many parts as they have to