Lifetime Warranties

Sometimes I miss the days when they used to "make em like they used to..."

Now I find that products that are bought are just total crap. Recently I've been noticing more products have a "Lifetime Replacement Warranty" or maybe a longer than typical warranty.

Example, last spring, I bought one of those fancy "Dial A Sprayer" garden hose attachments, you know the chrome ones with the rubber grip and 63 selectable settings, Shower, mist, angle, cone etc. I think I paid around 12 bucks for it.

After I got home, I noticed the tag. "Life time replacement warranty". Hmm. Interesting.

Let me take the tag off and staple the sales receipt to it, and put it in the 1 gallon ziploc I have for 'warranty' stuff.

Well here it is, the peak of watering season 2008 in Texas. I'm noticing that the chrome is starting to come off on the sprayer, not in little pieces, but in big chunks. So I keep using it, until all the chunks of chrome are gone, and now, the pot metal underneath starts to turn white and deteriorate. Hmmm didn't I remember something about a warranty?

So I found the receipt and warranty info. A quick filling out of the form on the Gilmour website and I had a response 3 days later, promising me a replacement. I asked how I should send the old one back, and the lady said just to chunk it.

Now, I have to say, one one hand, I'm delighted that their warranty service is that wonderful, no questions asked. On the other hand, it irks me that the company doesn't even care enough to find out the cause of the defect, that it would just be cheaper to throw the customer a new one rather find out what the root cause of the issue is.


Another company that is good on warranty is Delta Plumbing Fixtures. No questions asked. Call them with the model number, and its a lifetime replacement on anything newer than 1995. I've had my water diverter cartridge in my shower replaced twice with their warranty (labor not included of course), each time I've had a new cartridge show up on my doorstep via UPS. Its wonderful.
Anyone else have a 'good guys' product they use/like?