[PrasadS]

Hello.

Does anybody have any experience with alkaline water ionizers or hydrogen water generators?
I'm not able to find much reviews or recommendation about these.
Few of the companies I've browsed around are Tyent and kyk India which offer these products. Kyk is offering a unit which has zero waste water and hydrogen and antioxidants rich water.
Birth companies boast a long VIP clientele list using their filters personally.
It's it worth investing in such devices from health point of view?

[hmansari]

I am typing this to convey the disappointment on my purchase of IFB inverter AC model number IACI243A3G3C the bill of which I have attached below.

Bill
Attachment 2479687

In the summer of 2021, I was in need of an AC for my bedroom. After going through numerous models from various brands, I decided to invest in a brand by the name of IFB- a brand I had not come across prior to this. I overlooked the more established brands of Mitsubishi/Panasonic (which I have previously used and having comparable prices to IFB) and on 03/06/2021, I purchased the IFB AC with the above model number.

New AC
Attachment 2479721

Attachment 2479722

However, for the past 1 month, the AC has been hanging uselessly from the wall of my bedroom and mocking my decision to put my faith in IFB with insolence.
One fine evening at the age of just 2 years old, the AC decided that it doesn't want to work as an AC anymore and would rather be identified as a wall decoration- a bland one at that. It started showing "E0" on the temperature display of the indoor unit and refused to run. A quick reading online told me that the error code suggests that the indoor and outdoor PCBs were unable to communicate with each other.

E0 error code
Attachment 2479790

I contacted the IFB customer care number, explained the situation to them and in return I was given a ticket code for my complaint via SMS with a promise that the technician would visit soon which I guess is IFB speak for 4 days later. I was also told that since my AC was out of warranty, I would have to pay for the technician's visit. I told them that the AC boasts of 5 years of PCB and 10 years of compressor warranty, which made no difference to them and ultimately I agreed to pay the technician for his visit. In the meantime, I was contacted by the company in Jodhpur (Climate Control Refrigeration Service) which is supposedly authorised by IFB to service their ACs in my region and coordinated with one Mr. Altaaf for the technician's visit. Upon inspection of both the indoor and outdoor units, the technician Mr. Riyaz concluded that the PCB has conked off and that it would be a chargeable replacement. I reminded him too that the AC has 5 years of PCB warranty to which he replied that it only applies to the outdoor units PCB and the indoor PCB warranty is only of 1 year's standard warranty along with the other indoor unit components. He would order both PCBs and they would arrive in 3-4 days and I would have to pay only if the indoor one was to be replaced- a charge of Rs. 3200 along with 600 rupees for his visit. I told him to order the parts needed and keep it with him when they arrive, as I was going out of station and would contact him to fix a date for the replacement of the part. Few days later I get a call from IFB customer care stating that they are marking my complaint as resolved. I told them the situation and asked them to keep it open. I later get a message from IFB with the ticket number, stating that it is resolved and asking me to share feedback to which I marked as problem not solved. Around 2 days before I was to return which was 10 days after the technician's 1st visit, I called the technician up to fix a date for his visit along with the parts. Imagine my dismay when he told me that he still doesn't have the part with him and doesn't know when they would arrive. For around the next 4-5 days after my return, I was kept being told that the part is in transit and it would reach after a few days. I decided to call customer care number again to escalate as I felt that I was being taken for a ride. The customer care representative assured me that the part would reach in 2 days.
Just so you can understand the logistics, I live in a place (around 70kms away from Jodhpur city) which comes under Jodhpur district, and the part was to come from Jaipur.
Jaipur to Jodhpur ~350 kms
Jodhpur to the technician's place of residence ~100kms
The technician' place to my place ~30 kms.
In total around 500 kms took 14 days for the part to reach me. I know many of us on this forum drive more than that, covering as much as 700-800 kms in a day's drive or ride.
Finally on the afternoon of 8th July, the technician came with the PCBs and even before starting the replacement told me that both indoor and outdoor PCBs need to be changed simultaneously as they come as a pair and if only 1 is changed then the same problem can recur. I confirmed this with Mr. Altaaf and he concurred. I agreed and asked to proceed with the replacement. After replacing both the PCBs, the error code went away and the AC turned on but now it identified only as a wall fan as the compressor and outdoor unit refused to turn on. Talk about identity crisis!
The technician after spending hours trying to identify the problem and coordinating with his superiors over the phone who told him to try various permutations and combinations of the old PCB/new PCB/indoor PCB/outdoor PCB came to the conclusion that the compressor too probably needed to be changed and that it would have to be ordered.
Well, it has been 15 days since that and I am still waiting for the compressor to arrive and have been speaking with Mr. Altaaf and the technician as well but all they can give me are assurances, which in the July heat of Rajasthan without a working AC is not very assuring. I have also emailed the situation to the only email address I could find on the IFB website for which I received a generic reply. The customer care number has the computer generated voice telling me that their agents are not able to speak to me due to the high volume of calls. No surprises there. With work ethic like this, the agents are probably busy getting an earful and fending off abuse from the angry customers everytime they answer the phone.
For the past 2 days Mr. Altaaf at Jodhpur has been telling me that he has received the compressor and is putting it on the transport towards Mr. Riyaz- the technician which should ideally reach him in 3-4 hours. However, even today as of 23/07/2023 at 10 am, the technician has told me that it has not yet been put on the transport by Altaaf. I dont know of any organisation where half-assery and tomfoolery is appreciated but the antics I have been subjected to by IFB makes me feel like it's an essential hiring requirement for them.

Now for the timeline of events:
19/06/23 - received service ticket from IFB customer care
24/06/23 - 1st technician visit
08/07/23 - technician revisit, PCBs changed and wall decoration upgraded to fan.
19/07/23 - 1 month completed since
receiving the service ticket.
- 11 days of waiting for compressor
to arrive.
- 1 month of Rajasthan summer
without a functional AC.
- spoke with IFB customer care and was told
that the complaint ticket assigned to me has
indeed been
closed. Asked them to reopen it but was told
that is not possible, so was issued a new
ticket number.
23/07/23 - been waiting for the compressor to travel
100 kms for 2 days.

I know the feeling well of not being selected to be hired due to being a fresher several years back, while starting out in my career, until someone decided to put their faith in me. However, my experience of trusting IFB, a fresher to me, has left a sour taste in my mouth and has probably put me off from giving another chance to any other less established brand, deserving as it may be. It sure has put me off from IFB.

I am aware that this post has been a bit long so I will conclude it here on a cliff hanger....Will I be able to reach a live human voice on the other end of the customer care number at IFB? Will the AC be repaired before summer ends? Will the compressor change solve the problem? What permutations and combinations will the technician try next? Will the AC ever regain its lost identity? To find out more, stay tuned folks.
hmansari

[deathwalkr]

Did the service guy have some idea as to why the PCBs got fried in the first place? Such an ordeal you are going through and I feel the pain. I've had PCBs getting fried because mice decided to make the outdoor unit their home!

One of the main reasons to stick with the large brands...parts availability but even with them there are horror stories, so luck is all we can hope for.

[hmansari]

I seem to have mistyped the model number and would like to correct it. I missed out the "S".
It is actually - IACI243SA3G3C

Dont know as to why the PCB got fried. The circuit boards of both the PCBs appeared to be fine and I didn't notice any grossly visible burn marks when the technician took them out to replace them with the new ones. No signs of mice either. Could be that one of the small components might have malfunctioned? Why, though? I am not sure.

+1 about parts availability with big brands.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Agree, this machine is a 'CBU' from Thailand. Definitely not Indianized in any manner as their own internal SKU for this machine is the same globally.

Made peace with the dryer; no option anyway.

Had bought an Amazon Umi brand cover which was totally rubbish. Got a Bosch one and it’s excellent. Still slightly crumpled from the packet but truly worth it for ₹750 bucks.

Ordered 2 more for the washing machine & the dishwasher

[BRV]

Hi All,

We have Sony 32 inches TV purchased in 2012. Till yesterday there were no issues with TV and we had changed the remote once.

Yesterday, TV started restarting automatically in loop as soon as it starts. Removed HDMI cable from Jio set top box and tv was normal.
- Initially thought HDMI Cable / set top box issue. Both are changed with brand new ones, still the same problem with new items
- Might be HDMI ports (tried in 2 ports) are gone in the TV or some malfunctions. So did a factory reset with remote. TV restarted and came the setting screen (language selection) that's it, now tv is reboot again in loop from this screen for 2/3 times and then red light blinks on tv without display.
- Also, tried to hold the power button on tv after disconnecting all the cable to discharge any power left and tried, still the same problem as above.

Will call service technician to check. Any pointers what might be the problem. Is it too old to get repaired?

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by BRV

Yesterday, TV started restarting automatically in loop as soon as it starts. Removed HDMI cable from Jio set top box and tv was normal.


Will call service technician to check. Any pointers what might be the problem. Is it too old to get repaired?

Looks like a software issue to me. I'm sure that you have also experienced similar looping starts with windows system which has gone kaput.

[BRV]

Originally Posted by srini1785

Looks like a software issue to me. I'm sure that you have also experienced similar looping starts with windows system which has gone kaput.

Yes, it might be software issue / corrupted

Note: this is not android tv and very old one where I doubt if Sony will push some updates.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by BRV

Yes, it might be software issue / corrupted

Note: this is not android tv and very old one where I doubt if Sony will push some updates.

Given the age of TV, this looks like memory corruption. In most older electronics, there will be a boot loader and Real time operating code in memory. At start up, boot loader gets executed to initialise and just shows a welcome screen and control transfers to the address of ROC in memory once done. Infinite looping happens when memory corruption happens and doesn't get transferred to ROC. My suggestion is not to waste money on these old products.

[sdp1975]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but nevertheless posting here.

I'm having a problem with MS teams on my laptop. When I connect a wired headphone(3.5mm audio or USB ) it works fine, but bluetooth headphones give problems. The other party usually can't hear me. I've tried using different bluetooth headphones but they all have the same problem. Most likely it's a driver issue and I can't update the driver because it's a company laptop with numerous restrictions.

Can I use a bluetooth adapter like this one to fix this ? The idea is to connect the bluetooth headphone to this device and then use MS teams. Any other thoughts ?

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Not sure if this is the right thread, but nevertheless posting here.

I'm having a problem with MS teams on my laptop. When I connect a wired headphone(3.5mm audio or USB ) it works fine, but bluetooth headphones give problems. The other party usually can't hear me. I've tried using different bluetooth headphones but they all have the same problem. Most likely it's a driver issue and I can't update the driver because it's a company laptop with numerous restrictions.

Can I use a bluetooth adapter like this one to fix this ? The idea is to connect the bluetooth headphone to this device and then use MS teams. Any other thoughts ?

Teams should have a audio testing mechanism that should allow you to talk something and replay it back. Can you try this and confirm if the mic is not working?

Second, teams should also allow you to set the mic volume. This mic volume setting will be different for Bluetooth and for the other devices. So it's possible that the mic gain setting is too low and hence this issue.

If the issue is related to Bluetooth device volume it might occur even with the Bluetooth dongle you have posted about. This issue very much sounds like a mic gain setting issue.

Is this on windows?

Does the mic work on any other app?

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Got a Bosch one and it’s excellent. Still slightly crumpled from the packet but truly worth it for ₹750 bucks.

Been using the same cover since 2019 in this very colour. Excellent product from Bosch.

[arnieshwartz]

My Ordeal With the AmazonBasics Wi-Fi Enabled Inverter AC

I purchased two units of this product (currently unavailable) in March of this year for the apartment being renovated for a new tenant. Barely three months in, one of the units stopped working. A technician from Digicare, the repair service provider, diagnosed it as the compressor gone kaput. They updated the repair order with a "Put on hold waiting for part" status and stopped attending phone calls. I tried rescheduling but the ticket was updated with the same status.

After an email to Amazon Customer Care, the repair service provider was changed to Vecare, who, after calling the tenant to enquire as to the problem and confirm her availability, simply updated the ticket to "We could not reach you" and never once showed up at the address. They did this to three separate service appointments!

An escalation email to the Grievance Officer resulted in a phone call and the caller did take down some notes to apparently trickle down (or up) the concerned chain of command, and I was asked to reschdedule once again. We'll need to see how things go this Friday (11/08).

The tenant did mention something that the first technician told her - that AmazonBasics appliances are a hit and miss affair, that they are built using cheap Chinese parts, and that spares availability is often a problem. I fear this may be an instance of money down the drain and have been considering the option of engaging a local AC mechanic to "transplant" a working compressor from somewhere.

[BRV]

Originally Posted by BRV

Hi All,

We have Sony 32 inches TV purchased in 2012. Till yesterday there were no issues with TV and we had changed the remote once.

Yesterday, TV started restarting automatically in loop as soon as it starts. Removed HDMI cable from Jio set top box and tv was normal.
- Initially thought HDMI Cable / set top box issue. Both are changed with brand new ones, still the same problem with new items
- Might be HDMI ports (tried in 2 ports) are gone in the TV or some malfunctions. So did a factory reset with remote. TV restarted and came the setting screen (language selection) that's it, now tv is reboot again in loop from this screen for 2/3 times and then red light blinks on tv without display.
- Also, tried to hold the power button on tv after disconnecting all the cable to discharge any power left and tried, still the same problem as above.

Will call service technician to check. Any pointers what might be the problem. Is it too old to get repaired?

Fixed the issue with TV from authorized service center.
Diagnosed with LCD panel issue (6 times red light blinking). In my 32 inch TV there are three LCD strips and the bottom strip is gone, might be due to water* / moisture. Ordered the part, replaced and delivered home in 5 days.

Total Cost - 3475 including part, labor and delivery charges.

* wiping the dust or cleaning the screen with wet cloth might leave small water droplets to trickle down and may damage the screen.

Off the Topic: Without TV over the weekend, we had all the time in the world. All household chores completed, good rest, quality time with family. Icing on the cake - Kid was reading her subject books without we telling her to read. I am thinking to pretend TV is not working over weekends
Digital deaddiction - next is mobile, should find a way to keep it away (not sure if we already have a thread, will check it).

[adithya.kp]

Guys,
I am looking for a full brass hob. ( The concealed type). I had shortlisted elica and faber brands. I was told, elica customer service is very poor. So, dropped it and I almost bought faber nexus series hob. I came across the hobs from kaff. They look more elegant. But not many reviews for their products though. The kaff sales guy tells me they are better than faber.
Is kaff a good brand?. ( Surprisingly, their pricing is on par or even higher than faber)
Also, these days most of the brands have this feature called flame failure device. ( It turns the gas off automatically). How effective are these and is it worth considering hobs with this feature?