Re: [Paddlewise] West Marine radios - consumer/safety warning

I think that West Marine is to be applauded for actually dealing with
the problem in a positive way rather than hiding it.

There was an interesting story on NPR yesterday about the manufacturer
of a heart defibrillator implant (designed to be surgically placed
inside the patient's body) which turned out to have a design flaw
which can cause short-circuits in a tiny percentage of the units.
Unfortunately, the short-circuit happens when the unit is needed and,
since they don't work then, the patient dies.

The manufacturer of this device changed the design but continued to
sell their inventory of the flawed units on the theory that the
failure rate was small. Now they are advising doctors not to replace
them because the risk of death in the surgery required is
statistically greater than the risk due to the failure of the devices.
Talk about your Catch-22.

West has admitted there is a problem, changed the product to clearly
warn the consumer, and made arrangements to stop buying the product.
The margins of a retailer like West can't be all that great and the
radios, even though they are not 100% waterproof, can still be used
perfectly safely in many marine situations (although, probably, not
sea kayaking) as long as the consumer is aware of what they are
buying.

I think I'd buy from West just on the basis that they are likely to
make it right if there is a problem.


Craig Jungers
Royal City, WA

On 6/2/05, Rcgibbert_at_aol.com <Rcgibbert_at_aol.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 6/2/2005 11:32:09 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
> nick_at_guillemot-kayaks.com writes:
> 
> I have  yet to have any "waterproof" electronic device last more than  
> 18  months before complete failure due to water infiltration. This   
> includes several radios (not West) and 3 GPSs. It does look like   
> stricter testing standards are starting to be applied to some of the   
> radios out there. I hope my luck improves.
> 
> 
> 
>>Last week I received both our Standard Horizon HX260's after they were  
>>repaired/replaced by Standard. You guessed it: water ingress! They
are >>both less than a year old. I too can be a bit of a retaliatory
consumer, >>but kayaking is really tough on electronics
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