Urgent Fluke recall on T110, T120 and T130

[Specmaster]

Fluke are advising anyone with one of these testers that fall within the dates shown on the following link to stop using them with immediate effect because of safety reasons, infor here https://www.fluke.com/en-gb/support/safety-notices/tpt-recall

[Co6aka]

I have a T110 that's part of the recall but Fluke has refused to honor the recall because the T110 isn't a USA product; they suggested that I dispose of the T110 and purchase another Fluke tester that doesn't have the safety issue. Nice.

[Specmaster]

Oh, so thats a nice public spirited company for you, suggesting that you deliberately pass off a potentially dangerous product onto some poor unsuspecting mug. That for sure actually cements the image that they are a reputable company only as long as they don't get caught with defective items. Makes you wonder just how many other so called big name and reputable companies out there are happy to leave knowingly faulty items in circulation hoping that they don't get found out?

[retiredcaps]

I have a T110 that's part of the recall but Fluke has refused to honor the recall because the T110 isn't a USA product; they suggested that I dispose of the T110 and purchase another Fluke tester that doesn't have the safety issue. Nice.

I suggest you phone again and point them to this.  I'm assuming USA is a "NON-EU" country?  If 1st line customer support doesn't give you the answer you want, ask nicely to speak to supervisor or manager.

https://www.fluke.com/en/support/safety-notices/tpt-recall-r0en

NON-EU Countries

Contact the Fluke distributor in your country and arrange for return of your product to their facility. The Fluke distributor will exchange your T-Pole tester free of charge.

[threephase]

I think in the USA, the recall is being handled by the Fluke distributors and not Fluke themselves, maybe contact where you purchased it from if there is no further help from Fluke direct. I presume it would be more economical for them to batch ship the products over to Netherlands rather than individually as mine was.

Whilst it isn't a good response from Fluke, I would say that 'dispose of' in this instance, should be destroy and dispose / recycle and not sell on to someone else.

It was about a 2 week process from start to finish to replace mine.

Kind regards.

[Muttley Snickers]

After seeing this thread about the Fluke recall I went on a hunt for any local information in regards to Australia, Recalls Australia didn't have any notification listed and the only other notice I found was from Celemetrix who are the Australian service agent for Fluke products. There was also a video posted on Youtube which I had linked below but for some silly reason it wouldn't work.   

https://www.productsafety.gov.au

http://www.celemetrix.com.au/tpt-recall

[Co6aka]

I first called Tequipment who are an authorized Fluke distributor. Tequipment called Fluke and were told essentially the same thing. Tequipment suggested that I call Fluke directly, which I did, and was told as I posted above. Previously, about three weeks ago, I filled in and submitted the online form on Fluke's website, but have not received or heard any response from Fluke. Today I submitted another online form (and haven't yet gotten any response, though it's certainly too soon for that.)

[threephase]

Hmmm, that's no good.

Hopefully a bit of embarrassment on here will get them to take note and get things moving.

It took them 4 to 5 days to send through a dispatch label to me for UPS to collect, but that was about a month ago and I think they are struggling with the number of returns currently.

Hope it gets sorted for you.

Kind regards.

[Muttley Snickers]

The Australian Fluke website displays a huge banner showing off and promoting their products and then in the fine print at the base of the page is a link to a critical safety alert, common sense says it should be the other way around just like the extremely dangerous wiring configuration shown on one of their products, sorry but this attitude not unlike some of their equipment is completely out of order.   

Fluke Australia
https://www.fluke.com/en-au

Dodgy Pruducts
https://www.fluke.com/en-au/support/safety-notices/critical-safety-alert-for-173x-174x


Safety is not a Fluke.

[Specmaster]

100% agreeance here, if someone was to get killed using one of the dangerous testers and it subsequently became known that the user either did not know about the recall or that Fluke had said dispose of it then buy a new unit rather then them standing by their obligation, then that would be very damaging for them if it leaked to the press?

Come on Fluke, stand to your responsibilities, people buy your products, believing that they are the best and safest around, and that belief is upheld by millions of customers around the world, so you can afford to safeguard that reputation by ensuring that every known bad product is removed from use a replaced with one fit for purpose.

[threephase]

Wow, didn't know about the 173X test lead recall.

I actually found out about the T110 recall from Farnell where I purchased the T110 from in the UK. I then got another notice of it the next day from an electrical distributor in the UK and then it was blogged on here.

My meters are registered with Flue as well......

[Specmaster]

Well that last statement says it all really, they didn't even attempt to advise you of the potential danger 

[joeqsmith]

I read their post about the 173X.   

No equipment is child proof and even the best people make mistakes but still,  I would like to interview the person/s who shorted the phases.  What could have possibly been going through their head, before the plasma that is.

[Monkeh]

They should send owners new leads, if its just the leads that have problems.

The leads are not detachable.

[retiredcaps]

I first called Tequipment who are an authorized Fluke distributor.

Is that where you bought the T110 from originally?  If yes, and if the T110 isn't an USA product, then why is Tequipment selling it?

Am I missing something?

Or is the T110 an ebay purchase?

[Bassman59]

I first called Tequipment who are an authorized Fluke distributor. Tequipment called Fluke and were told essentially the same thing. Tequipment suggested that I call Fluke directly, which I did, and was told as I posted above. Previously, about three weeks ago, I filled in and submitted the online form on Fluke's website, but have not received or heard any response from Fluke. Today I submitted another online form (and haven't yet gotten any response, though it's certainly too soon for that.)

TEquipment doesn't have this product listed on their US website.

[Co6aka]

Am I missing something?

Yes...

On Fluke's website, on their page detailing the recall...

https://www.fluke.com/en/support/safety-notices/tpt-recall-r0en

...scroll down to where it's written...

"NON-EU Countries: Contact the Fluke distributor in your country and arrange for return of your product to their facility. The Fluke distributor will exchange your T-Pole tester free of charge."

As I wrote previously, Tequipment is a Fluke distributor in my non-EU country, so I contacted them as per Fluke's instructions on Fluke's website.

PS- I presume from what Fluke wrote on their website, on this page...

https://www.fluke.com/en/support/safety-notices

...that they're only "recalling" and exchanging products if the owner is in Europe, Middle East, or Africa.

PPS- Hamfest purchase from a relocated Irishman.

[Muttley Snickers]

PPS- Hamfest purchase from a relocated Irishman.

Fluke are a bit funny with their warranty terms and conditions and as you did not purchase the unit from an authorised agent or distributor in addition to not being the original owner they may not be under any obligation to remedy your problem. You might want to have a read of the warranty terms and conditions applicable to your region, from memory I don't remember them ever making a specific reference to product recalls or potentially dangerous equipment in their warranty statements. Regardless of the situation they should at least inform you of your eligibility status in regards to a claim.

[Specmaster]

Fact still remains the product is dangerous regardless of where and how you obtained it etc. It also is clearly a Fluke branded product so they should not be trying to wriggle out of warrenty claims.

People are very forgiving about product defects providing such defect is resolved fully by the manufacturers. Prompt resolution of a problem actually enhances a companies reputation. Trying to get out if it damages their reputation and it can do a lot of damage to the brand.

[Muttley Snickers]

I don't know what their legal obligations are so won't speculate in that regard, they do however declare that this is a voluntary recall of the T series as opposed to a mandatory recall where they might have to answer to a higher authority or make good regardless.

They do make it pretty clear in their recall statement that this fault is of concern and could pose a risk to the user so I agree that it shouldn't really matter where the device was obtained, a product recall voluntary or otherwise needs to be properly addressed.     

[Co6aka]

Warranty and recall are two completely different animals; I'm not making a warranty claim, I'm responding to the manufacturer's recall. In other words, it's Fluke's problem, not mine.

Anyway, I've contacted a product safety attorney (via their website) so let's see if/how this works out.

(Hey, maybe I should find some crackhead willing to electrocute himself for a 50/50 split of plaintiff's judgment proceeds! )

[belasajgo]

When I purchased my first Fluke T110 VDE (German model) back in 2013, I was shocked to see that this expensive product is "Made in Romania". Many other big companies like Eaton also had big quality problems with their products after they moved the production lines of their circuit breakers to Romania, a big number of circuit breakers from the first few batches had severe safety problems, they did not work properly. And I noticed that in the last couple of years Siemens also started manufacturing their RCBOs in Romania, although I did not hear about any recalls from Siemens by now.

A week ago I received a safety notification about this Fluke recall from the shop where I purchased my product, today I filled out and submitted the online form for the recall. I hope it will not take them very long to replace my product. Although, on their website they say that at this moment the shipping of the replacement products may take up to four weeks. At least I hope that they have enough of their VDE model in stock, so that they can send out these sooner. They actually make you buy a new product, because you can't wait for the replacement product 4 weeks + 1-2 weeks for the free shipping label if you are working with it on a daily basis.

I see that they are recalling the products with the serial numbers between 2157000(0) and 4352999(9), my product has the serial number 2445XXXX and was manufactured in 2013, so I assume that also the products that were manufactured back in 2012 and probably 2011 had this safety issue, and like Fluke is stating on the recall page, the products manufactured until July 2018 have this problem. I ask myself why did Fluke wait until now to solve this issue, or why did they not notice this problem sooner? From 2011 or 2012 until now they had about 6-7 years. What is with the quality assurance at Fluke? I would apply for a job as a quality engineer, but I see no such open positions yet.

[threephase]

Reading the safety notice, I don't think it is a manufacturing quality defect that is wrong, but a design issue with the cable / strain relief. It may be that some people have experienced issues with the units over the years, that has caused Fluke to carry out more extensive testing and identified the issue.

The remedy is a replacement cable, but the unit returned to me was boxed brand new, with a serial number greater than the recalled and badged as made in the UK. This could of course mean that the components / cable is sourced outside of UK and just assembled there.

No, it isn't good that you have to send back first to get the replacement, especially as Fluke concede that the primary function of the T110 is for absence of voltage tests. What concerns me is the amount of time for you to receive the alert as this has been going around for some time now.

[belasajgo]

I submitted yesterday the online form for the recall, today I already received a shipping label via email (for shipping with UPS - standard shipping, not express shipping). I will send it away as soon as possible and I will see how long it will take to receive a replacement product.

Are there noticeable differences between the old and the new product?

You are right, this problem could also exist because of a faulty product (or cord / strain relief) design, but then they have a problem with the quality assurance regarding the desing execution or regarding the testing of the product in real-life conditions. I mean, when a product is designed, this is not made by only one employee but by whole teams of employees, the testing of the products and the development of the product testing methods is usually also made by whole teams. So critical problems should have been noticed theoretically right away, or at least in the first 1-2 years after the product launch. Maybe it was something that they did notice but they did not consider it as something critical, or they considered it as being an acceptable thing that can normally happen after x years of use - they theoretically also sell replacement cords if your cord gets damaged, but I think they were thinking about other types of (mechanical) damages, they did not expect that you could also have an "intermittent" problem that can pass the self-test. But it also could be that they just wanted to lower the manufacturing costs and save a few cents and hoped that there will be no problems with the products - like Weller did with the soldering stations by not installing a fuse on the primary side of the transformers - no one noticed it for many many years, only after Dave made a video about that, everybody started to go crazy about it. Only Fluke could give us an answer to this but they probably won't say anything about it...

The original description of the safety issue:
"It has been determined that certain Recalled Testers may experience premature failure of the interconnecting cable under cyclical bending stress. Recent experiments conducted by Fluke have shown a wide distribution in the number of cycles to failure exhibited by the Recalled Testers, meaning that certain Recalled Testers are subject to failure earlier than expected, leading to a useful life for certain of them that Fluke considers unacceptable.

Further, the cable may fail in an intermittent fashion where, depending on the cable flex orientation, it is possible for a Recalled Tester to pass a self check continuity test or validation on a known voltage source, while subsequent tests may display a false negative.

[...] Our R&D, Quality, and Safety teams have qualified a new cable to be used in the T-Pole Testers, which makes them more robust. In addition, we have now implemented additional improvements to the strain relief complementing the cable strength. Testing of these new changes has shown improvements in cable cycle performance."

When I purchased this product many years ago, Fluke advertised this product as a very reliable product with "a heavy duty molded case, a thicker cord with wear indicator, sturdy battery case, and well-fitting and durable probe protector". So I naturally expected that they test the cords from each batch accordingly, simulating many different wear and tear scenarios that normally occur in real-life usage (including cyclical bending stress). But now I ask myself what did go wrong at Fluke, in the case that this problem was noticed only now and not sooner? I also wonder what will Fluke do with the returned products? Maybe they replace the cords with the new ones and resell them as refurbished products?

[belasajgo]

So I sent my T110 VDE on the 3-rd of January away, Fluke received it on the 8-th of January. I am still waiting for the replacement product. I did not expect to miss my product so much on a daily basis, but now just with multimeters I see how useful my T110 was, it was much more handy than the DMMs.

I looked again at the original recall notification in german language what I received, published by Fluke, forwarded to me by the shop where I purchased my product, there was written that the customers will receive a replacement product 24-48 hours after Fluke receives the recalled product... They probably did not expect such a high quantity of returned products.