So who has had problems with their Phill?

[moore101]

I am curious to see how many members have had mechanical problems with their Phill unit. Please do not submit if you currently don't own a Phill. This poll is for mechanical/electrical failures only not installation or recall related problems.

Please detail the issue of the problems in this thread. Include the hours on the Phill and how old it is.

Thanks!

[Steve]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

I actually need to vote twice. Cooling fan died and Fuelmaker decided to warranty it (was at 1200 hours). Second Phill died and is stuck in drying mode 2800 hours). Poor me... ;-)

Steve

[freedml]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

Cooling fan has died after 53 weeks. Is there a way to read the hours from the front panel? Probably only a couple hundred hours on mine.

[OhMyGas]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

Cooling fan has died after 53 weeks. Is there a way to read the hours from the front panel? Probably only a couple hundred hours on mine.

Yes, holding both the 'STOP' and 'START' button for about 2sec. then the fill indicator LED will lite up indicating the hours based on binary count. (the manual shows the list also). Each 'bit' would be 250h.
the 1st LED is on = 0-250h
the 2nd LED is on 250-500
1+2 is on 500-750h and so on..

[OhMyGas]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

My Phill has about 600h on it and the error LED comes on after I press start.
I have to add that I always turn power off after 8h of pumping (installed a time) so when I turn the unit on it goes thru it's power-up cycle (some times the error LED comes on after this cycle) and sometimes it comes on after I hit the start.
This happened about 5-6 times so far in the 5 months of use.
The manual suggest to 'unplug' the unit and power up again - but this is what I do every time anyhow.
But other than the annoyance and the little wait I had no other problems.

[Michael]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

The nozzle came off while fueling the third time I used my Phill. Fuelmaker sent me a replacement nozzle (no charge) with installation instructions, and I sent back my original nozzle. Shortly after that, Fuelmaker did a recall on nozzles with a certain serial number on them.

Other than the original nozzle problem, I have had my Phill for one year now, with 1500 hours on it, and no problems.

Michael

[Curtis]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

Honda has a warranty plan for those who lease their Phill units. Currently there is not a way to obtain a warranty if you purchased it. They are working with the lease company to develope a way to resolve this, as the unit is not exactly worry free.

FuelMaker will not offer an extended warranty for the product. The initial 12 month warranty is your only protection. Since some fortunate Ca GX buyers were able to obtain a free Phill unit with their GX purchase in 2005, they had no option for the extended warranty. This is the group that has spurred Honda to try and find a way to correct this situation. No word yet on the outcome of this situation.

[Timon]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

If Fuelmaker won't offer an extended warrantee that proves that they know Phill has design flaws

It's really bad when a company like that won't back their devices

[moore101]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

If Fuelmaker won't offer an extended warrantee that proves that they know Phill has design flaws

It's really bad when a company like that won't back their devices

No kidding I have a response from Fuelmaker about why the don't offer the extended warranty any more I'll dig it up and post it.

[Adrian]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

I need to vote twice as well. My first Phill had 2 or 3 hose leak issues, repaired under warranty. The it died at about 5,000 hours-not repaired under warranty since it had run out. I'm now on my second Phill, and this one has had one hose leak, fixed under warranty, otherwise still running ok.

Adrian

[Timon]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

There is a real opportunity for another company, maybe Tulsa, to come up with a home refueling appliance and take on Fuelmaker.

The design needs to take in ease of installation (including cost to install), HOA friendly, indoor or outdoor installation and of course a good price.

I doubt if it's going to happen but one can dream.

[OhMyGas]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

Yesterday & today I was on the phone with tech support and they took care of me.
Earlier I posted that the Error comes on right after pressing the start with 'low inlet pressure' as the error code. So I installed a fancy gas pressure reader, see pictures in gallery:

http://www.cngchat.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=649

which basically always shows 8" of pressure. It seems my error is caused by some mechanical device turning on the gas, which it doesn't. so when I knocked on the side of the phill it fixed it and it turned on the gas. At lease that is my conclusion so far. Still have 6 month of my warranty left, and if the solenoid gets worse I have the Phill repaired.

[freedml]

Re: So who has had problems with thier Phill?

If it had a problem I would ask them them to fix it now rather than wait and perhaps have it fail out of warranty.

[fbaldwin]

Re: So who has had problems with their Phill?

In January the front panel quit working on my Phill unit and the cost to repair would have been $150.00 had I bought the parts. This time it's the nozzle and the unit has about 3000 hours of use. The nozzle leaks enough gas to shut the unit down. This repair is $295.00 for rebuilt parts including shipping. I can only estimate the usage because I have a gas meter dedicated to the unit.

I have concerns about the quality of the Phill unit and how much it will cost before it reaches the end of it life (about 6000 hours).

Honda has a problem with the transmission and simply extended the warranty to 100,000 miles. Fuel maker has declined to provide any adjustment to the parts cost.

I like the clean air technology and home fueling but the performance of the Fuelmaker unit has been disappointing.

[OhMyGas]

Re: So who has had problems with their Phill?

FM did provide a diagnostic software for my failing phill, which reads all sorts of parameters from the unit (using the serial port on the bottom of the phill).
Finally when the error happened again we were able to read the low inlet pressure very low and even in the negative?? While the outside water-column meter did read a steady 8".
Now my unit will be replaced, a new one is on the way :-))