Interpet Epf 250 External Canister Filter

[Jnoosh]

I thought I would give you all a heads up on the above filter, just in case you were considering buying one!

It was stocked in my lfs in swadlincote at £49.99, reduced from £99.99.

RRP of almost £100? must be a decent filter I thought.. oh how wrong I was.

First things first, the pipes are really hard plastic, and they are FOLDED into the packaging, not rolled up like you would expect, so they have pretty much permanent kinks in them that really restricts water flow.

The self prime does not work..... I had to siphon the pipe then quickly connect it, spraying water everywhere in the process.

I set the filter up Thursday night, all was running fine, few droplets of water over the place but I thought that was from where I had set it up. I got a call from my worried mother on Sunday morning... the filter had been leaking, what must of been a small hairline crack in the casing had expanded under the pressure and it was now forcing water out all over my room, I returned to find I had lost 6 gallons all over the carpet, books and paper work ruined, the MDF table absorbed water and needs replacing and wall paper hanging off the wall.

So I took it back, the shop looked over it and on closer inspection found two more hairline cracks that would no doubt of cracked further over time.

So I took the new one home, when filled with water it leaked out over the top edges, this one had a dodgey rubber seal..

So I took it back, third time lucky, I thought I would try once more. This one when filled up was fine, but when you turned it on, water gushed out from under handles, it was a mis-shapen impeller cover that did not fit properly.

Basically its not great. not by a long way.

If you do decide to buy one, make sure its from a reputable place where you can take it back, and not ebay etc.. and make sure its not too far away! a 30 mile round trip to swad means this experience cost me 120 miles.

Really unhelpful staff didnt make things any better either.

Rant over.

 

[Skins]

Thanks for pointing that out. Sorry to hear all about the hastle you had to go through.

Keith.

 

[JoshuaA]

If you get a refund from the store then I suggest you go for a Allpondsolution filter for the same price range. They are really reliable and am yet to hear about them failing, mine has gone strong for a few months now. The only thing I would warn you about is the fact the handles for the media baskets are absolutely awful!

Got to be the unluckiest person to get 3 failed ones in a row, or they have got to be a really shoddy brand of filter.

 

[Jnoosh]

Well they have a huge stack of them all half price, so i assume it was a knock off batch or something!
I was recommended that filter by a few people actually, I wish I hadn't been in such a rush to get one and actually took the advice, I would be a lot better off.

 

[OldMan47]

There is no way a new filter should be giving you any troubles. Take the darned thing back and demand a refund or credit against a suitable filter. If the shop is willing to replace those kinked tubes, maybe you would have a nice functional filter at the reduced price, but anything short of such an offer should be considered unacceptable.

 

[JoshuaA]

Take the darned thing back and demand a refund or credit against a suitable filter.

If only it was that easy!

A store I worked at use to refuse refunds and always gave you a replacement instead, they had serious problems with people using pond vacuums then bringing them back saying they either didn't want them or they didn't work. So in response they always insisted giving a replacement or credit. Unfortunately the store was pretty expensive as it was so the credit wasn't good... really unfair in my eyes. Rarely, very very rarely did they ever give money back over the till.

You could probably take them to court and the boss would of some how given the judge a coupon

Edit: Problem with replacements is you might get stuck with a shoddy product permanently! I just had to RMA some computer RAM for being poor quality and not working they kept insisting on replacing it as I initially asked until I had investigated and found out the entire series of RAM is awful from this company. After a few arguments on the phone I managed to wing a refund out of them for my broken product. Stores are really tight in the UK... never ever had an easy refund in my life.

 

[Jnoosh]

I demanded one, reminded her of my legal rights and her obligations! (I knew that law module at uni would come in use one day...)
She got really offended when I said the filters dodgey in front of customers.
The annoying thing is that the live stock there is all from local breeders and is actually very decently priced - shame.

 

[JoshuaA]

(I knew that law module at uni would come in use one day...)

Haha, the only time it has come in handy for me is when people complain about ill placed prices... It's only an invitation to treat!

 

[Fishyfingers1984]

The comments you made are initially not true, I've had an IPF250 now for two years and when I purchased my filter from Swad the staff were so helpful that they would not let me purchase one until someone went through it with me, which I thought was great customer service. I also know that spares are available from this shop too or even from Interpet. As far as the pipes are concerned all you should have done is soaked them in hot water to relieve all the kinks, which they advised me to do and this worked tops. My opinion you should have listened better to people that know what they are doing at Swad.