Harken electric winch

[GRIT]

Hello all.

I purchased two harken radial drive, electric winches, and one harken reversing winch, all size 46 winches.

They're about 2 months old, and one of them is coming on by itself. This is obviously a dangerous situation. The first time it did it, the jib was sheeted in tight, and it could have torn the new jib. This happens often enough, that I was able to take a video of it, and send it to harken. The boat has been sailed 4 times since installing the winches. I only received the jib 2 weeks ago, and we're still actively building, and installing equipment.

Everything on the boat is brand new, as is the boat itself.

Just so you all know, I've been talking to Harken, and they're giving me a bit of flak over warranty. They've offered to sell me new switches, at cost. Why I'd buy 6 switches, to replace the two month old switches I have now, I have no idea. The issue may be a sticky switch, as I just replaced one which was sticking. But the new switch is doing the same thing, so I suspect it might be the fancy, computerized solenoid they supply with the winches.

I did not get the electronic switches, these are the analog switches.

I mentioned that I don't like the electronic solenoids, and that if it's defective, I'd like them to replace them with a "normal" solenoid. They offered a new analog solenoid, but I have to buy it. If they determine the electronic solenoid, after I send it to them, was the issue, they'll credit me for it. If they decide there was nothing wrong with the electronic solenoid, I'm stuck paying for the analog one.

I don't know about you, but if I decide to replace the electronic ones, I'm sure as heck not going to pay Harken for them. I'll put on something from Lofrans or Quick, in lieu of Harken. Yes, it'll probably void the warranty, but if I have to do that, there's obviously no warranty to void!

The local dealer has been really good, and at the cost of these winches, I had hoped Harken would stand behind their product.

I'm going to keep this thread updated; feel free to ask questions.

The reason for this thread, is so that the story is "out there" and will hopefully give me some leverage, if they don't stand behind their products.

As an aside, about 10 to 15% of all the new products I've ordered for this boat have had to have some kind of after sales support, warranty, due to faulty products, or software. I'm not surprised, as that's the same ratio we had when we did the last boat too. But it is annoying, since we always pay premium for marine products. I find the best warranty is that given by the dealer, in hopes of getting more sales.

My local dealer has been very good, and I certainly wouldn't complain about their service. If I have an issue, it's with Harken. We'll see soon enough, but the reason I started this thread, is that it doesn't look good already.

Cheers, and stay tuned.
Paul.