Lewmar winch handle - lifetime warranty? Guess not!

[phantomracer]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

My usual problem with winch handles is when one is dropped overboard. I don't expect anyones lifetime warranty to reverse my mistakes.

at least this one floats! Chance to recover it! '

You mean you won't go diving to recover a handle

[Happ]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

Had a Lewmar Titan winch handle fail (locking cam) .

Contacted Lewmar. Response was to buy a $30(+ shipping) repair kit to repair a $49 (west marine price) winch handle.

Not the end of the world. Not like I don't have other handles. Just shows lifetime doesn't mean lifetime apparently.

Sent them another email to see if they will comp the repair kit. We will see what happens.

Kinda surprised. So many other companies go above and beyond to ensure customers have good experiences with their products.

Still not as bad as my experience with KVH, another story for another time!

Warrantees are just that. They warrantee there is no defect in material and workmanship. Things wear out. That’s what most likely happened to yours winch handle.

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

Not going to put a lot of effort into it. If i win great. If not, i know where i stand with them when i have to make a purchase decision

Yeah, we'll see if you by-pass the 2 for 1 offer they do the last few yrs?

[Leighpilot]

Read the lifetime warranty. The handle warranted against breakage. From Lewmars point of view , the handle didn’t break. The locking mechanism failed is all.

[bensolomon]

I had a pair of fancy Bushnell binoculars that I had for years. I dropped them on a delivery and dislodged one of the prisms.

I emailed Bushnell, who sent me the information to ship them back to them for evaluation. They said if they can fix them they will, and if not they will send a free replacement.

I was honest with them and told him it was entirely my fault and I didn't have a receipt since I had them for so long. The rep told me that Bushnell stands behind its products and durability no matter what. 2 weeks later a brand new pair of the same binoculars arrived on my doorstep. All I had to pay for was shipping of my broken pair. As a previous poster has stated, who do you think I'm buying my binoculars from in the future?

[LifePart2]

I had exactly the same winch handle snap a few years ago. Lewmar said it wasn't covered by warranty, but replaced it anyway.

Then the new one has also broken, this time it was the little lever that turns the lock. I just removed it as I don't need the locking thing.

My metal handles are all absollutely fine.

The plaatic Titans look nice, and are light and, supposedly, float. And they are cheap. But clearly they are not as robust as standard metal ones.

[Joe Okros]

Just to be the devils advocate here, the winch handle is obviously at the end of its life, hence the warrantee is now expired. I would imagine the supplier of a product could not reasonably be expected to know how long the purchaser of their product would live. Hence the product has now failed at what would be obvious (to me) the end of its life.

To be even more pedantic the seller could claim that being an inanimate object it never had any life to begin with and they only guarantee workmanship

[Jim Cate]

To be even more pedantic the seller could claim that being an inanimate object it never had any life to begin with and they only guarantee workmanship

Well, using the same sort of logic, since the handle was never alive at all, the "lifetime" must refer to that of the purchaser!

Jim

[dfelsent]

So I remember when the titan floating winch handles came out. And I thought (my racer mind) “no way would I ever lose a place in a race to go back for a winch handle.” Now with my cruiser mind “ I’m never getting the fishing net out before the handle is out of sight. “
I’m all for the solid bronze. Overboard is gone either way. But they do not break.

[rossdv8]

Originally Posted by chrisr

My experience with lewmar is that they will honour a warranty...if you pressure them hard enough. don't expect it to be easy though...

whether it's worth the trouble for a $49 winch handle only you can say (my issues was somewhat bigger)

cheers,

IN Australia, that winch handle is AUD $140 at the moment. Not sure that that is in USD, but generally closer to $200.

https://bla.com.au/product/titan-winch-handles/

I just gave two of them away ! but I had used them across three of my last yachts over about 12 or 15 years and they were lying around the store room with a heap of sails and stuff.

However, at $30 for a kit, if I had to would repair the thing.

On the other hand, the only time I even needed a part for a Lewmar Anchor winch, they supplied it free as long as I paid freight. All I had to do was sail to the nearest port where I could collect it.
They were aware that the part didn't fail - I dropped it overboard whilst doing some routine maintenance.

So they are not always a pain to deal with. it 'depends' on a number of things.

[merrydolphin]

I had a pretty significant issue with an older Lewmar 2 speed self tailing winch size 55, NOT a low cost item. I needed a part from Lewmar and they said that they don’t support older winches. Beware, they do as little as they can get away with as far as customer support goes. Not good. Will look elsewhere it the future.

We can always vote with our feet, and / or vote with our anchor/dock lines.

Eg. There was an on going problem with a business in ST Vincent W. I. And I said Sam, you have to do something about this problem. He said “ no I don’t, it’s your problem not mine.” I said “ that’s were you are wrong Sam, see, your business is here. It is location specific. You have to do business here. I don’t! My business ( chartering my yacht, crewed ) can go elsewhere and that’s exactly what it is going to do. And I left, never to come back. Picking up my charters elsewhere. His loss, not mine. We as consumers have the ability to vote with our feet, anchor, mooing line, dock line etc. Do it and let them know it.

[rossdv8]

Re: Lewmar winch handle - lifetime warranty? Guess not!
I had a pretty significant issue with an older Lewmar 2 speed self tailing winch size 55, NOT a low cost item. I needed a part from Lewmar and they said that they don’t support older winches.

I doscovered once that parts from one of my other (probably a Barlow) winches fitted a Lewmar that I broke. Not physically broke - but like the anchor windlass in my earlier reply - I also dropped over the side.

I just happened to have a dead winch lying under the seats from my previous boat that was wrecked in a cyclone. It seems there could be more odd bits that fit Lewmars . .

As for the floating winch handles. Yes they do float.
Picking them up if you drop them overboard in a race is not a good idea.
Losing them in an anchorage is a dumb idea - but diving overboard to retrieve them before they disappear into the distance is doable. . .

[double u]

...I wonder where it says: "lifetime warranty against wear"?
Of course any warranty is only against manufacturing defects. I have seen many a locking mechanism destroyed by using the winchhandle for opening & closing of deck fillers. And: NO winchhandles are NOT suitable for the deckfillers: the filler-caps have very shallow bi-squares & only the locking mechanism engages into these. needless to say the locking mechanism is not intended to...
A yes, surprise, surprise: a floating plastic winchhandle is not as solid as a bronze one for how-many-times the cost...
I worked for the local lewmar distributor for many years & saw many warranty claims - Lewmar honoured all just ones, but there were curious ones too, where the owners just "gave it a try"...