over the past 48 years since 1976, each one of my sailboats has been equipped with 'life time guaranteed ' Weems and Plath instruments: barometers. thermometers, tide clocks, various wall mount oil lamps, 2 Sorensen lamps. we've given W&P instruments as wedding presents, graduation presents, birthday presents. I now find that the 'new owner' is refusing to honor the 'life time warranty' on a barometer and clock -- a 2 piece chrome matching set I removed from the boat last haul out for not working . To my dismay, instead of the 'lifetime warranty', or repair/ replace, customer service offered me a coupon to buy another set of their defective instruments 'at 30 % off. ' needless to say, they are off my list of suppliers. . .
sadly disappointed in Weems and Plath . .
- Thread starter MitchM
- Start date
We needed a replacement movement for a ship's bell clock which was destroyed by a leaking battery. They offered us $30 for the old clock, and to sell us a new, non-chiming one at full price. The ship's bell seems to have been discontinued. Losing its reputation as a steady retailer of reliable merchandise.
When we purchased our 1989 H28 in 1999, we equipped her with a Weems and Plath barometer and quartz clock set. We moved the set to the aft cabin of our current boat, a 1991 P42, in 2002. Two years ago the quartz clock stopped running, so sent a message to the maker and requested a repair. Their reply, after checking the clock out, gave us good news; they would repair it at no charge. The clock was returned after about three weeks and it runs just fine, I'm guessing with a new movement.
We've had bad luck with their tide clock movements and with the eyepieces on their binoculars. Luckily they were always very good to provide repairs and replacements when needed, though if they're now backing away from that I won't be happy either.
MY W&P experience: Two years ago my ships bell clock quit working. It really had never kept time accurately. I sent it in for repair with instructions to simply replace the movement with a standard quartz movement and delete the ships bell feature. The cost was beyond $200.. It took them three months to get it back to me and when I put it back on the boat, it ran sporatically .. I ordered a new accurate Seiko movement and installed it myself ..works great and since I reused the original hands, it looks original.. cost was $14.
When I opened the clock to work on it, I found that they had not put enough spacer on the movement so the second hand axel was hitting the back of the glass as the temperature changed. I added a spacer and all is good.. and it keeps perfect time! It is a beautiful piece but I will not buy anything from them again.. I remember when I first started sailing around 1978, they were renowned for their quality products and lifetime warranties.. sadly that is not the case today.
When I opened the clock to work on it, I found that they had not put enough spacer on the movement so the second hand axel was hitting the back of the glass as the temperature changed. I added a spacer and all is good.. and it keeps perfect time! It is a beautiful piece but I will not buy anything from them again.. I remember when I first started sailing around 1978, they were renowned for their quality products and lifetime warranties.. sadly that is not the case today.
As regards the Weems and Plath quartz ships clocks that just stop, I have some comments. I had an Endurance quartz clock that stopped running four years ago, after four or so years on the boat. There was no evidence that the battery had failed or leaked in the battery compartment. I started to take it apart, but it was difficult to get that second hand off the axle, so I gave in and sent it in to Weems and Plath. They informed me that there was corrosion in the clock that indicated that the battery had leaked, charged some $62 to repair it and sent it back. It worked for four years, then stopped. No evidence of battery leakage again. So I reviewed all the YouTubes on "quart clock stopped" and saw the same solution that I had used successfully on another household quartz clock, disassembled the clock (getting the second hand to slip off the axle required quite a bit of force but it came off) and the same problem I found in my household clock was found in the Endurance clock. If you remove the movement (just a common Chinese quartz clock movement), open it up and disassemble it to the point where you can get into the mother board, you will see that there is corrosion where the mother board connects with the metal tabs from the battery (I think it was the negative side). You just scrape that corrosion off with a pocket knife and your clock works just like new. This is the Youtube link: How to repair dead wall clocks stop working type Quartz machine - YouTube . I can't complain about $62 to receive and repair the clock. I was disappointed that they did not own up that it is something that happens to many quartz clocks eventually, and sooner if you are in a marine environment. Weems and Plath pinned it on the owner allowing a battery to corrode the contacts, which is just not the case. The corrosion is internal. Maybe they could put some dielectric grease or some other corrosion resistant connection in a marine clock like this instead of grabbing a $5 Chinese movement appropriate to a kitchen clock and slapping it in there. But don't be afraid to attempt to fix this yourself. The link above references the corrosion problem, and there are many others that help you to take the clock apart, movement apart and then get it back together. And if you get in a jam, just send it back to W and P and they will throw in another $5 movement and send it back to you for $60-100.
"life time guaranteed" is a vague concept unless it is spelled out in the product info. To satisfy the guarantee, they may do anything from full replacement to what they offered you. It's still a valid guarantee versus stating there's nothing they can do. It's all about contract language sad to say.
Wow! Thanks. I have a tide and time clock that stops sporadically, maybe this will cure it!
Had the same problem with my clock. Instead of shipping it back to W&P, paying for service, & return shipping I purchased a movement assembly on Amazon for approximately $10 and replaced it myself. Simple repair that took 15 minutes!
Overprice, not-really-marine stuff in a chandlery. Who would have thought?
Got one of their lamps once, on sale, 40 years ago. I was not impressed and didn't really look at them again after that.
I was given one of their electronic flares to test (they did not make it--it was re-badged from somewhere offshore). The case cracked in one year. The other brands all did fine.
Got one of their lamps once, on sale, 40 years ago. I was not impressed and didn't really look at them again after that.
I was given one of their electronic flares to test (they did not make it--it was re-badged from somewhere offshore). The case cracked in one year. The other brands all did fine.