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I purchased earlier this year 2 wind turbines from Exmork in China, so far in high winds both units have failed badly one off killing the controller and the other burning out the turbine itself.
I have found that the manufactures have failed to offer warranty and have now sent over 30 emails with pictures and still they are not helpful.
the moral of this story is don't buy Exmork wind turbines, they don't protect themselves in high winds and fail!!
They claimed the problem was caused by Lightning strike, it failed because of its inability to protect itself in high winds on sunny days!!!! no lightning.
Their current stance is to refuse replacements until i remove posts on my findings.
It will never happen!! i would rather protect other potential users rather than get replacements which i know will fail again.
Can you believe the controller they sent me had an input for solar charging which i was using and they informed me there is no control of turning off the charge when batteries reach capacity, can you imagine the outcome!!! BOOM!!!
Sorry to rant on!!
kevindion Regular Member Joined: 28/07/2010 Location: ChinaPosts: 59
Posted: 12:07pm 03 Jan 2011
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i feel shame to tell you a true,most of this chinese wind turbines companies said their windmill are the best in th world,especially their blades.
kevindion Regular Member Joined: 28/07/2010 Location: ChinaPosts: 59
Posted: 12:27pm 03 Jan 2011
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there are some china wind turbine with good quality,but they aren't cheap like others.
In fact,this Exmork does't have a chinese website,so i am sure you got cheated,some people would export cheap but terribly quality stuff to US,so you guys thoughts China always pruduct trash.
brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548
Posted: 08:35pm 03 Jan 2011
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Gee, I have not powered my 2Kw unit up yet ,, I'll tell you what I think ,, First, the complete unit including tower and all fittings arrived nicely , although a bit shaken ,no Problems.
The controller , I opened it and found some surface rust around the hinges for the door, so scraped off this surface rust and epoxy painted the little areas,OK.
The tail and fin, a bit of surface rust appearing ,,so did a re-paint with epoxy paint ,OK now.
Last few days have been installing the controller and dump load (, which had a bolt and nut floating around inside ),no Big problem.
I'm sorry to hear of your Problem with them .. In general , mine appears to be a nicely made and designed product , just the cosmetics need a bit more attention ,imho.
Blades ,, they needed some fine sanding and I will coat them in epoxy paint , they are near perfect in balance ,, very nice strong design,I feel.
Mine is not up and running yet , so ,I'll e-mail them the day I get it working and hope they reply with some sort of guarantee from that day ,,as I have done a bit of tidying up ,for them.
I'd like them to e-mail me some drawings , so I can safetly dismantle the main gennie for re-greasing the bearings Etc.I've inspected the slip-rings and they seem to be very sturdy. I did seal the tail to the main body with silicon to act as a seal.
The Solar connection ,, mine says 300 watts Max .. so this is not much , They might inform me if a shunt for the solar within the electronics,is incorporated,please. ( I'm sure they will read this).
As I said ,sorry for your experiences, could you tell us more on the actual problems , model size, what parts blew up , did the windings burn?..
Thanks
Bruce
Bushboy
RossW Guru Joined: 25/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 495
Posted: 08:51pm 03 Jan 2011
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I have the twin of yours, Bruce. No signs of any rust yet on the tail. My controller is different to yours because I got mine made to handle 2KW PV. No signs of rust there either.
[quote]In general , mine appears to be a nicely made and designed product , just the cosmetics need a bit more attention ,imho.
[/quote]
Agreed.
[quote]Blades ,, they needed some fine sanding and I will coat them in epoxy paint , they are near perfect in balance ,, very nice strong design,I feel.
[/quote]
Same here - mine felt like they had overspray on them, but cleaned up pretty easily with some 1200/2400 wet-and-dry.
[quote]
I'd like them to e-mail me some drawings , so I can safetly dismantle the main gennie for re-greasing the bearings Etc.
[/quote]
I got some drawings from them, Bruce - I thought I'd sent them to you? They're not real flash, but they should help.
[quote]
The Solar connection ,, mine says 300 watts Max .. so this is not much , They might inform me if a shunt for the solar within the electronics,is incorporated,please.
[/quote]
My controller wasn't working quite right with my AGM cells - but a quick skype chat with the guy from exmork and I was told what values to tweek which resistors to, to change the "brake" and "dump" settings to my preferred voltages. I snipped the original resistors and added in the extra to correct and its been fine ever since.
All in all - my experience is similar to Bruces - these are made as well as any I've seen, and better than most.Edited by RossW 2011-01-05
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
Posted: 11:33pm 03 Jan 2011
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Hi Ross and Bruce
I have an early model 500 watt one purchased 2nd hand as the original owner could not get it to work, I threw the regulator away as it was junk, and used Glenns dump load for regulation.
The engineering concept is quite good but the workmanship wasn't, I had to replace the bearings as they where very bad, the original blades where a joke, I purchased a new set of blades only to find they where badly made and de-laminating, took a weeks work to fix refinish and balance. Even then the blade profiles are different on each blade but that can't be corrected without sanding into the core.
The generator works well but does have a high cut in speed, I believe the later models are a big improvement and would look at buying a 2 kw one in the future, but you can forget any real warranty as the Chinese are masters at getting out of warranty claims.
Caviet Emptor
All the best
BobEdited by VK4AYQ 2011-01-05Foolin Around
brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548
Posted: 12:02am 04 Jan 2011
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Yes, Bob ,, Ross and I have the latest models ,which apart from cosmetics are really pro,,in my opinion,,
I'm sort of a softie, u know ,buy stuff , then spend hours putting on the finishing touches,goes for houses, cars, nearly everything , even wind gennies.. like changing all the fittings to 316 stainless, re-packing the bearings, epoxy painting stuff that is not 316 stainless, Galvanising turnbuckles and guy wire splices -you name it , I do it my way..
Having fun ,,
BruceBushboy
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
Posted: 04:24am 04 Jan 2011
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Hi bruce
Certainly a nice looking machine and one would hope as time goes on they sort out the problems, as I said before if I had the funds to spare I would go for one but same as you check it out before it went up.
Your regulator looks better than the one that came from china for mine, but it was I believe a very early one.
A little TLC will make them a lot better product thats for sure, it is just a shame when they have a good product like this let down by lack of quality control at the factory.
But the main thing is as you said that you are having FUN!!!
All the best
BobFoolin Around
niall1 Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2008 Location: IrelandPosts: 331
Posted: 10:05pm 21 Jan 2011
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mmm...seems the original post is popping up everywhere on forums , just a post ..no follow up ,discussion or thoughts/replys from the author ..seems odd to start a thread and walk away ...it is a "forum" after all
as exmorks are being discussed from time to time i thought it might be relevant Edited by niall1 2011-01-23niall
brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548
Posted: 09:29pm 22 Jan 2011
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Hi Niall,,
what you mean ,,"no reply from Author" ???
I think myself and Ross have posted most info we have ,,???
What more do you want ???
BruceBushboy
niall1 Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2008 Location: IrelandPosts: 331
Posted: 09:56pm 22 Jan 2011
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hi Bruce
by saying no reply from the author i meant Baff57....not you guys ...thats quite the opposite...
Baff57s post is (from what i can tell) a kind of cut and paste internet statement thats appearing on a lot of forums ....he obviously has a grievance with exmork ,thats up him
but doing it in a kind of smear campaign using forums doesent seem right somehow ...
i sympathize with his situation ....but is it not hijacking other peoples forums for your own crusade ?
are forums meant for that purpose ?....i do hope Baff57 replies to everyones comments
and engages in the discussion he started ,
looks like i,m digging a hole for myself...but i,m ok with that...Edited by niall1 2011-01-24niall
brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548
Posted: 10:11pm 22 Jan 2011
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Hi Niall ,, Ok , sorry 'bout that .
Yeah ,he seems to want to smear them ,,but then went to ground ... If he wants to smear, then he should tell us the outcome -exmork did try and do the right thing by him ,but he wanted air frieight not sea freight..
Anyhow mine is a very nice ,well built, strong looking unit .. I'll push myself to get it up and running soon , just so many other things to do around here. I'm 66 now and after a hour of hard work ,I'm buggered..
Cheers, mate
BruceBushboy
niall1 Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2008 Location: IrelandPosts: 331
Posted: 10:36pm 22 Jan 2011
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mmm Bruce ...sit back with a can of ...is it ...xxxx , maybe Fosters ?
its good to follow your thoughts on the exmork ....
we have a baby forum over here ...i guess thats why i got a bee in my bonnet about the thing ....
all the best niall
VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539
Posted: 12:24pm 23 Jan 2011
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Hi Naill1
A few of us are waiting for Bruce to Finnish his and see how it performs before jumping in ourselves. I like Bruce's approach to the project as these turbines do at times suffer some of the issues associated with poor quality control, however with TLC they can be made into a durable workable turbine.
The electronics still worry me a bit but time will tell on that one. The mills i have I have tossed the regulators and control systems and gone to something i can fix with local available components.
However for the price from the factory they are excellent value and well worth the effort of fine tuning for durability.
The price from local agents is also reasonable if they are prepared to do all the work needed to honor the guarantee, if it doesn't sent them broke.
All the best
Bob
PS: we don't allow babies on the forum here due to them outperforming the average member in computer management. And I an allergic to Bee's so none in my bonnet.Edited by VK4AYQ 2011-01-24Foolin Around
niall1 Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2008 Location: IrelandPosts: 331
Posted: 01:37pm 23 Jan 2011
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....
this is directed at the FBI guy listening in at the pentagon...
baby forum = forum in its infancy...not as in goo..goo.. da da
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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