Nutone Customer Support

[Jim Frye]

This might qualify for the Tool Forum, but it is not really a woodworking tool, so here goes. Two and a half years ago, I installed a new Nutone central vac power unit in our home. This was to replace the 20 year old Nutone system I installed in our home right after we bought it in 1984. A couple of weeks ago, the new unit began shutting down after a couple of minutes use and I spent an afternoon trouble shooting the entire system, finally diagnosing a faulty mother board in the power unit. OK, the new unit is over 6 months out of warranty, so I called Nutone to see what the dollar damage would be for a new controller board. After a brief conversation to explain what I had discovered, the Nutone technical support person informed me they were going to ship me a new power unit to replace the 2 1/2 year old unit. FREE, no shipping charges or anything! The unit I have is not repairable. All I had to do was promise to destroy the existing machine. Now that's standing behind your product! By the way, the price tag on the existing unit was $589 before taxes.

[chopnhack]

That is really awesome Jim, I have to gripe though.... it seems that all these companies take the simplest items and "add" so many conveniences to the point of overcomplicating and dooming a product to certain failure. I mean honestly, does my washing machine really need a mother board to tell it how to wash or my dishwasher for that matter? Mind you we probably all had units that were either running when replaced or still running from the 70's. It just seems like the life cycle of too many consumer products is less than five years.

[herb fellows]

To be honest, if they told you they were going to give you a new one for half price, you would have been completely satisfied, no?
That is above and beyond any good customer service requirement. I hope they are financially healthy though. As much as I can appreciate your elation and the good will their gesture bought, how often can you do this and still remain in business?

[Jim Frye]

Nutone Replacement

To be honest, if they told you they were going to give you a new one for half price, you would have been completely satisfied, no?
That is above and beyond any good customer service requirement. I hope they are financially healthy though. As much as I can appreciate your elation and the good will their gesture bought, how often can you do this and still remain in business?

I neglected to mention on the original post, but this replacement program is really more of a recall for this particular early production run of this model of power unit. I was told that it was a design flaw in the processor in that four sensors were set too low at manufacture. Later models don't have the problem. That's their explanation. Nutone is a very old company and recently merged, or was bought out by Brown.

Conversely, I had a ProForm treadmill that was a few months out of warranty and the control panel failed completely, rendering the unit completely useless. I contacted the company and was told the only fix was a new control panel for $1,200. I paid $1,000 for the entire machine new. In checking around on the internet, it seems that this particular model of treadmill was known for its failures and the expensive repair cost. Shame on me for not checking before I bought it. I'll not purchase another ProForm product again. When I tore the unit down, I found all of the electronics were Chinese and very poorly constructed. Stupid consumer!

[HarmsWay]

Nutone is a very old company and recently merged, or was bought out by Brown.

Yeah Nutone == Broan now. I went looking for a replacement bathroom fan at HD and they still sell both Broan and Nutone fans. Same fans and almost the same model numbers. It was a little confusing.

Recall or not on your vac though, that's still sounds like good service to me.

[LCHIEN]

Wow, Nutone, there's a name that brings me back. to 1961 when we moved into a new house that was sort of a concept house having been in the 1961 Parade of Homes in Houston.

There was a Nutone central appliance in the kitchen, it was a rectangle inset in the kitchen counter with a steel faceplate, and two holes. the front hole was a rotary multi-speed dial and the rear hole a few inches back was for a socket for the various appliance attachments. I recall we had attachments for a mixer, blender and meat grinder. I think they had the bathroom vent fans also Nutone but the other great deal was the stereo intercom. There were four wall mounted boxes with Walnut trim at the central station. Each room had two speakers in the wall (altho the kids bedrooms had only 1 speaker) and the 1st box was a control station with master volume, and switches to turn on or off or set to listen any of the rooms. The second box was a AM and FM tuner, each could be tuned separately and addressed to right or left channel (in 1961 FM multiplex stereo had just been adapted and this one still used the older stereo arrangement of AM station carrying on channel and FM channel carrying the other). Third cabinet housed a pull down record changer, also stereo. All tube powered. Still worked when my parents sold the house in 2003.