Got another new SLX. SO I got a new Uni valve etc.
Came to remove the angle adapter from my 2 month old SLX. SOLID!!! I have had very tight ones before. They expand but this was solid. I was a mechanic for years, so know all about getting solid things out. Took me half hour of smashing it with a hammer and WD40 etc. I even considered cutting it out. What a ball ache. Its knackered the angle adapter and scraper. Its not the first time its happened to me.
I got it out and put it on the grinder. Must have taken 3mm off and it still wont go in. So its going in the bin. Ill contact Alex. I am sure he will send another out. It shouldn't happen. Don't mind it going tight but it was solid.
I had a metal one in my tin. It went in like butter. I am guessing its a 4 year old Gardiner one but don't know off what. They are all plastic now.
Anyone else had the same problem
Hi Duncan
(Copy below of an email just sent to you.)
Apologies that you have had this issue. I have checked out all of your posts on the forum this evening and will copy this reply in on the public forum. If you had given us a call first of all we may have been able to advise how to remove this more easily.
Obviously the base part will have been faulty - it may have expanded slightly past standard tolerances whilst cooling off the mould or may even have bent slight when cooling off the mould which has caused this issue later down the line for you. .
This is an issue that happens occasionally with a small % of these parts. It is to do with tolerances and moisture absorption of the plastic part - this is why the part will have worked well from new (they are all thoroughly checked on the poles before being sent out by our quality control team), but when left in the pole for a period of time the nylon expands as it absorbs moisture allowing it to expand past the tolerance point. The pole was bought in May so would have had 4 and a bit months to have become stuck. If these goosenecks are removed occasionally for cleaning/servicing you will usually find that this would not have jammed to this degree - not that it should have become jammed in the first place.
I have copied this email in to our Customer Service Team so that they call you tomorrow to arrange the sending out of a replacement base part to prevent this from being an issue again.
Whilst the rate of incidence is under 0.5% of production it is still something that I would like to eliminate completely - we supply about 1,500 of these goosenecks each month into the UK market so even a small amount with poor tolerances will still mean that an unacceptable number of clients are affected, later in the poles life. We have already designed an improvement to the tooling to reduce the incidence of this happening. As you can appreciate this takes quite some time though, from tooling changes being implemented to getting the stock into the warehouse.
In the meantime please accept my apologies and the replacement parts that will be sent out by our team tomorrow.
Kind regards
Alex Gardiner
Gardiner Pole Systems
