I figured that I'd make another quick post about my Air Conditioners....
On Saturday, I sent a quick message to Friedrich regarding the Firmware for my AC. Today, I received a reply telling me that it is back ordered, with no shipping date yet available. So I asked the gentleman another quick question: Do I need 2 separate shipments?
I'll keep you informed. At least, I'm keeping cool up here....
Air conditioners are relatively simple mechanical devices. A pump compresses a refrigerant (Freon was once the most common one used), passes it through a nozzle which cools a refrigerant that is then passed through a radiator to cool the air in a room. (I hope I got the process correct here.) Waste heat from the warmed refrigerant is passed through an external radiator to the outside of the building. With the exception of the refrigerant being changed over the years to protect the environment, the principle used in today's machines is the same as that used several generations ago.
What has changed is the electronic circuitry controlling the units. It has grown much more complex, so that it can maintain a constant temperature as desired, turn the machine on and off at selected times without operator intervention, and conserve energy which was wasted in older air conditioner design. In the case of my two new air conditioners, the manufacturer has implemented a Wi-Fi interface, so that one can control the unit from one's own cell phone. By today's standards, this is not rocket science. But it is something that Friedrich as gotten wrong. Both of my units have faulty Wi-Fi connectivity which has not yet been corrected by a manufacturer supplied firmware update.
As of the time this entry was written, all I have is a case number and some nice words from tech support. No fix has yet been shipped. And I expect that the manufacturer does not care much about quality control, as it rushed to send these units to distributors (and on to retail customers) before it verified that the product was ready to ship.
So here is the second letter I sent to the CEO of Friedrich:
Dear Mr. Campbell,
This is the second time I’ve taken the time to write you due to support issues I’ve had with my Friedrich Wallmaster Air Conditioner. Unfortunately, when my second new unit arrived, it has the same Wi-Fi issue as the first unit – I cannot use the Friedrich Connect app on my phone to control either AC unit.
On Friday (7/9), I was able to reach the same polite gentleman who assisted me on the prior Tuesday (7/6). This fellow told me that he was a little backed up, and that he couldn’t get the case number established that day – but he gave me one (20536) on Friday. However, he wasn’t able to send me the firmware update at that time to allow me to get my Wi-Fi connectivity problem fixed.
On Saturday (7/10), my second AC was delivered and installed
in my bedroom. I then tried to connect my phone with it to no avail. When I checked the unit’s firmware, it was at
the same level as its sibling in the living room, thus explaining why it also
had connectivity problems.
Case number: 20536
So far, I have had no success with Friedrich. Soon, I plan to let the people who sold me my air conditioners know what is going on so that they can be aware of potential problems in the units they sell. Additionally, since they have more influence as distributors than I have as a customer, maybe they can get the word out to the people at Friedrich who can get things done. Who knows?
I only wonder when I'll have this issue resolved....
Since I don't have much news to report from the home front, I might as well talk about my air conditioner saga for a little while longer....
As, you, my readers know, I bought 2 air conditioners on a staggered schedule. The first AC was delivered several weeks ago, but came with a firmware flaw which prevents me from using the Wi-Fi link to control the device from my cell phone. This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to talk with a nice service representative, and he got the process of getting updated firmware in motion. Today, I called to see what's up, and I spoke with him again.
Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll have two fully functional air conditioners being controlled from either my iPad or my Android phone.
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I may have mentioned that I am replacing a semi-functional AC in my bedroom. Yes, it works, but I can't rely on it. So I'm spending the extra $1,000 to be sure that I have a working air conditioner that will last me several years. How do I know it is doing something? First, I've seen physical evidence that some cooling is going on: when I had the air filter touching the "cool-air radiator", I found that there was some ice on the filter. Second, I'm seeing an occasional water droplet drain from the air conditioner when I look at my unit from the outside.
Will I get my $1,000 worth when the new bedroom AC comes? I hope so.
PS: The bedroom AC unit was installed on Saturday, and it feels like it's cooling off the room much better than the old one. Additionally, it has the same Wi-Fi issues as the one in the living room.
Some people are totally clueless when it comes to technology. My friend Pat is one of them. She has no ability to describe a problem, nor does she know when NOT to supply superfluous information when it is not called for. I often hate helping her out, as she is a person who has no aptitude to manipulate the simplest of technical ideas.
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Recently, Pat asked me for help with two things: to install a printer on her new computer, and to fix an undefined problem with her TV. So, I attacked the problem with the TV first. When her daughter from California last visited, she gave pat both a new TV and a new Apple computer. The daughter helped Pat cut the programming cord with the local cable company, and set the TV up to use her daughter's shared YouTube TV and Netflix accounts via a Roku device. Unfortunately, Pat had no understanding of what the daughter did with the TV, nor did she have any of the fine manuals (I normally substitute another word for "fine" here) that came with her equipment.
Since Pat did not know where the TV's remote could be found (she uses the Roku device to turn on the TV and to control the volume on the TV), I had to experiment with the buttons on the side of the TV to get at the settings for the TV. I was doing this blind, and Pat kept telling me that one of her friends fixed a problem like this with something on her cable box's remote. Pat was getting quite annoying, there was nothing about the cable box remote that could be the cause of the problem, and it took me a while to get Pat to stop offering me help with distracting, useless information.
Eventually, I found the TV's remote, and I was easily able to reconfigure the TV to use its original working configuration. Somehow, the TV was accidentally switched to use HDMI2 for input instead of HDMI1. Once I updated the settings, there was another problem. Pat didn't know how to get to YouTube TV. There are two similar icons in Roku that access YouTube related services, and I had to figure out which one to use. Again, Pat got in the way of this when I told her which icon NOT to use before finding the correct icon to use for her to get the TV programming she wanted. She wanted to know WHY she shouldn't use the icon and wouldn't stop trying to get an answer when I was telling her to simply not use the icon. AARGH! As much as I'd be a bad teacher, she'd be a student that I'd flunk because she can't master the material. A minute later, I found the icon, and Pat was happy.
Next, leave it to Pat to get totally confused when using Netflix. After one logs into Netflix, one is presented with a featured program, a description of it, and the option to select other movies/shows in its library. When I tried to explain what is on the screen, she couldn't find anything - and she was looking at the screen. For example, the phrase "now trending" (or something like that) was in the middle of the screen on the left, she couldn't find it - even when I walked over to the screen and pointed it out. After scrolling down, I'd say: "remember where 'now trending' was found?" and she couldn't remember where it was to find the next topic. She is totally hopeless with technology, and needs someone with infinite patience to guide her in its use.
By the time we were finished with the TV, I was in no mood to help Pat install a new printer on her new Apple computer. Pat would be less than helpful with the installation process, and even if I were able to install the printer on her Apple, I'd likely have problems that I couldn't diagnose or repair remotely. (I use a PC, and can use tools I have to fix things remotely if needed. Unfortunately, they don't work with Apple equipment.) The last thing I need is to get sucked into being Apple tech support for her. So, I'm glad that this didn't happen on this visit.
PS: On an unrelated note, I found out that I wasn't receiving notifications for comments needing moderation. I've done so for about 20 posts. Sorry I missed so many of them over the months!
As most of my readers know, I write blog entries between 7 and 14 days before they are made available to my readers. Soon, I'll be po...
