Chauvet Quality Control

[LeeStoddart]

Is anyone experiencing a fall in quality in the products coming out of Chauvet?

 

I've heard tell that Chauvet have moved their manufacturing facility and products are not as well built in the new one compared to the old one.

 

I'm wondering if there is any basis in this statement or is it an attempt by my dealer to move my business to a different brand.

[pscandrett]

Are there any particular lines/models that you have in mind?

[LeeStoddart]

Are there any particular lines/models that you have in mind?

Currently looking at replacements for Fresnels but will be looking for LED Profiles beyond that.

We have a number of the QWash 560Z we bought some years ago and love so would certainly look closely at Chauvet but a little nervous about what we are being told about quality.

[Sam bowden]

Hi Lee,

 

My name is Sam Bowden and I am the UK Operations and European Product Manager at Chauvet, I am sorry to have heard you have been informed of changes to our manufacturing process and that this has resulted in a loss of quality.

 

We have several facilities we work from in order to produce and develop our product range with staff orientated toward producing products that reflect their are of expertise, quality of our product as well as reliability and performance are elements we constantly strive to to improve and maintain as we bring new products to market and we monitor all product with the same level of scrutiny be they a Chauvet Professional product or a ChauvetDJ product, standards stay the same.

 

Through this level of attention and constant improvement we are proud to say that our return rate for product with genuine failure (not user induced failure - 'oops I dropped it') is under 2% globally.

 

If there are product in specific that you are concerned by please let me know what your application will be for them and we will be happy to advise.

 

thanks,

 

Sam

[Mazz]

I've had a total battery fail on a Freedom Par Tri 6, which is only a few weeks old. Problem is, Chauvet have no replacement batteries in stock "as we have had a bit of a run on them". I can't wait 6 - 8 weeks for a battery, so I have had to order a new unit. Any body else had this problem ?

[paulears]

If Chauvet have stock to supply you a new unit, why have you had to buy one? Surely they could have swapped it out, or simply used a stock item as a donor? I doubt they have spares in stock for most of the products from China, even power supplies are tricky as they rarely stay the same for the duration of the models life, getting updated as they get used in different units. They usually physically are the same unit, but might have split outputs or bussed outputs with links - so your product might need 3 cables to the PSU, but a newer one needs 4, so the new PSUs have 4 connectors, and you have to modify your wiring. The sellers who deal with Chinese products are used to all this, and normally keep a few on the shelves as hot spares, but it's tempting to sell them when a unit is 'on heat' and popular, hoping the next batch arrives soon.

 

With the big name, big brand products - the parts are all listed and can be stocked or supplied quickly from their stores. This is much h more difficult with Chinese products because their modular construction means there often really isn't a manufacturer in our old sense. I'd guess, but the interior of a Chauvet probably has many generic parts, sourced from different companies.

[Mazz]

If Chauvet have stock to supply you a new unit, why have you had to buy one? Surely they could have swapped it out, or simply used a stock item as a donor? I doubt they have spares in stock for most of the products from China, even power supplies are tricky as they rarely stay the same for the duration of the models life, getting updated as they get used in different units. They usually physically are the same unit, but might have split outputs or bussed outputs with links - so your product might need 3 cables to the PSU, but a newer one needs 4, so the new PSUs have 4 connectors, and you have to modify your wiring. The sellers who deal with Chinese products are used to all this, and normally keep a few on the shelves as hot spares, but it's tempting to sell them when a unit is 'on heat' and popular, hoping the next batch arrives soon.

 

With the big name, big brand products - the parts are all listed and can be stocked or supplied quickly from their stores. This is much h more difficult with Chinese products because their modular construction means there often really isn't a manufacturer in our old sense. I'd guess, but the interior of a Chauvet probably has many generic parts, sourced from different companies.

 

The Chauvet warranty period on batteries is six months. We have taken 28 of these units over the past year or so. The unit that failed is from the last batch we purchased a few weeks ago. All Chauvet need to prove it is within the six months, is the serial number. However, we have these uplighters sprayed white for the wedding market, and in doing so, the paper sticker with the serial number is lost. I can match our asset number to the units serial number when new, but, as you would expect, Chauvet do not see that as proof. That is not the problem. I actually offered to buy a replacement battery. It took three days to contact the spares department, due to staff holidays and illness, only to learn that they had no stock, due to greater than normal requests for spare batteries. That to me, sounds like there is a problem with some recent units. The big issue is that the batteries are on a 6 - 8 week back order. It would have been better from a customer service point of view, if they could have removed a battery from a new unit, to sell to me, and replaced it when they received stock, but no such luck. To be honest, I've had better customer service from Chinese suppliers.

[paulears]

With 28 of them, in your inventory, I would expect a little leeway with warranty claims. If you buy from Thomann in Germany, they didn't quibble when a memory backup battery died after 2 years, they just sent me one. Faffing around because they are using limited lifetime components seems very odd - so it's an internal. non-user serviceable part that only has a six month warranty? Wow!

[Mazz]

With 28 of them, in your inventory, I would expect a little leeway with warranty claims. If you buy from Thomann in Germany, they didn't quibble when a memory backup battery died after 2 years, they just sent me one. Faffing around because they are using limited lifetime components seems very odd - so it's an internal. non-user serviceable part that only has a six month warranty? Wow!

 

All good points, well presented. Thomann seem to have customer service sorted. I've been dealing with them for around 15 years now, and never had a problem. I am surprised by my experience with Chauvet. These uplighters are the first product I have taken from them in quantity. It's ironic, but I chose Chauvet over the cheaper Chinese clones, because I wanted to make sure that if there was a problem with battery life, it would get sorted. As I said in my last post, I get better customer service from Chinese companies. I don't think I'll be adding any other Chauvet product to my inventory.

[gareth]

Chauvet have got better than they were, but still have a little way to go! The theatre at which I used to be resident invested heavily in their Quad Zoom Tour LED wash units - a couple of dozen of the mk1 version, followed by about 50 of the mk2. We had a couple of early failures in both batches, and even after we owned almost 80 units they still insisted that warranty returns were received back at Chauvet before they'd consider supplying replacements - which, in a busy venue with multiple performance spaces, wasn't ideal when it left us short of a couple of units which were needed in the building.