What Can Void a Landscape Lighting System Warranty?

What Can Void a Landscape Lighting System Warranty?

By Mike Gambino

A warranty is a contract between you and the company that built your landscape lighting system. It promises to take care of any applicable repairs, provided that you maintain the system to proper expectations. But like any contract, it can be broken if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, so it is important to know what circumstances can void your warranty.

You may think that you don’t have to worry about your Landscape Lighting system because it’s under warranty, but do you know what can void a Landscape Lighting system warranty? If not, keep reading to make sure your Landscape Lighting system will be covered when you need your warranty the most. Here are some of the ways an Landscape Lighting system warranty can be voided:

Failing to Register Your Landscape Lighting system

Some companies require you to register your new landscape lighting system for the warranty to apply. When you get your new system, look for the warranty information immediately to make sure you don’t miss the deadline for registering it and lose coverage on your system.

Using Off-Brand Parts

If you end up having to pay for an uncovered  repair yourself, you may find that the cost for parts is less if you don’t use parts from the original manufacturer. This may or may not be true but what is true that it is not a good practice. Using original parts designed especially for use with your system by its original manufacturer is best practice.

Improper Installation

Installing a new custom designed Landscape Lighting system isn’t as simple as just plugging it in. Wiring need to be properly sized, electrical connections need to be adequate and safely connected, voltage and amperage loads need to be verified, and balanced and a number of other tasks must be performed just right to ensure that the system runs efficiently and without needless wear and tear. If the manufacturer determines that a problem was due to mistakes made by the installer, it won’t honor a warranty claim our if technicians have not received manufacturer’s training for installations they may not be authorized to install a system that a manufacturer will honor a warranty on.

about-ladderNot Keeping Up With Annual Maintenance

Just like your car, your Landscape Lighting system needs regular maintenance to keep it in top shape. Without it, its efficiency drops and parts wear out faster. Because preventative maintenance  is so important, most manufacturers won’t honor a warranty claim if you haven’t kept up with it.

DSCN0298Not Having Records of Maintenance

Of course, the fact that you had regular maintenance performed isn’t going to go very far if you don’t have proof to back it up. Be sure to keep copies of all receipts in case the manufacturer asks for them, and if the warranty requires that specific work be done, make sure the receipt says exactly what was done.

Environmental damage

If your landscape lighting system was damaged in a fire, flood, earthquake, flood  or any other environmental disaster, the product manufacturer will not honor your warranty.

Modified or Altered systems

If your systems original transformer has been, tampered with or replaced, If cable has been cut into, additional fixtures added, original fixtures removed. This is usually grounds for a voided warranty. Any of these changes can change originally voltage settings that can have negatives affects on  system performance and lamp longevity.

Greentree-1Typical standard warranties in the landscape lighting industry do not cover labor or service call costs to diagnose/repair/replace after the first year so the system owner will have to cover that and not every circumstance will void your entire warranty. In some situations, the repairs for a specific part will not be covered, but you still retain the warranty on the remainder of the landscape lighting system.

.Any time you have your original installer our for a service call for warranty work, it must file a claim with the manufacturer or warranty provider, which is how they gets paid for the part replaced under warranty, This gap in time between the installers submittal to the manufacturer and their approval can result in system downtime and the scheduling of another appointment for a technician to make the repair.

This cumbersome warranty repair/replace process is in complete contract to how we here at Gambino Landscape Lighting handles warranty repairs. Since we have our own proprietary products and are in essence the responsible party. Decisions and repairs are made on  the spot , without drawn out deliberation  with no need for second appointment to make a repair and even more importantly NO system downtime !

facebook logoThis landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.Gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

Blog articles may be published with permission on other websites without editing or removing links.

 

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