Life expectancy of Namco dehumidifier: 7 months
The life expectancy of the machine was 7 months, and the company did not honor its warranty.
I purchased a Namco commercial dehumidifier (RW-29, 110 pint) from Namco Manufacturing in May 2023 by phone, and it came with a one-year warranty. I placed it in my fully finished basement.
In October 2023, the machine started to have some problems. It was keeping the relative humidity (RH) at a much higher level than it was set to. Although the machine is designed to stop running when it reaches the set RH and restart as the RH goes above the set level, it was constantly running. I called Namco and spoke with a technician who asked me to run an experiment to see how much liquid the machine would collect in a 24-hour period. I did the experiment, and the machine failed. The technician insisted that the machine was working properly. I accepted his explanation and did not follow up any further.
In December 2023, the machine started to leak refrigerant, and it was not working any more. After a lot of back and forth with Namco, they asked me to ship back the machine to their office in Texas. I live in Maryland. I shipped the machine as instructed. After a couple weeks of trying to get a hold of someone to tell me what was going on, their technician told me the machine was damaged during shipping, the compressor had been damaged, it was leaking refrigerant, and the machine could not be repaired. I explained that the refrigerant leak was not due to shipping damage, but it was the reason I shipped back the machine to Namco.
I had conversations with two men who claimed to be co-owners of the company. They were extremely disrespectful, dismissive, and evasive in their conversations with me. They hung up the phone on me multiple times. They told me the same story about the damage during shipping. Although the machine was still under warranty, they did not accept any responsibility for the product.
First, they said they would send back an old machine in place of my machine because my machine could not be repaired anymore and it was not their fault since I had shipped the machine and it was damaged during shipping although they paid for shipping the machine back to their shop. In a couple hours, they changed their story and said they would repair my own machine and send it back to me.
Namco ended up sending me back an old and damaged machine and not my own machine. Refrigerant had already leaked into the shipping box. Parts of the machine have separated and have been glued back together with additional pieces of metal and screws on the outside; different parts of the machine are bent and dented and have rust all over to the point that the handle and wheels cannot be installed. The machine leaks refrigerant, does not hold the RH at the set level, and runs non-stop. I informed Namco of the machine’s condition by email and letter, but I have not heard back from them.
The machine has very low quality and very short life expectancy despite the very high price. The company sells the product but does not stand behind its product.