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[Bunkerbarge]

Further to recent posts regarding certain members dealings with a UK based steam engine manufacturer I have had a couple of lengthy conversations recently with Mr John Hemmens regarding his thoughts on these threads and some of the events that led up to them.

I think from the start bringing personal grievances with a manufacturer to a forum such as this is not the best way to resolve an issue which is why the offending thread was modified to remove the accusations but leave the usefull references and guidance offered to members to help them deal with such issues in the future.  

I can now understand the concerns Mr Hemmens feels that the original complaint was available for all to see for some time yet his side of the story was removed very soon after it was posted thereby possibly not allowing a balanced view for members to draw thier own conclusions from.

What I have found interesting though is the fact that my own views regarding the Richmond Engine seem to have been taken out of context and are now being relayed in a slightly modified manner and not in the way they were originally intended which is why I have decided to clarify my views on this product.

I have had an issue with the control valve leaking on my own engines (I now have three of them) and I have been involved in numerous discussions with Mr Hemmens regarding how best to deal with this.  Part of this issue is my own particularly demanding standards of minimising leaks because my plant will be installed in an enclosed model and my own Marine Engineering training and upbringing that does not accept leaks in any form.  Obviously however an oscillator will always leak to a degree from the cylinder port faces and from any control valve that incorporates a sliding disc type of steam control.  I have tried my own modifications to the valve, which have not been particularly successfull and Mr Hemmens has agreed to review one of my valves and offer suggestions as to how to prevent any leaks in the future.  I obviously appreciate this support and I will be happy to report in the future what the outcome of these investigations are.

Meanwhile I do want it to be known that I find the Richmond Engine itself an excellent little power plant that offers possibly one of the best power to weight ratio's for a model boat steam engine available today.  It is also very compact and, when run in correctly and operated appropriately, offers a comendable level of reliability.

The enclosed picture shows it pushing 35 lbs of model boat through the water at a considerably greater than scale speed during one of the trial sessions when the performance of the engine was as reliable as an electric motor.

I do think it important that in future grievances with vendors should be taken up with the vendors themselves and the forum used solely for advice without referring to using specific names and generating the type of thread whereby everyone with dubious connections with the same supplier jumps on the band wagon.

[Stavros]

Hear Hear Bunkerbarge could not agree more, the forum is for advise etc and NOT for airing grievances about traders

Stavros

[barryfoote]

Having said all that surely we can all be protected from poor traders who offer no service.

I do agree that the forum is not the place to publically air trader grievances but would still ask for peoples bad experiances to be shared. Trader names should only be passed via PM's.

Barry

[Bunkerbarge]

That's the whole point.  We can share experiences and help with solutions but we should not get involved with abusing this forum by thinking it is a means of getting back at vendors who are percieved as not delivering.  Hence names should never be used and the forum can be seen to progress in a positive rather than a negative manner.

Most disagreements are purely between the vendor and the customer and they should resolve them through the appropriate channels.  Isn't it significant that although you see people complaining on here about certain vendors you don't see vendors complaining about specifically named customers who have abused thier products then expect them to be replaced?

Don't get me wrong though, I am the first to support resolving instances of poor service, my own advice was based on a very bad experience with a tool supplier in Birmingham, but we must be very carefull how we see this forum helping us to do that.

[ian kennedy]

Hi , I would like to stand up for john hemmens , I have used his products for over 10 years and have only had the highest regard for his customer care. He has excelled him self in resolving issues concerning a custom built/designed boiler for myself , and by his own admission got it slightly wrong the first time . but the end result is a first class piece of quality engineering , which drives my two 10mm x 12mm slide valve engines fitted in an exact scale model of HMS INFLEXIBLE perfectly , giving more than enough steam to drive the model . The model is nearing completion and has had a wet bottom! . As far as i know john is constantly looking to improve on his designs and relies on direct customer feedback , as he has often said to me if he dosent hear about problems he cant rectify them. So come on lets have a bit more respect for manufacturers as we would be in a poorer state without them.