Cooler unit failure???

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Jacob B

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
542
Location
Ithaca, Michigan
I spent what I would consider a rather large amount of $$$$ on a brand new COOL CALF ceiling drop in unit. Within a couple of weeks while I was at work my daughter found the steers foaming at the mouth, drenched in sweat, panting with hot air blowing on them because the new unit failed. She checks them every 2-3 hours thankfully. I had to pay an HVAC company overtime to come out after hours to see if they could fix it so we could put calves back in it the next day. Unfortunately the part they found was “a poorly manufactured low quality part” that was “probably never in proper working condition” is out of stock anywhere for the next 10 days. Now I have to pay for an expensive part and another expensive labor cost and loose at least 10 days of darkness for my kids’ calves hair. I have had bad experiences with other commercial units and wanted to make sure nothing like this happened again so we spent a LOT of $$$ for what we thought was a really reliable unit. My wife spoke to one guy that tried to tell her how to trouble shoot the machine over the phone but neither her or I have ANY HVAC experience. And now the company won’t even talk to me or my wife. Anyone on here ever dealt with them and have any good ideas about how to get in contact with them other than an email or the company phone number? Wish I would have kept the calf climate one I had that one was really nice but my kids said they were done showing a few years back. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
 

knabe

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Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
Why wouldn’t a regular ac unit work?

What was the perceived benefit of the new unit other than being marketed through a cattle outlet?

Everything needs seevice, use something local service people recommend assuming they don’t recommend a brand that needs constant service.

 

Tallcool1

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Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
969
knabe said:
Why wouldn’t a regular ac unit work?

What was the perceived benefit of the new unit other than being marketed through a cattle outlet?

Everything needs seevice, use something local service people recommend assuming they don’t recommend a brand that needs constant service.

We use cool calf type units because they follow the basic principals of a walk in cooler.  They will cool below freezing if the structure is insulated as such.  A regular air conditioning unit will bottom out in the neighborhood of 62 degrees.  Now add 1,000+ pound cattle that produce about 10,000 btu's per hour and you end up with a muggy, high humidity cool room that is probably floating around in the 75 degree range.  By the time you go bigger with an AC unit in terms of btu's, it becomes more cost effective to put in a cool calf type of unit.

Cool Calf has a solid reputation.  I am afraid that this is a case of bad luck.
 

CAB

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Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
I have to ask, was there no warranty on the product? I would think that there would be a year or at least six months on the air conditioning components.
 

Jacob B

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
542
Location
Ithaca, Michigan
Kids worked hard rinsing. So they didn’t need it but the calves would have looked better with it working, but thanks. We got ahold of them finally n they say they will cover the expense of repair. Guys working on it said that they did not believe there was any way possible that it was a brand new unit as we were told. There was no way to adjust the temp. There was a dial for a thermostat but it didn’t work. Quite a few problems with old worn out parts. Just hoping they will actually cover the repair costs because it will be expensive.
 
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