NPD... not as happy as you'd think (HELP!!)

[itamar101]

Hey guys,
long time since my last post here but I'm back, and i need your help.

A few days ago I ordered 2 Harley Benton Power Plant Jnr power supplies from Thomann and today they arrived. I tried them out as soon as I got home, and all was good... for about 3 minutes. I connected my pedals to one of the power supplies, making sure that everything was the correct voltage and that the current draw was within the limits (well within), and after I few minutes I heard a pop out of the amp and suddenly the LED on the PS died.
Long story short; one power supply is dead, and 3 pedals along with it.
2 of the pedals (EHX B9, Marshall Regenerator) will switch on and light up, but when activated no signal reaches the amp. When they are off everything works fine.
My trusty Boss NS-2 has completely died. No light, no signal, nothing. DEAD.

As you can probably imagine, this is really really dissapointing and worrying for me, and the overall cost of everything is about 285pounds.

If anyone knows whats going on or has any suggestions, please let me know - it would be very appreciated.

thanks

On the plus side, the second PS works well and my new flashback delay is lovely...

[Dave Sloven]

No suggestions here but I'd be worried about the safety of the other unit if you've already had one that fried pedals.

I've been using T-Rex power supplies (Chameleon and Junior) for years and have found them to be very reliable.  Has anyone else had problems with Harley Benton ones?

[itamar101]

No suggestions here but I'd be worried about the safety of the other unit if you've already had one that fried pedals.

I've been using T-Rex power supplies (Chameleon and Junior) for years and have found them to be very reliable.  Has anyone else had problems with Harley Benton ones?

Reviews of the PP Jnr are very limited, but everything that I've found has praised it. I would've gotten myself a chameleon but I'm very short of cash... In retrospect it looks like I would've saved money by getting it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Dave Sloven]

Yeah it's a shame that happened.  Similar things have happened to me with other stuff.

[Telerocker]

That's a sad story. It's weird too bec they sell these HB's Powerplants like cookies.

[Dave Sloven]

It's all the result of a defective power supply.

My best guess is that something blew inside and it sent AC power direct to your pedals somehow and fried them.

There is obviously no failsafe mechanism inside these power supplies to protect your pedals.  Really there should be some kind of circuit breaker in there that would protect the outlets from a surge of AC power like that.

[itamar101]

It's all the result of a defective power supply.

My best guess is that something blew inside and it sent AC power direct to your pedals somehow and fried them.

There is obviously no failsafe mechanism inside these power supplies to protect your pedals.  Really there should be some kind of circuit breaker in there that would protect the outlets from a surge of AC power like that.

There absolutely should be.

What are my chances of demanding a full refund without paying for shipping?
Thomann have essentially destroyed almost 300 pounds of my gear (180 pounds of which i was about to sell and now can't).
I am genuinely fuming right now -  both at my own naivety and at Thomann.
Just dissapointing really.

[Dave Sloven]

I really don't know.

But they are a big company who do a lot of sales.  You could point out that many people are watching on the internet to see how this problem is revolved by them

[itamar101]

Update: Some good news. I made a last ditch attempt at using my broken pedals again this morning... and they're back working again. I don't know what the cause of the problems were, but I'm just happy that it's all back to normal. The Boss Ns-2 may not have been totally dead in the first place and it might have been a user error (it was late haha), but the other pedals genuinely did not work - so i am very relieved.

I gave Thomann a call and they said to fill in a return form for warranty repair, the shipping *should* be free, but i am not in the same country that i ordered it to so I'll have to wait and see.
I would've preferred money back tbh but a repair will suffice. I'll make sure to check the power supply with a multimeter before using it next time...

[Telerocker]

Good news! Hope you get a proper unit.

[itamar101]

Good news! Hope you get a proper unit.

Absolutely haha
In all fairness, the 2nd harley benton has done a very good job so far, so I'm relatively convinced that i got a faulty unit, but i'll be getting myself a t-rex fuel tank as soon as my wallet allows me to.

I little less exciting than the micro-pog that i was planning on getting 

[dave_mc]

Has anyone else had problems with Harley Benton ones?

I had a couple that were faulty and I got replacements, but they didn't (I don't think) do my pedals any harm.

Glad to hear your pedals are working again.

Interesting they want to repair it, when mine were faulty they just sent me new ones without even asking for the old one back.

[itamar101]

They have replied to me saying that they wont be covering shipping to Germany and back.
Disappointing to say the least - they sent me a broken product and shipping would cost me more than the product itself. It's hardly my fault.
I'll try to squeeze it out of them and if that fails I'll just let it be. Lesson learnt.

[dave_mc]

^ Yeah. That's very disappointing (not least because it nearly fried your pedals)- as I said I've had faulty ones and they didn't even ask me to send it back, they presumably realised themselves that shipping wasn't economically viable.

Where are you in the world? I think under EU rules the retailer is supposed to cover return shipping if something is faulty.

[darkbluemurder]

No experience with any of the power supplies mentioned. I used a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2Plus for years and it is still going strong.

To OP: hope it turns out well. I am just dealing with a broken down digital delay which was quite expensive.

Cheers Stephan