Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Should have Defended myself from buying these
Comment: My husband and I have 10 acres with a house, shop and barn for our 6 equines. We got three Defenders (more on that in a minute) and put one out, following all of the manufacturer's recommendations and instructions. It ran for about a season and did great! It sucked in all the morning and evening mosquitoes and, when we removed the octenol, sucked in the daytime Asian tigers as well. It failed after about a season, and after trying all of the manuf's recommendations and helpful tips ("Go try another CO2 cartridge." "I have tried four already!" "Well, try one more, just to see if it makes the difference.") it still did not work, so we plugged the second one up. It lasted about half a season. We then got one for free from a friend in Texas who said it would not work in his area (too dry? too hot? dunno) and couldn't do anything else with it, and plugged it up. It failed after about three months. Each unit was out of warranty by the time it failed, and it would cost us $75 (plus shipping, I am sure) to send it for repair, or we were graciously offered a pittance trade-up to purchase one of MM's new models. My dad bought one around the same time we got our first two, and his failed completely (within warranty, fortunately!). He sent the power head back to MM and they sent him another one and did not tell him what the problem with his was. His is apparently still working, and really doing a number on the mosquito population in south Louisiana.
Bottom line: Great product, when it works, which is not often. I would not waste my money again on one of these, and I am VERY sorry we wasted it the first time. I could have paid a professional exterminator to come fog our whole acreage several times for the amount I am out with these units.
Customer Rating:
Summary: UGH!
Comment: This is the worst purchase I have ever made! It has caused my husband and me more problems then you could believe! It worked great for the first year and we raved about it to our friends and family. Then the next year it started shutting off all the time. So after we replaced the propane take a few times, cleaned the lines with the CO2, replaced the net and cartridges, and whatever else we could do we called the Mosquito Magnet people. They directed us to a different company (since our warrantee was up by like a month).
This other company was awful to deal with. They were rude and not helpful at all when you could actually get them on the phone (after arguing with them they avoided our calls). My husband called and told them that he thought it was the regulator that had gone bad and asked them to send us one. The company said that they couldn't do that but if we packed the whole thing up and sent it back to them they would fix it and return it to us. The charge was supposed to be $75 and that included a one year warrantee and shipping which they e-mailed us a packing slip to stick on the box and UPS came to pick it up. So, after a few weeks we saw a charge of $93 on our credit card from them and when we called (it was more then we approved them to charge the card for and we still didn't have the magnet back yet) they told us that the extra $18 was for them to ship it back to us and it should be here in a week!!! I was so mad! They then told us they only cover shipping one way! If that were so don't you think it would be easier for us to pay to ship it to them and then them to pay to ship it back instead of the other way?! So we got it back and it didn't work...big surprise. We called again and they wanted us to send it back again but we insisted they send us a regulator and finally they did but they tried to charge us for it (what happened to the warrantee?). We fought about the charges for the shipping and for the new regulator and finally we got them to send us a new regulator. As for the shipping cost...the credit card company ended up taking care of it since it was not a big enough amount for them to go back at the for. Bottom line...the company sucks and so does the magnet.
PS...The new regulator...blew off again so the thing still doesn't work. FYI... the repair company said that they have also had reports of the regulator blowing up before. How safe is that when the thing sits 6 feet from your house and kids attached to a propane take!
Customer Rating:
Summary: piece of junk
Comment: Worked for approximately 2 weeks, then quit. Have tried every trouble-shooting step in the manual to no avail. Don't waste your money on this piece of junk.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the worst appliances I've ever owned
Comment: Well I should say that it does catch a lot of mosquitos when its running. The problem is that it is almost never running so it essentially is a very expensive lawn sculpture. I bought this in midyear of last year and managed to keep it going with a lot of work through the season. This year I tried everything to get it started including calling support and since it was less than a year old I was able to return it for a replacement (rebuilt) unit. After they replaced it I have was able to keep it running for about a month. Since then it has become harder and harder to get it going and for the last month I can't get it to restart at all. There are two reset tools that come with the unit. One uses CO2 cartridges that cost a couple of dollars a piece. Not only have I spent lots of $$ on cartridges, I even bought a new LP tank just in case the original (only a year old) had become contaminated. Nothing helps. This is a very poorly designed piece of equipment that almost never works (and I'm a pretty handy guy).
Bottom line: DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT!
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I bought the Defender with some reservation. I now am glad! This thing works like a charm. It's been a month and I just changed the tank. I am also using the Lurex attractant for the tiger mosquitos in my northern Virginia area. It makes a big difference. I started the unit up with the octenol. While I waited for the Lurex to arrive, I caught nothing for 2 days except a few small gnats. I gave it only 4 stars (It should be 4 & 1/2) because the placement of the trap is tricky and they don't give you a real good explanation. I've tryed it close to the house, in front, out back, and now it is on the side. All positions have caught alot of mosquitos, But none have covered enough ground to protect my whole lot yet. The house I think is interferring, But the cord isn't long enough to reach the shady area of the back yard. Keeping it in the shade is important! So all in all it was a good buy.
Chris in Alexandria
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