Customer Reviews

Mosquito Magnet MM3000 Liberty Mosquito Trap

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I bought two Liberty units a year ago - one died almost immediately with a fan failure, and the other just died recently for some unknown reason (it won't complete warm-up cycle). Warranty is out, so these look like they're going to be collecting dust in the shed until I feel like taking them apart and trying to figure out what is wrong.

There's a much easier way to control mosquitos. Get a bunch of five-gallon buckets, put three gallons of water in them, add some dish soap, and finally spray some WD-40 on the water. Mosquitos will try to lay their eggs in the water, and will get stuck because the WD-40 breaks the surface tension on the water. The dish soap will take care of any larvae that do manage to hatch. Place the buckets around your property (high enough so that your dog doesn't drink the water - won't hurt the dog, but will give it diarrhea from the soap) and check them from time to time. You'll be amazed at the number of mosquitos that get caught.

I purchased this unit in June from Home Depot. It took 2 hours to assemble (and I'm pretty good at assembling things). It wouldn't complete the warmup cycle properly so I called their tech support line. The wait wasn't too bad for me but the result was that I had a defective unit. I opted to return it to the store rather than wait for the replacement. I complained to the manager about having wasted two hours and another trip to the store and he knocked off $25 bucks on the second unit. I complained because I had read several reviews from people that have received defective units and I think the dealers need to get a message that customers are not happy with quality of the merchandise from this company. Anyway, second unit has been working fine. It did start catching mosquito right away and I noticed a difference within a few days. It's quite fun to check the trap each day to see how many of the little blood suckers are in there. It is hard to get an accurate estimate because the do bunch up and dehydrate but you can see several still buzzing around inside the net and you can point at them and say - HA! For me, the results are proven by less mosquitoes biting or flying around me so I don't worry about counting. My other complaint about this thing is cost. You're dropping a pretty penny for this unit and then don't forget to add on the cost of the tank and the propane - another $40-$50. The propane lasts for 21 days and then you have to refill the tank. You are also suppose to replace the octenol cartridge which run you $20 for 3 (that's less than a three month supply), plus they tell you to buy CO2 cartridges (3 for $10) and run that through the system every second tank. So, doing the math, say a tank refill every 21 days runs you $15 (and that's cheap right now), $7 every 21 days for octenol, $1.50 for CO2, plus electricity - you're looking at upwards of $25 every 21 days in extra hard costs to keep the thing running. That's $35-$40 a month if you like to break it down that way. With that said, if that doesn't scare you off then give the unit a shot. It does make a difference. I won't say there are no more mosquitoes or no-see-ums but I can regularly go out in the yard for a few minutes and come back inside without any bites when before that would not have been possible. It's just hard for me to believe this company charges so much for this thing and then half of them don't work. That aggravates me, but mosquitoes biting my son aggravates me more.

I have purchased 2 mosquito magnets that have both stopped working in their second season. These machines are too expensive to be this flimsy. Customer service is argumentative, and rude. A one year warranty is not acceptable for this price.

I am on my second unit: the first lasted one season and it took a whole season to get it replaced. They do not perform as advertised. I suspect them of stalling until the warranty expired and then offered a replacement for half-price. Would not buy another unit. Quality is bad; service is bad; they don't work as advertised.

I purchased one of these a couple of years ago and after a lot of experimentation found the proper place to place it. It really worked! I could tell when the tank had run out by the sudden increase in mosquito population and had every intention of buying another one to put on the other side of the house. Fortunately before I could get one, mine suddenly quite working. According to the indicator light it wasn't getting propane. After performing all of the recommended procedures for 3 times, I called "tech support." They strongly recommended the exact things that I had just done but this time "follow instructions." Despite their insulting manner I actually did it but got the same results. Nothing.

I would suggest to anyone who is considering purchasing one of these to look over the reviews and consider how long the people who rated them a success actually owned them before they wrote. Mine worked great for 3 months and never again. It's too bad that Amazon doesn't encourage or even allow people to append reviews for articles like this after they have used them for a reasonable period of time. The hardware store where I bought mine quit selling them because of the tremendous amount of flack they got from irate customers. I would suggest Amazon follow suit.

Oh yes. If you are considering the battery model as I was for my planned second unit, think again. According to several reviews and some experience by friends who bought them, the batteries take a long time to recharge, don't last very long and are very expensive to replace.

If someone from the manufacturer wishes to send me a replacement, I will be most happy to try it out and if they have made substantial changes since I bought my edition of this, I will send in a new review and appropriately modify any or all of my extremely negative comments. I won't hold my breath until this happens.

In short, I wish Amazon had negative stars. I wasn't expecting miracles but for $500 I was expecting more than a 3 month working life.

The mosquito magnet does an outstanding job when working. However, I have experienced slightly better than 50% up-time since purchasing my unit in the summer of 2002. First unit lasted approx 50 days before defaulting. Customer service was helpful, but took in excess of 2 weeks to send a replacement. The fan on the second unit lasted 30 days (2 weeks for replacement to arrive). The above scenario continues to repeat and I will hopefully receive my fifth unit this week. Company seems to be overly concerned with keeping new units on the shelves at the expense of ignoring quality issues and failing to respond to existing customer base.

I have three Mosquitio Magnets that I bought last year. They worked great for a few months then only give "fault" indications thereafter and won't work. This is a defectively designed or manufactured product. I have never submitted Amazon reviews before this product. I feel so cheated that I want to warn others about it. Three bad devices for me, and many other reviews reporting the same problems, means that you purchase this product with great risk.
Thankyou.

These units work well but are extremely unreliable. The catalytic converters fill up with carbon soot even when cleaned with CO2 cartridges. I have found the best of both worlds. The MM does a great job attracting mosquitoes but is not efficient at catching them. Install a bug zapper near the exhaust fan. The zapper and the MM work together to kill all types of mosquitoes. After two days the zapper looked as though there was fur covering it there were so many mosquitoes. American Biophysics needs to come up with a unit that does not break down. Four of us at work bought units in June 2003. All four units are broken and replacements units are taking 3-4 weeks to get here.

I had this model when we lived in Maryland. We have a large, beautiful yard what we can't use due to mosquitos. After researching all the competitive brands, we went with this one. In terms of construction, this is very solid. The including ac adaptor has an exceptionally long cord, which is much appreciated. We experimented with different locations in the yard. I was real disaapointed at how few moquitoes were found in the net. After 3-4 months of use, there is no appreciable decrease in mosquitoes, and we ended up dumping the machine.

My unit would not start after it's 5th tank of propane, 15 months after purchase - and only 6 months of running time - and 3 months after warranty expired.
Contacted technical support, but none of their recommendations worked. Only service option is a $500 power pack replacement, with a 6 month warranty. I would not spend another dollar on this piece of junk. It catches mosquitoes, but certainly will not cover the claimed area. It probably cost me $10 for every mosquito I killed. Definitey NOT recommended. Do NOT Buy.