Customer Reviews

Mosquito Magnet MM3200 Independence Mosquito Trap

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Two units in 14 days. First one dead out of box. Home Depot stood by it. Second one ran 2 weeks and died. MM Customer Service was slow, useless, and arrogant. They wanted me to ship it back for repairs, tie it up three weeks in season, and that's all they would do. I said this is unnaceptable for a $600.00 price tag. HD said to return it, they stand by it for 30 days. So....I returned it! Kudo's to Home Depot for doing the right thing. No wonder Lowe's doesn't sell them around here!

After purchasing this product, I installed it as per their directions. The unit worked for about a week. I then foungd that the unit was no longer on and the was a double blinking red led warning. After calling the company, I returned the the head part of the unit to the manufacturer. A week and a half later I received the head unit back and reinstalled it. I turned it on and......Yep a double blinking red led warning. I am still waiting to here from them on what they are going to do now. I requested a new unit, but they need someone else to approve that. Beware of the mosquito magnet!!!

I bought my first Mosquito Magnet Independence and I could never get it to complete its warm-up cycle. In an attempt to get it working i bought a brand new propane tank, made sure the tank was purged of air, and had the tank filled with propane. I tried again with this new tank with no luck. I returned this unit and exchanged it for another brand new one. This one ran for about a week and then stopped running. I was never able to get it started again. I spent several hours on the phone with the Mosquito Magnet folks trying to get the unit working, but I ended up returning it.

Maybe i just had bad luck but I just couldn't get this unit working for me, so i have given up.

UPDATE:

I just wanted to update my review of this project since Mosquito Magnet really went out of their way to make things right for me. After the problems with the first two units, Mosquito Magnet reached out to me and apologized indicating they had been experiencing some defects due to new a manufacturing process. The shipped me a brand new unit free of charge and it has worked flawlessly ever since i got it. The new owners seem to be really standing behind the quality of these new units and i am changing my rating to reflect this. Thanks Mosquito Magnet!

I just returned mine as well. Picked it up at Home Depot and it ran for about a day then went into the slow blinking red light fault. Tried the new tank and purged the line. Again it worked for about a day then the same fault. To bad too because the thing works when it's working but for nearly $600 it needs to be more reliable. I was about to go back and try another one thinking maybe it was just a bad apple but from the other couple of reviews it looks more like it's a bad design - from a reliability standpoint.

Update September 15: We are still in a severe drought, which would normally mean no mosquitoes. And for a few weeks, we actually turned the machine off. But when we started running the sprinkler system every day, we started seeing mosquitoes again. We turned the machine back on and the mosquitoes disappeared.

We have learned that the machine is more effective with the attractant. So if you are going to invest in this machine, plan on getting a supply of the attractant, also. Do not try to go without it. Just my opinion, though.

Having run this Mosquito Magnet for about five months now, we are still happy with the results. It is temperamental, though, and it needs TLC: Battery connections need to be checked weekly. A one-time heavy rain caused the machine to stop working.

Update July 17: Machine is still working fine. We've had rain and there have been mosquitoes around, but not where our machine is placed. Please read through this review--all of it is still true. The most important piece of advice I can give you: If you have more than one area of your yard that can breed mosquitoes, then this machine will NOT kill them all. If you are in doubt, make a diagram of your yard, all its obstacles, all its wet spots, hedges, gardens, etc. and ask the company for advice. This machine is so very expensive for it to not cover your entire space.....

Earlier update is at bottom of review, but the important information is: It works on biting gnats/no-see-ums! The bad news is: This Magnet does not cover an acre if there is a house, garage, lanai or other out-buildings or obstacles on that acre plot.

We received our Mosquito Magnet and it's been running smoothly for two weeks now. We don't know how well it works--long-term. But, I'm writing this review now, because we're already into mosquito season and there have got to be a lot of people out there thinking about purchasing this product right now--and wondering if the new machines work any differently than those produced in years past. After reading past years' reviews, I believe prior "issues" have been addressed and corrected in the machine we received.

I will continue to update the review as we determine how well it works for us--maximum effectiveness takes about a month to achieve, although insects were drawn into the trap immediately--I believe that would be because even though we see dead mosquitoes from the beginning, there are still eggs out there hatching. So, as of now, I can say that: The assembly instructions were adequate; all the parts were there; assembly was simple and not time-consuming; we are impressed with the quality of the components; the machine is surprisingly well-engineered; customer service is at your fingertips and pleasant; the machine is running just fine, and biting insects are attracted into the net.

BUT, before you buy a Mosquito Magnet you should give its placement some hard thought: It should be upwind and 30-40 feet from where people normally congregate; it must be located between breeding areas and people areas; ideally it should be in the shade, and it should be kept away from water sprinkler spray. After analyzing these requirements, if you don't have such an area, you might want to rethink the investment.

I contacted customer service by phone because I had a question. The rep was polite and informative, even though he gave me an answer that I didn't want to hear. Our property is about an acre and a half and we live in many parts of our yard: On the front porch, on the back deck, in the veggie gardens on one side of the house and out back, and at the grill on the side of the house or the smoker in another area. There is no "best location" to put the Magnet--putting it in one place will not protect us in all the yard areas we use daily. I wanted to know if the Magnet was effective if we moved it around the yard. His answer: No, the Magnet is not as effective if you move it around. It should stay in one place. But he said that we could go ahead and try it......Well, yeah, we sure can--but that's a lot of money to spend for a questionable outcome.

But we'll give it a try anyway. Since there is no clear-cut placement in our particular situation, we anticipate having a first season of trial-and-error. But, hey, even if it only eliminates the monster mosquitoes that attempt to carry us away when we walk the dog in the early mornings and late evenings, it will be worth it.

Be aware there is an investment here beyond the initial purchase price. You have to provide the propane tank and refill it every 21 days. Also, there are nets, attractant and "Quick Clear" cartridges to replace every 21 days. So, between propane and monthly replacements and other enhancements--and the length of your mosquito season, you'll be spending at least a hundred dollars extra each year--probably more.

Update May 9, 2011: Our area in Texas is experiencing drought conditions. There are not many mosquitoes around. We placed the Magnet in an area upwind of where we thought mosquitoes would be breeding. After a week there were many gnats in the net, but not many mosquitoes. For the past few weeks I have been getting a lot of bites on my legs while working in the garden, and when I was able to catch one little bugger in the act, I realized the culprits were gnat-looking tiny insects. We moved the Magnet to a position upwind of the main garden, and within an hour it had quite a few of the tiny insects in the net. The insects don't look like the no-see-ums that I am familiar with from the Virgin Islands, but they sure do bite like them--and the bites really hurt! And the bites are hot and hurtful for many, many days! They are worse than mosquito bites.

So there are two observations I can now make: 1.) The Magnet is attracting biting insects; and, 2.) The Magnet may cover an acre if the area is wide open, but it does not cover an acre if there are buildings, lanais, or other obstacles around. Do you spend your time outdoors in just one part of your yard? And can you place the Magnet in the shade, upwind and 30'-40' away from people? If you can answer "yes" to both those questions, well then, maybe this is the machine for you--otherwise you may want to rethink your options.

We still have faith that this machine will perform to our satisfaction--with a few "give and takes" in our ultimate rationalization of "our satisfaction". So, I am leaving my rating at four stars.

This unit works effectively after it has been going for a few weeks. Unfortunately, the quality control is terrible. Within 2 weeks to 6 weeks the unit won't restart and I get a double flashing red light indicating a thermostat problem. The manufacturer will gladly take the unit back and repair under warrant, but this involves packing and shipping it and not having its use during mosquito season. Rather than do that, fortunately, Home Depot's return policy is extremely generous and I have returned two units so far and the current one is now not working. I am about ready to give up on this product. Its a shame that the manufacturer just doesn't get it!

On July 17, 2009 I bought a Mosquito Magnet Independence. I set the unit up according to instructions and used a brand new propane tank. The unit started up with no problem and worked very well catching hundreds of mosquitos every day for 8 days until the unit shut down for no reason. I started it up again and after several tries, it seemed to be working fine. After two days I went out in the morning to find it had shut down again with plenty of gas still in the tank. There is an LED which is supposed to be orange at warmup and then goes to green upon reaching operating temperature. Upon restart, the LED showed orange but would not go green and instead would shut down in about a half hour. After dozens of unsuccessful tries at restart, I contacted phone support and reached a barely understandable customer support woman had difficulty understanding my problem and finally told me to disconnect the battery pack and re start in 1 hour to reset the unit. No effect. still would not.
start. Again called customer and was given a repair number to send the 2 week old $560 unit back for repair.
I returned the unit to HOME DEPOT who were terrific and gave me an exchange for another brand new unit. Started the new unit and it worked fine for exactly 7 days when overnight it shut down for no reason. This unit would not start and before I smashed it in frustration, I returned it for a full refund.
I then e mailed a critical report to Mosquito Magnet and evidently they could not have cared less since they never responded.
As an aside, I was in my local LOWES and asked about the product and was told unofficially by the Garden Shop Manager that they no longer carried the product because of multiple similar startup problems and returned units.

This review is a work in progress. As I'm writing now, the date is 5/3/11. It will be updated by 5/31/11, and again as summer rolls on and I have additional information to report. That being said....
We live in the Midwest where summer months are extremely important, as we all look forward to sunshine after months of snow. Our property is wooded, and mosquitoes are a huge problem, especially since we do a lot of summer entertaining. After learning how mosquito zappers kill all the bugs that EAT mosquitoes, we tried every other option from foggers to citronella, all with little success and lots of worry about toxins around pets.
I installed this unit 4/23. I took a photo, and you can see how it looks in the yard. After some pots of flowers are around it, it will blend in nicely. Setup was VERY easy, and I already had propane tanks that are used for the grill. It needs to be started up early in the season. It is nearly noiseless, and operating perfectly on what seems to be very little propane. Although I'll be updating so you can use this review as part of your decision making for this investment, I do want to share the experiences of my neighbor, who also has the Mosquito Magnet. They have had it for over one season, and had some problems. She kept getting an error light, but was able to troubleshoot it using online support. She said she would not have purchased it if she knew she would be plagued with error messages. She hasn't cranked her older unit up yet, but I'll be including her experiences in my updates. I have it at 4 stars now, as it was easy to install, lets see if it loses those stars in a few weeks!
EDIT MAY 26th 2011: One bottle of propane down, and another lure later...not very many skeeters caught. Perhaps I'll try changing location. I spoke more with my neighbor who has one, and much of her problem is blowing it clean when it gets restarted in the spring. More to come in a week or so....

EDIT 6/14/2011....The net bag is filled with skeetos! NO other insects, which is VERY nice. So, as a conclusion to this review...
This product worked for me. If you think you can set it up and forget about it, you will be disappointed. You may have to move it around to find the best spot in your yard. A few times I checked it only to find it had stopped running. Turning it off for a few seconds and turning it back on took care of that problem. It is expensive to buy, and expensive to run. We have spent about $25-30 this month in propane and the needed lures. Still, it is cheaper and safer than having a service come and spray. MUCH safer. For us, because we entertain outside, it is worth it. While it isn't going to make your yard mosquito free, it will reduce the numbers significantly. My neighbor recently ordered a new cord as hers got lost. It was $50, but it's nice to know they can help with any bits you need. It seems like the company responded to the reviews about poor customer service. If the rest of the summer goes smoothly, we may consider upgrading units next year, that is how happy I am.

The large, surprisingly lightweight box arrived in perfect condition, no visible damage inside or out.
When I removed the head unit from the box however, I heard obvious broken parts inside and immediately called their customer support.
After all, inside the box was a large STOP; call our dedicated, superior customer support for any trouble. I assumed this would be quickly taken care of since the self report their customer service to be so good.

While they answered the phone quickly the quality of support was poor.
I had an obviously defective unit with broken pieces inside and they wouldn't help unless I tried to turn it on first. This seemed like a bad idea for a product that hooks up to a fuel source. They wanted me to believe that the sound (broken pieces rattling and rolling around inside the head unit) I heard was normal.

I could forgive this, after all they don't want to pay return shipping for an item that was misdiagnosed by a end user that doesn't have product experience. So I removed a cover piece and poured out the broken pieces, sent a photo to them in email, and was again refused support. They suggested try turning the unit on and see if it worked, and then sent me to follow up with Amazon for the defective unit.

The plastic pieces appear to be part of an internal frame, cage, or some other support. It is a strong, but brittle, black plastic. In addition to 4 large pieces, many small shattered fragments came out of the box. While the piece that was broken may not be critical, the question remains why it broke, and what else may be loose or disconnected. Am I going to end up with an internal propane leak that ends up causing the unit to catch on fire?

As if this isn't enough to point to poor design/build quality, the unit is entirely made of lightweight plastic. The instructions even warn not to move the unit with a tank installed. I agree with their apparent admission that the frame would not support the weight! Perhaps an aluminum post that securely connected to the base and the head unit would be a good upgrade for them to consider.

While the nearly all plastic construction was quick and easy to set up, there are no screws, no locks, nothing to hold the base, post, and head unit together. The head unit balances on the post with a short peg sliding into the support column. So the loop that looks like a handle opposite of the wheels on the base doesn't really work well for lifting and rolling the unit around. First as described above, you must remove the tank, even with that weight removed, the head unit tends to lift right off the post as it is a friction only connection.

Chances are some of these units will actually work, some perhaps for more than the few weeks described by other reviewers, and perhaps if this unit was under $200 I could understand the build quality. But at this price point and nearly every review pointing out poor quality and poor customer service, I would not recommend this unit to anyone and would be very concerned about any of their other lower cost units.

The only positive note I can add for the Mosquito Magnet brand is that we have had an older design Commercial Unit Mosquito Magnet Pro in service for years. However it seems the current owners, Woodstream Company, discontinued this product when they purchased the company.

Mine was similar to the experience of others here, and the new unit worked for 11 days then gave an overheat trouble light. All attempts to restart then resulted in an electrical malfunction trouble light. It caught probably 50-75 mosquitoes in those 11 days. I didn't have enough confidence in it to go through the warrantied repair process. I consider it a near-miss of completely losing $600, and as it is I have $75 (cleaning cartridges and lurex) of supplies I'll never use.