Customer Reviews

Factory Reconditioned American Biophysics Self-Powered Mosquito Magnet REFURB-FRE

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When it worked, it did catch mosquitos. The problem is that this unit has a very limited lifespan. Ours worked sporadically for two summers until failing this year. Beware that there is only a limited 1 year warranty. After that the only option the manufacturer offers is $500 for refurbishing. I'll leave judgement of how fair this is to you. We paid $795 for two summers worth of work -- please don't repeat our mistake!

My Mosquito Magnet would not start this year after two years of operation. Over its lifetime, it has caught very few mosquitos, consumed a lot of expensive propane and mosquito magnet accessories, and has had to go to the factory for repair (first time was under warranty). Today it would not start. Tech support tells me that the carburetor is clogged and that there is not a whole lot to be done about it. Their solution is to propose to sell me a *new* powerpack ($500) or a entire new unit.

This has been a very expensive product for two years of unreliable service.

After asking customer service to forward my last e-mail to the company President; I received a second replacement unit that works. It is now once again working in my yard. In the interim I also bought a Skeetervac which also works very well at both attracting and catching. I have no complaints thus far about the Skeetervac which also costs half as much as a reconditioned Freedom.

I bought this model new during the summer of 2002 and it worked great... that summer. Summer of 2003, the fan stopped working almost immediately after putting the unit back into use. I e-mailed the company several times before arrangments were made for a replacement power pack which arrived in late summer. Then the replacement unit failed to ignite. The unit I sent in ignited fine; it was only the fan that had failed. The replacement power pack however would not even ignite. After e-mails back and forth suggesting things for me to try; the snows came and I put it away for the winter with a long list of things to try sent to me by customer service after mosquito season had ended. Now this spring the same scenario is playing out. "Try this; try that". In the meantime with a wet spring my yard is filled with mosquitos and the Mosquito Magnet is a very expensive lawn ornament. It still will not ignite. The company rep seems unconcerned that it doe not work. There was no followup to my problem. Slow replies. Long waits on hold with the customer service telephone line. No or slow responses to e-mail. I wish I had the original unit that I had to send in; I probably could have changed the fan myself. I bought a Mosquito Deleto recently and it is catching mosquitos. Not as effective as a working Mosquito Magnet, but then it was much cheaper and my Magnet is dead.

I set it up late summer 2002, and then early spring 2003. It basically solved my mosquito problem that year.

In 2004, it would not start. Their support had me try two things and then explained it was dead. They offered no repair option, only a discount on a new one (same discount they were offering new customers).

Summer 2004 was "forecasted" to be a bad year for mosquitos in Massachussettes, but I must say that even without the MM running, my mosquitos weren't too bad. I attributed this to it's success wiping out the population the previous summer. But who really knows...

I didn't know others had this reliability problem until I came here looking for a new one.

Mine was not the factory refurbished one, but it was the same model pictured above. New in late summer 2002.

This product started out of the box. When I changed to the second tank it took an hour of trying to get it to start. For the third tank I could not get it to start at all. Not sure if it decreased the mosquitos or not.