curieuse politique de KATADYN

Pour faire court Katadyn ne vend pas de pieces de rechange....????
Today I tried to order a seal kit for my Katadyn Power Survivor 35 watermaker.

No Luck. No vendor I could find will sell them.

Apparently this is a Katadyn policy.

I called Katadyn and they said they cannot sell these kits because it is a "safety issue". Because of the life saving nature of these water makers only a qualified technician can service them, so while they will service them they won't sell the seal kits.

Well this is total hogwash. We have had and used our Power Survivor 35 since 1993, when I bought it used. I've replaced the membranes twice and the seal kits about 5 times since then. Usually we are on a cruise and our Power survivor is happily working and then one day it stops pumping. In every case one of the poppet valves is sticking or leaking or some other seal or o-ring has failed. An hour later I've rebuilt the pump and all is good again.

Now the requirement is that I send it in for service? How does that restore my water making capacity when I am on a cruise? How does that make for more safety?

I've toyed with the idea of buying a larger capacity watermaker and the Katadyn 40 or 80 gal/day models were at the top of my list. Now I wouldn't touch them.

How about this, can I find stock o-rings, seals, and poppet valves somewhere else?