• Hydrophone H3

Warranty

AFAB Enterprises, LLC is doing business under the registered trade names of Aquarian Audio and Aquarian Scientific, which will be abbreviated below as "Aquarian".
 
Aquarian warrants hydrophones and other products sold under the Aquarian Audio or Aquarian Scientific brand names from electrical failure or defects in workmanship for a period of one year following the date of purchase, unless otherwise specified or excluded. Warranty claims can be made directly through Aquarian. Aquarian limits its shipping cost liability to one half of the item value during any warranty claim. Corroded output plugs are not covered under warranty. Damaged cables and damage caused to hydrophones and accessories by breach of the cable jacket is not covered under warranty. Major corrosion resulting from electrolysis, non-neutral PH, or similar factors under user control is not covered under warranty, nor is degradation of rubber compounds used in the hydrophone as a result of use in anything other than clean water or seawater, or from prolonged UV exposure. Warranty is not transferable.

Hydrophones are sensitive instruments. We design our products to be as rugged as possible, but by their nature, they are likely to be damaged by rough handling. If Aquarian recognizes signs of abuse in any warranty claim, we will provide evidence of that abuse to the customer and require the customer to pay costs of repair and return shipping. Evidence of abuse may include, but is not limited to: cracked or physically-broken sensors, abrasion or deformation of the hydrophone, arcing or burns to sensors or preamps, torn or cut cables, unusual degree of corrosion to metals or chemical attack to rubbers and plastics. We encourage our customers to experiment with these hydrophones. Regardless of damage, we do not try and profit from repairs.

Please contact Aquarian before returning any items under warranty so that we can assist in troubleshooting issues and avoid needless shipping expenses and delays.

Aquarian tests every product that we make to be sure that we are shipping working units. If you have a problem immediately out of the box, please contact us for technical assistance.

Board or sensor-level components (those not fully assembled into a finished plug-and-use product) are tested for functionality and guaranteed to work upon delivery to the customer. Due to the variability of customer assembly, we can not formally offer any warranty period on these products. This exclusion is inclusive of amplifiers or signal conditioners sold as "board only", hydrophones that do not include a fixed cable and output plug, and any replacement part or accessory not installed by Aquarian. If one of these components fails, regardless of cause, Aquarian will offer discounts on replacements when possible.

Volume and replacement discounts: Aquarian sells directly to the end user worldwide. We do not at this time have a wholesale pricing structure. However, select professional audio equipment dealers and technical consultants are offered volume discounts. Discounts can also be negotiated to businesses or utilities that are using or selling the Aquarian brand for specific applications and buying in quantity. Aquarian will also offer substantial discounts for replacement items that can not be warranted. In any case where the buyer is offered discounted pricing, Aquarian will not warranty shipping costs.

Resale: Aquarian will honor the sale date to the end user from the reseller as the beginning of the 1-year warranty period only under the following conditions: (1) A receipt for the retail sale is provided by the reseller or end user. (2) Retail sale is made within one year of original shipment from Aquarian. (3) Resale dealership is authorized by Aquarian. Warranty claims should be initiated through the reseller. Aquarian will not pay incoming shipping costs for warranty claims purchased through other businesses.

Multiple failures: Certain damage to hydrophones, such as from mechanical shock, excessive static pressure, input voltage, environmental chemistry and more, is difficult to diagnose. It is assumed that if any customer experiences multiple product failures, there is something about their application or use that is damaging our products. Aquarian Audio may, and typically will, refuse any warranty claim if we have previously repaired or replaced the same item under warranty.

Where several hydrophones are deployed in the same application, environment, network, or as part of a larger hardware system, Aquarian limits its warranty liability to 20% of the items originally purchased, not to exceed 25 like units. Examples: If a customer buys ten hydrophones and we end up replacing two of these under warranty, We will assume complications in the application environment and will ask the user to pay for repairs on additional breakage. If a customer buys 500 hydrophones for a specific application, hardware system, or network, our warranty is limited only to the first 25 units.

Aquarian strongly recommends that anyone considering our hydrophones for OEM use or otherwise within part of a larger system or network thoroughly evaluate samples for effectiveness and reliability in the proposed application, as the above-noted special conditions apply.

Used, prototype and custom builds: Aquarian will occasionally offer used or prototype equipment for sale. Unless sold "As Is" or otherwise defined or excluded by standard policy, items manufactured and sold by Aquarian will be warranted for one year subject to the following conditions: In the event of a warranty claim, Aquarian reserves the right to, at its discretion, repair the used or prototype item, refund a portion of the cost, or apply the sale price of that item to the cost of a similar production item. If a refund is offered, the value of the refund will be pro-rated based on full depreciation throughout the warranty period. Example: Prototype hydrophone is sold for $100 with no stated warranty conditions. Product fails three months after the sale (9 months remaining on standard warranty) and customer claims warranty. We would make repairs, refund 9/12ths of the purchase price ($75) to the customer, or apply a $100 credit towards the value of a new hydrophone. Any buyer-specified custom-made product (exclusive of simple connector or cable length alterations) will be considered a prototype and subject to these special conditions. Any custom-built product, if manufactured in quantity is also subject to conditions of "Multiple Failures" above.

Warranty applies only to Aquarian products. Though extremely unlikely that a hydrophone failure could damage equipment to which it is connected, Aquarian limits its warranty liability only to equipment manufactured by us.

Specified terms of sale: Any terms or conditions negotiated at the time of sale and denoted in pre-sale correspondence or on an official quote or invoice supercedes conditions of warranty denoted above.

See also Warranty Limitation and Out-of-Warranty Repairs on our Policies Page
 
Aquarian does not provide any additional warranty coverage for other brands sold. Warranty claims should be made directly though the product's manufacturer. We will do our best to help our customers through this process.
 
We don't like it when our hydrophones break! Thus, it has been our policy to repair out-of-warranty items at discounted rates. Aquarian Audio currently charges a minimum service fee of $35.00. Most repairs can be done for this minimum fee. Otherwise, if a customer's hydrophone has no obvious signs of misuse, and is less than five years old, we charge only the cost of parts plus return shipping for items that are currently in production. We will offer comparable replacements at prorated discounts for obsolete items--50% in the first year out of warranty, 40% the second year, and so on. We will offer this same discount for replacement of defective current-production items upon agreement only. Also, upon agreement, we will offer expedited replacements by selling new hydrophones at full cost, then reimbursing the customer for the discounted amount at the time the defective part is returned (30-day limitation on return from time of replacement sale). Please note: Terms noted above are guidelines only and not guaranteed. We reserve the right to evaluate each out-of-warranty repair or replacement case independently.