I ordered a vacuum tube based solar hot water collector from a company in Sydney for freight to Brisbane. I used Smartsend to get it here as they specialize in eBay type stuff, and this was an eBay type thing. Allied Pickfords delivered the tinkling box of broken glass apologetically to my door.
The pictures below tell the story of how well couriers treat products labeled in 10 places “Glass, Fragile, This Way Up”
Of the 15 tubes, 5 made it intact.
I have a video of breaking these into the rubbish bin and they are pretty tough. Made from borosilicate glass they take some smashing. Looking at the box the courier has either dropped them on their end or crushed the end, as the tubes busted through the polystyrene and the cardboard. Lesson learnt, don’t trust these to a courier. A number of phone calls to other suppliers in Brisbane confirmed a high loss rate with couriers, and most will no longer use them.
Luckily for me I found (too late) a Gold Coast supplier who could supply replacement tubes, and who was $150 for spares vs the commonly quoted $500 for 10 tubes. Thank you very much Rod from SolarOz.
I’ll post pics of the system when it is fully installed and operational.
Smashed Solar Collectors | Paul’s esoteric meanderings great article thank you.
Well well well, very very similar picture as we have had in the beginning with our company..
If you will order just couple boxes of solar tubes, supplier will never pack in wooden boxes and you always get the same shape of tubes delivered..
the carries are throwing boxes in to truck.
My offer is to buy from local dealers, or to order more tubes then it will be able to pack bigger wooden boxes which will be loaded in truck by electro-car.