All across the country and right here in the Houston area, defective toilets are cracking and leaking, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage. Mike Teeple, a Copperfield resident, installed two Vortens toilets in his home in 2013. When one of the tanks cracked a few months later, he thought it was odd. When the second cracked in an upstairs bathroom, he suspected they were somehow defective.
“Toilets don’t fail like that,” Mike told Amy Davis of Channel 2 News. “They don’t crack for no reason.”
Further investigation by the Channel 2 news team uncovered toilets cracking from The Woodlands to Pearland, Copperfield to Garden Oaks.
Amy Etchberger was at work when her tank cracked. Thankfully in in-laws were at her house and were able to shut off the water. Unfortunately, Amy has been unable to get her home builder of Vortens to replace the toilet.
“I think they should take care of it,” she told Channel 2. “It’s not my mistreatment of the product. It’s a faulty product on their part, and they should take responsibility.”
Vortens representative Carlos Andrés Ríos Pinto emailed Channel 2 this information:
- Some tanks manufactured in 2011, mainly references #3464 and #3412, may have been affected by certain technical issues that allegedly caused fractures.
- All claims received by Vortens to date have been addressed by Vortens to the satisfaction of our customers.
- Vortens has ceased production of tank reference #3464 and has improved the manufacturing process of tank reference #3412 to correct and eliminate the possible technical issues that might affect them.
- Vortens has not received any reports or complaints of fractures in any of the tanks reference #3412 manufactured in the past year.
- Our customers are at the center of everything we do, and we always work to generate value and the best possible experience for them.
- Resolving any possible issues and receiving feedback from our customers is a priority for us. Please contact us via email at [email protected]
One Houston area resident suffered upwards of $20,000 in damage when a Vortens toilet flooded her home in 2013. After many phone calls, Vortens would only agreed to pay her $4,390 deductible, and that was over two years after the flood occurred.