DIAMOND POWER APU: A MONEY PIT

Eighteen months ago, I bought a Diamond Power APU (Auxillery Power Unit) for my truck. Diamond Power claims that the unit saves owners and fleets money by replacing idling for heating/cooling the driver, keeping batteries charged, etc.

My Diamond Power APU has COST me over 25k, destroyed my reputation, endangered my lease, and undermined my health. If you could design any device specificly to destroy a livelihood and carreer, it would be the Diamond Power APU.

My saga begins the day of installation. It stopped working.

After that repair, it lasted about three days before it broke down again.

Since that time, I believe that the longest my Diamond Power APU has lasted between breakdowns is in the area of 17 days.

Each time it breaks down, I must deadhead, sometimes hundreds of miles, to get it repaired at an authorized service point. I have to take time off, wait to get in the shop, and to get this news: "We have to order the part. Two days. Then we'll try to fit you in."

In eighteen months, I've lost a good three in this way due to this piece of garbage called the Diamond Power APU.

Why didn't I demand a refund, and this piece of crap off my truck? Partly because I kept thinking that the nightmare might finally have ended after the latest repair. I'm an optimist. Can't help it. Besides, what rational person could believe that such a spectacular string of malfunctions could continue?

I also didn't demand a refund because the first unit destroyed itself. metal shavings in the oil. They repaced it. So I kept thinking that the new Diamond Power APU couldn't possibly be the maintenance nightmare that the first one had.

I was wrong. My second Diamond Power APU was even worse than the original! Head gaskets, starters, ac compressors, heating components...

I'm now into the second year of the warrantee. I have run less than three thousand miles in january. I have shelled out over seven hundred bucks in repairs. I've been idling all night for most of the month.

The thing's water pump failed and bled me dry, stranding me. Road service cost 300. Then I had to buy the water pump. Then the starter, even before I could get out of that shop!!! I had to wait for the parts to be shipped.

As I write this, I'm in a hotel room again. That's right: My Diamond Power APU has broken down again. The warrantee covered the injector, but another part will cost me 270 bucks plus labor.

I have asked for a refund, but Diamond Power refuses to do the right thing. That's why I'm posting this blog. I'm going to spread the word. If I cost Diamond Power even one sale, it makes it a dumb move not to just pay me and let me escape from this instrument of torture and destruction they've inflicted on me.

But it's also the moral thing to do: To prevent other drivers and fleets from following into this hell I'm in: DO NOT BUY A DIAMOND POWER APU!!!

I've contacted their Attorney General, and will now look to my Trucker's Association for a referral to an industry lawyer...you don't need to know that.

I repeat: DO NOT BUY A DIAMOND POWER APU. It will cost you at least three times as much as you hope to save.

Hey, Diamond Power: Can I get my money back and this piece of crap off my truck now, or do I need to keep it up?

UPDATE: After one warranteed and one repair at my expense, the thing won't run. The technicians are baffled. I've now been here two full days--this is the third. It's saturday, so the techs won't be able to consult Diamond Power.

I'll probably be here until tuesday. How much freight could I have moved? I think I low-balled the 25k it's cost me. I have trouble grasping the reality of it myself...I might be done for with my company on monday...thanks, Diamond Power! REFUND MY MONEY!

This is typical. It will never end, until they refund my money and take this crap off my truck.