TFO warranty

[rockyfly12]

Hi all,

I'm in the hunt for a new 9' 5 wt fly rod for the season. I'm looking to spend around $225-275. Two rods that have caught my eye so far are the redington torrent and TFO BVK. The thing that interests me about the TFO is the warranty, but its kind of vague on what it covers. I've tried to search the web, but was unable to find anything. Is their warranty like Orvis'? If a rod breaks from accidentally shutting it in a door or from being stepped on will they replace it?

Thanks!

 

[mrfzx]

Very simple. Lifetime, no questions asked, $25 will get you a new rod, or a replaced section.....usually a new rod.

 

[MoscaPescador]

Very simple. Lifetime, no questions asked, $25 will get you a new rod, or a replaced section.....usually a new rod.

Pretty much true. Of the many that I have sent back to TFO when I worked in the biz, I could count on one hand the amount of warranty claims that came back with a replaced section.

Dennis

 

[pete a]

I have 2 sons who fly fish. We've killed a couple with car doors and heavy feet. TFO either replaced the complete rod or tip quickly with no problems.

I forget the handling fee but the turn around time is quick. We also broke the tip on a Sage which they replaced quickly for $50.

Sage and TFO stand behind their products.

Pete A

 

[sweetandsalt]

Most of the brand name rod companies today feature overly generous warranties...and don't think for a moment you are not paying for them. Rod prices would be some 20+% lower if they featured a "materials and workmanship" warranty rather than "unconditional". But this anti-responsibility feature is here to stay or the rod maker can not compete. I would like to know the % rate of breakage a rod model experiences in concert with the warranty terms. Good luck getting that data from any company. Fly rods are inherently fragile as they are thin walled tubular structures that are compressing and deforming as they flex. It is a testimony to ingenuity as to how tough rods are in fishing use but are obviously no match for jamming, stabbing, pinching, crushing maneuvers. I remain confused why rod companies should be responsible for our privilege of enjoying ceiling fans, self-shutting screen doors and rear hatches on our fish-mobiles.

Buy the best rod you can find and take good care of it.

 

[yonder]

I have broken two TFO rods....both were positively due to my clumsiness....TFO replaced one completely, and replaced a rod section for the second, with turn around times in 5 and 7 days. No questions asked.

 

[ted4887]

Yep, what these guys said. I broke an 8wt BVK twice in two months last year. Sent them in and had it back within a week both times. I also broke a 6 wt BVK, and it was also replaced with a brand new rod. Two of these incidents were completely my fault and they never even asked. One of the best warranties in the business, IMO.

 

[sweetandsalt]

It seems that there is a lot of breakage among TFO's, BVK in particular. We have two of them, an 8-weight that has traveled to bonefishing, caught bonefish and has not broken (yet) and a #6 that has seen plenty of rugged drift boat banging around and also is still in 4-pieces. I would much rather pay their actual value of $175 or so and throw them away if I step on them in the boat and send them in for warranty only if they broke while fighting a fish. I throw out my empty single malt bottles too instead of bringing them in for refilling.

 

[rockyfly12]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll test the two at a local fly shop but ill go in set on the BVK. Now just one more question... Does the BVK come with a rod tube?

 

[Joni]

I feel ripped off, I payed $30. both times my TFO broke. Same spot. Cause, unknown.

 

[yonder]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll test the two at a local fly shop but ill go in set on the BVK. Now just one more question... Does the BVK come with a rod tube?

no, you have to buy a separate rod tube.......and, I will also add......be sure to give the redington a fair chance......I have two redington classic trout rods that I place well above my TFO's......

---------- Post added at 08:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 PM ----------

I feel ripped off, I payed $30. both times my TFO broke. Same spot. Cause, unknown.

Was this a BVK by any chance??

 

[Joni]

No, the pro.

 

[yonder]

No, the pro.

Just wondering......I have heard of a few BVKs making clean breaks around the mid section.......cause unknown.

 

[fly_guy12955]

I like the casting of my BVK..but I haven't fished with it yet. Soon though... as the river is priming up for small-mouth now.

It does concern me about the breakage of BVK's.. Warranty is good,,but a rod that isn't prone to breakage ,,I believe,,is better.

From what I see,,fast action rods are just MORE prone to breakage ???

 

[ted4887]

Just wondering......I have heard of a few BVKs making clean breaks around the mid section.......cause unknown.

That's where mine broke the second time. Second section, towards the top.

 

[sweetandsalt]

Like Fly Guy said, reliability in your tackle makes your day or week or month astream more pleasurable than having a good warranty just in case. I think TFO is a fine company, great folks including the incomparable Lefty and the incredible Flip and BVKs are light and not bad looking (as long as they are earlier ones with the superior Recoil guides). TFO puts workable fly rods into the hands of many fly fishers who choose not to spend what it takes to acquire new top-tier US-built rods. Like the former rod designer/builder at Diamondback said in a thread under general topics, he put love into each blank he rolled as if he intended to fish it himself. His passion is fly fishing and it is unreasonable to expect an employee at an offshore rod shop who has never seen a trout lavish the same attention to refinement as a fly fisher producing a product for a fellow fly fisher. We save a great deal of cost having a US designed rod or reel made in Asia, many of which are of excellent quality too. But design anomalies or hidden workmanship flaws are going to be discovered by us while making our longest cast or fighting the fish of a lifetime.

 

[mrfzx]

In my experience 99% of broken rods are user error. maybe not at the actual time of the break, but somewhere in the rods history a mistake happened. For example: while casting heavy clousers, the lead eyes made hard contact with the rod. The impact cracked the resin, but the rod did not break that day. On a subsequent trip, after some vibration and use has exasperated the cracks, the rod snaps while under fighting a fish. The fisherman thinks that that fish broke the rod, but really it was the delayed effect of the impact from the clouser. Remember, once the structural integrity of the graphite is corrupted in some way, the rod is very likely to fail. The old fiberglass rods took a beating, graphite will not.

I don't care what brand rod you own, a car door, tail gate, boot sole, whatever, will defintely hinder the fishability of the rod. I broke one BVK 8wt. It broke while hauling about 40 foot of line for another cast. There is no doubt in my mind that at some point before then I allowed that rod to get dammaged...how...I don't know. Maybe I the rod got dropped on a rock by accident on the steelhead stream while landing a fish. Maybe riding double-digit days in the bottom a bouncing boat did it when it flopped onto something sharp, or maybe on that day of 25mph winds I got sloppy and allowed the fly to pop the rod. Who knows?

My point is s*** happens. With more broken rods than I care to think about (we are outfitters and booking agents who often supply equipment to our clients) the fault is 99% of the time user error. I know I am much happier paying the $25-$30 fee to replace the rod than I would be buying a whole new rod!

 

[sweetandsalt]

mrfzx, Lending rods to clients will always multiply breakage issues and no doubt your are right that most always, user abuse is at fault. I have long postulated that anglers must take more than their personal preference into consideration when selecting a rod. TFO had a modest priced Helios in its sights in developing BVK; thin walled, light weight with even ported reel seat hardware, BVK is designed to be crisply responsive...not rugged. A thicker walled, heavier, more toughly constructed rod of the same line weight; Albright XX or one of the ECHO series of stoutly built rods come to mind, are far more compliant to boating abuse and multi angler use. Flats fishing via skiff I could well have 3 #8's aboard; a sports car fragile, ultra-high performance, light weight wading rod, a powerful sedan rod for distance casting from the skiff's bow and a thick, heavy, truck rod for thrashing heavy lead dumbbell weighted flies trough the wind into deeper water. OK, they could be a #7, 8 & 9 too but I certainly OWN 8-weights with those varied properties. A warranty does me little good if I've traveled to a remote Bahamian out-island and experience equipment failure for any reason.

 

[Joni]

In my experience 99% of broken rods are user error. maybe not at the actual time of the break, but somewhere in the rods history a mistake happened. For example: while casting heavy clousers, the lead eyes made hard contact with the rod. The impact cracked the resin, but the rod did not break that day. On a subsequent trip, after some vibration and use has exasperated the cracks, the rod snaps while under fighting a fish. The fisherman thinks that that fish broke the rod, but really it was the delayed effect of the impact from the clouser. Remember, once the structural integrity of the graphite is corrupted in some way, the rod is very likely to fail. The old fiberglass rods took a beating, graphite will not.

Normally I would agree, but may I say, this is the ONLY rod that has broke two times in the same spot and used very little. I have never in many years broke a rod like this.
Yes a trailer door slamming ****, tripping and catching the tip, but that is it,
I took a customer out to the parking lot once with an Orvis rod. Brand new out of tube, one false cast it snapped. When and grabbed another, same thing.
It can be the rod is all I am saying.

 

[sweetandsalt]

Joni, There is absolutely no doubt it can be the rod! So many factors that are invisible like a resin batche's over sensitivity to curing temperature, too hot, too cool...snap. A slip in pressure during taping, an anomaly in the flag pattern, an intern rolling the flag on the mandrel, bad design and manufacturing technique in general... I too have picked up brand new rods from alleged quality sources and had them snap while giving the rod a flick with no line on it. As is clear, rods are inherently fragile conceptually and any lapse in quality control or shortcut in material quality and application can yield a rod in more pieces than intended.