"Long Engine Life Starts With Reiff"

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To members of the aviation media:

We have always enjoyed and valued a positive and cooperative relationship with members of the aviation media, and we appreciate any of your efforts to educate aircraft owners about the subject of engine preheating.  Feel free to contact us if you need any information for an article you are working on, and feel free to use anything on our web site.  There are also several photos of our products provided below for your use.  They are provided in both high resolution formats suitable for printing, and low resolution for web sites.

REQUESTS FOR EVALUATION SAMPLES - If you need to obtain any of our products for evaluation for an article, our policy is that it must be purchased at our normal price.  Install it on an aircraft, use it, evaluate it, and if you don’t want to keep it when you are finished with it remove it and return it, along with a pdf copy of the article and permission to post it on our web site, and we will refund your money.   

We regret that we can no longer supply evaluation samples gratis, for two reasons.  The first is that we prefer that evaluations of our products be objectively based on merit, and we have always been uncomfortable with the notion that when we give out free samples it might create the appearance that we are trying to buy good press by bribing the authors.  We believe that if the author doesn't receive free samples it will help remove bias and elevate the credibility of the product reviews, which benefits the publication, and the reader/aircraft owner.  We encourage all aviation vendors and media members to adopt the same policy if they don’t already follow it.

The second reason we implemented this policy is to eliminate the possibility of abuse or fraud.  We had a situation involving a fellow who we believed to be a respectable member of the aviation media. He was a contributor to Aviation Consumer Magazine. He owned Mooney Mart and published The Mooney Pilot, the official magazine of the Mooney Owners of America (MOA). He was described by The Mooney Pilot as "one of our main contributors", due to his expertise as "one of the foremost Mooney maintenance/mod/reburb authorities around".

The The Mooney Pilot magazine touts its "independent consumerish" philosophy (Feb 2007, pg 32). "What we endeavor is to do the right thing, and 'tell it like it is'... We sort of like the Clint inspired thought of telling The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - no matter". So we don't think he will mind if we do the same, and explain the reason for our change of policy...

Mr. Coy Jacobs called us and asked for our top-of-the-line $725 preheat system gratis, to evaluate for a magazine article for The Mooney Pilot.  We provided one subject to our usual condition that we receive a copy of the article when it’s finished, so that we can verify it was used for the intended purpose and so we can see what the result of the evaluation was.  He agreed, but the article was never provided.  After two years of stonewalling us, involving our numerous attempts to obtain it, and his numerous claims that it was published and numerous promises to give us a copy, he eventually claimed that he “could not find it”.  However, we were informed by one of the MOA staff that the magazine ceased publication in January 2008, nearly a year before his request for the evaluation sample.  Since it appeared that we were deceived and there never was an article or any intent to produce one, we demanded that he produce a copy of the article, or return the preheat system, or pay for it.  Amazingly, he admitted that our position was not unreasonable, but he still refused to return it or pay for it, saying that other aviation companies send him anything he asks for, and that he got $50,000-$60,000 of free products from other aviation companies and they never ask for it back.

We wondered if all that stuff was obtained the same way ours was, but regardless, what other aviation companies do isn't the issue. The issue is what HE did.

Honesty, integrity, and honor... or the lack thereof, are what define a man's character. We don't believe the actions of one media person reflect badly on the entire media. But our experience has led us to implement this policy which will provide no-cost media access to our products for testing and evaluation, while at the same time protecting us from fraud. We hope this helps you to understand the reason for our change in policy, so that you don't consider us to be unreasonable or uncooperative in adopting it.

 

For inquiries contact Robert Reiff, President, 262-593-5292

 

PHOTOS

 

 

HotBand cylinder heater element

High rez version (38 MB)

 

 

 

 

HotBand cylinder heater element installed on cylinder

High rez version (47 MB)

 

 

 

 

Preheat system installed on Lycoming O-360 (RV-4)

High rez version (4 MB)

 

 

 

 

Standard System for 4 cylinder engines

High rez version (31 MB)

 

 

 

 

Standard System for 6 cylinder engines

High rez version (38 MB)

 

 

 

 

Turbo XP System for 4 cylinder engines

High rez version (38 MB)

 

 

 

 

Turbo XP System for 6 cylinder engines

High rez version (38 MB)

 

 

 


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Last updated 09/18/2018