You raise a valid point, I have had recalls for my 10 year old car, and work done FOC even well outside of the guarantee period. There is a thin line between design fault, and wearing out, we know a bulb has a limited life, and that life is worked out by the point when half have failed, I have a box in my hand which says lifespan approx 30000 hours, and if those lights failed in a week or two I would take it back, but after 6 months even if well under the 30000 hours even if that equates to 3.42 years. So normal use should last 10 years, but I would not dream of taking the lamp back.
I think with electronics either it fails quickly or it lasts for years, but the problem is we know spikes and the like can make electronics connected direct to the mains to fail, this is why we have things like the surge protection device (SPD) fitted in our consumer units, today not heard of manufacturers asking if a SPD is fitted, and to be fair they should if required stipulate fitting them, seen boiler manufacturers installation instructions stipulating type A RCD should be fitted and can't see how that would protect the boiler.
But the fire you have is not cheap, so it could have electronic regulations in the same way as my iboost+ immersion heater controller, and until I saw a strip down of one on the internet I had no idea is was so complex.
Simple contacts wear out, and the more the switch the less time they will last, an electronic contactor could last for decades, there is no moving part to where out, but any spike could mean it lasts less time to a simple set of contacts, so unless some one like big Clive strips one down on his internet youtube channel we have not idea what is inside.
The hefty price tag may mean electronic switching, or it could mean some one wants a huge profit. We simply don't know.
www.electricradiatorsdirect.co.uk
