Faulty plasma cutter refund: the 30-day right to reject

The cutter arrived this week. The air fitting is not in the carton, or the arc will not hold on plate you expected it to cut, or the ceramic cup has split and the arc has gone through the torch head. You are still inside the first month, and a faulty plasma cutter refund is the question in front of you. Section 22 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives a short-term right to reject goods that do not conform.

This page is that rule, in ordinary words, using faults already written up on the amazon.co.uk listings in the Stahlwerk plasma cutter comparison. A refund still depends on the trader who sold the unit. There was no lab cut. Prices below are the GBP figures captured for this set in October 2026. Links to amazon.co.uk use the tag pcuk26-21. A qualifying purchase through our links can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

You have 30 days, starting the day after delivery, to reject a plasma cutter that is not of satisfactory quality, not fit for purpose, or not as described. If you agree to a repair or a replacement, that clock pauses until the goods come back. A torch that has already arced through the cup, or caught fire, is a stop. Leave the trigger alone.

The 30 days, in ordinary words

Goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for a purpose you made known, and as described. When they are not, section 22 sets the short-term right to reject.

The limit is the end of 30 days, beginning the day after you own the goods and they have been delivered. A posted inverter needs no fitter. If the courier hands the cutter over on Tuesday 6 October 2026, the 30 days begin on Wednesday 7 October and run to the end of Thursday 5 November 2026.

The right is about goods that fail the contract. A change of mind, because you would rather keep the angle grinder, is a different subject. Amazon's returns screens are shop tools beside the Act, and this article does not quote a live window, because that screen changes. The 30 days in section 22 stay on legislation.gov.uk whether or not the returns button is still showing.

You can reject without first accepting a repair. Say so in writing: the day the cutter arrived, the order reference, and the fault. Ask for the money you paid, and keep a copy. An agreement that tries to take the right away before the 30 days end does not bind you. Silence from a seller is not an agreement to leave the right open. England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland share this limit, and nidirect describes the same rejection.

Faults that showed up in this set

The reviews below are single amazon.co.uk accounts, not a failure rate. The SPRIGHOLLY touch-start CUT60, at £87.35 with 3.3 from nine reviews, is the ceramic-cup story. A buyer described a cap that split and an arc through the torch head, then a second unit that failed after about two hours, with no remedy once 30 days had passed in that account. That is a satisfactory-quality question while the 30 days are still open.

The SUSEMSE LT55, at £99.99 with 4.1 from 34 reviews, is mixed. Reviews reported a missing air connector, a failure after five months with no answer from the seller, and a torch fire on 5 mm copper. A connector the listing included, missing when you open the box, is a goods problem in week one.

The SPRIGHOLLY CUT60L PRO, at £159.99 with 4.0 from seven reviews, is the awkward middle. A review said the arc would not hold on 8 mm and 10 mm, and the buyer could not tell a defect from the limit. This page will not call that unit legally faulty. Where a title boasts a severance figure, the plasma cutter buying guide says to take the lower printed number.

The PLASMARGON CUT65 Pro, at £139.99 with 3.5 from three reviews, disagrees with itself. The title says 18 mm. A bullet says 16 mm clean and 18 mm severance. A reviewer struggled at 8 mm mild steel and called the 18 mm pitch false. Put the title, the bullet, and a photo of your edge in one note. A messy first edge, with the cup intact, belongs on the how to use a plasma cutter page.

A repair pauses the clock

During the 30 days you can refuse a replacement and reject. If you request a repair or a replacement, or you agree to one, section 22 stops the 30-day period for the waiting period. The wait begins on the day you ask or agree. It ends on the day you receive the goods back.

Once you have asked for a repair, give the trader a reasonable time, unless waiting would cause significant inconvenience. Write the date you agreed, and write whether you expect the same unit repaired or a second unit in its place. Answer a message that only says "we'll look into it". Either you are rejecting now, or you are agreeing and the clock pauses from that day.

If the goods that come back still do not conform, you get the later of two limits: the end of seven days after the waiting period ends, or your original 30 days extended by that wait. A second unit that dies after about two hours, as that CUT60 buyer described, keeps the short-term right alive. After one failed repair or one failed replacement, a price reduction or the final right to reject is the next path in the Act.

After 30 days

When the limit passes and you have not rejected, the short-term right is gone unless you and the trader kept it open. You can still require a repair or a replacement, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. A trader cannot leave the cutter with you for month after month and call the delay reasonable.

After that one repair or replacement, if the goods still do not conform, you can seek a price reduction or the final right to reject. The same choice opens if the trader does not do the work in a reasonable time or causes significant inconvenience. A price reduction keeps the cutter. A final rejection returns the goods.

Within six months of delivery the Act treats a fault as present at delivery unless the trader proves otherwise. A deduction for use in those six months is the motor-vehicle case. A plasma cutter is outside it.

The five-month SUSEMSE account sits in that later window: the cutter failed, and the seller did not answer. If yours dies in month four, write the dates and ask for the repair or the replacement. If that attempt fails, ask for the price reduction or the final rejection.

A missed thickness is the harder letter. Show dry air at the pressure the listing prints, a sound earth, and bare metal if the start is a touch start. How the arc should light is on the pilot arc or touch start page. One thin cut on rusty paint is a weak description claim. The same edge, repeated, on clean 8 mm against an 18 mm title, is a stronger one.

Stop using a torch that has already failed

If the ceramic cap has split, or the arc has gone through the head, unplug the cutter and leave it unplugged. The SPRIGHOLLY account is the reason, and the SUSEMSE review of fire on 5 mm copper is a stop as well. Another session adds nothing the first photograph already shows.

A missing air connector gets the same halt. Photograph the empty pocket, the listing line, and the regulator, then write the rejection. A homemade joint, followed by another arc, mixes a packing error with a fault you have just created. If the arc still drops out on every pass after you have checked air, earth, and the tip, stop.

Stars do not tell you to carry on. The PLASMARGON CUT55 is 5.0 from one review by someone who had not cut yet, and the PLASMARGON PLC65 has no review line in the file. The Reboot CUT60, the top pick at £132.04 with 4.6 from 28 reviews, still carries a separate complaint that a 13 A fuse blew. If your unit arrives dead, the 30 days apply to that unit.