Dry-Knight: Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.

Dry-Knight is a "new" bed wetting alarm that has shown up on Amazon in the past few months. Until very recently (December, 2014) it had no name at all. Without making an exhaustive search for such a "no-name" alarm on the internet, we were not aware of it except on Amazon. Even using its new "Dry-Knight" name we are unable to find it with a Google search. So we are forced to use Dry-Knight's Amazon listing as a proxy for the information that Dry-Knight may provide its customers.

Reading the Amazon listing over the past month or so left us with a very queasy feeling. This is a manufacturer and seller who wanted to provide as little information as they could get away with, both with respect to the product, and with respect to themselves. Some pertinent information, and not necessarily complete, was only "surrendered" after persistent demands on Amazon questions for this product. We shall address all matters that have come to our attention.

The Dry-Knight appears to be similar to the Nytone alarm worn around the upper alarm. They appear to be so similar that we wonder if Dry-Knight is not being sold by Nytone or some proxy of Nytone (including the contract manufacturer in China) under a different name and at a much lower price than Nytone asks for. This may be a strategy to sell the same alarm - at a higher price to customers who may have been used to paying such a high price, and at a lower price under a different name (or  even "no-name") to try and increase sales which the higher priced Nytone was unable to generate.

Our biggest problem arises with respect to the anonymity of the seller on Amazon. The seller has adopted a name of BGS Global. What is their location and address? What is their telephone number? We have a very strong aversion to parties who are marketing over the internet and not providing the buyer with adequate information about themselves. Complete information should be freely available, so that there can be greater confidence in the seller. Not knowing if the manufacturer and seller are the same or not, we are assuming that they are the same and shall refer to them as the seller.

In the Amazon listing, we noticed how the seller was constantly squirming when being asked perfectly relevant questions about the Dry-Knight. Questions about the sellers location and telephone number remain unanswered. When asked for its web-site address, the simple response was that it is being prepared. Selling on Amazon without even having a web site? This indicates to us that this seller may not be serious about their product or their customers, and certainly not serious about providing their customers with adequate product and contact information. Deceit by Concealment.

There is no mention about what batteries this item uses, something that is very important in terms of cost and performance for such an alarm. Only when a question was asked that another customer responded that it was 2 CR2025 batteries. We understand why the seller did not want to disclose the batteries. With our experience we can state that these batteries will not support much loudness or have a significant battery life. When asked about the loudness of the Dry-Knight's alarm at a distance of 8 inches, the seller was evasive until it appears that he was "forced" to answer completely. So the seller changed his answer to read 76.9 dB at a distance of 8 inches from the ear. We completely understand why the seller did not want to reveal this. 76.9 dB is quite soft, a significantly lower volume than most other alarms which could have a loudness rating which is higher by 8 to 10 dBs or more at a distance of 8 inches. We would consider the Dry-Knight to be suitable only for users who do not require a loud sound. This is a perfect example of Deceit by Concealment.

Further consequences of the small and weak batteries were only revealed by the seller under pressure, when the seller eventually stated that the batteries should last up to one month. What the seller did not state was that if the alarm is left sounding (which can often happen with children) these batteries may be drained in a matter of hours.

We also noticed that the seller frequently adopted a position that they (or their Dry-Knight product) did not need to be registered with the FDA in any way to be selling this item from a U.S. location. We are taking the liberty of copying one of the seller's answers: 

"Is your company registered with the FDA? Oct 21, 2014

Hi, the answer to this question has not been removed as suggested by "Jim" (you'll find it in our reviews), but thanks for bringing it up for clarification. As per FDA guidelines: "Note: Class II devices the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also published a list of Class II (special controls) devices subject to certain limitations, that are now exempt from the premarket notification requirements under the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 (the Modernization Act). FDA believes that these exemptions will relieve manufacturers from the need to submit premarket notification submissions for these devices and will enable FDA to redirect the resources that would be spent on reviewing such submissions to more significant public health issues. FDA is taking this action in order to meet a requirement of the Modernization Act." I hope that clears things up!"

We doubt that the seller or manufacturer have really read or understand the FDA regulations in this matter, or even really want to understand it. Their answer is irrelevant, avoids the issue at hand and is wrong. In order to sell in the U.S. and ship from a U.S. source (for example, Amazon.com) Dry-Knight needs to be registered with the FDA. Currently, its sale through shipment from a U.S. source is illegal. We'll leave it to the FDA, BGS Sales, and Amazon to get this straight. This is outright deceit by perversion.

Any reader who wishes to check whether a bedwetting alarm and/or related facility is registered with the FDA in the U.S. can look at:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfrl/rl.cfm
and enter the Product Code  KPN  which is the FDA code for "alarm, conditioned response enuresis" which is a bedwetting alarm. A complete list of all registered parties and items will be shown from the FDA database. Dry-Knight and its parent company are not registered and listed. Any U.S. buyer of the Dry-Knight from a U.S. shipping source (including Amazon) is aiding and abetting in the violation of U.S. laws until and unless this item is properly registered with the FDA.

It is appropriate to raise the issue of how the buyer/user will get warranty or other support from the Dry-Knight seller if the seller decides to be unresponsive, as the seller has carefully hidden his exact location (full street address) and telephone number so that the seller can be verified and contacted as needed. This, too, is suggestive of the seller wishing to hide his identity from buyers so that he cannot be contacted directly. Again, very deceiving in our opinion.

Although, under duress, Dry-Knight has provided some information when pressed on the Amazon site, we believe that Dry-Knight's continuing behavior in providing incomplete product information and hiding from its public is very deceiving, and strongly recommend that the public be cautious about doing business with an unknown entity. 

Very Strong Deceit by Perversion and Concealment.