Hey trido, I am about to pull the trigger on two of the vortecs. I have too heard there great if you get good ones, but the defective ones are out there and there's quite a few on store shelves.
Was the warranty honored by Icecap, or did you return it to the retailer?
Where did you buy it, and have you got your new one yet?
I picked my vortech up from custom aquatics. I let it run for a couple days to see if it would quiet up and then contacted EcoTech Marine via PM and they were happy to take a look at it. The new one, or repaired one will be back here on tuesday. I hope its quieter than the first one. If it is, and I find its doing what I hoped, I'll get the upgrade kit to make it an MP40