Frequently asked questions

The best way to reach us is by filling in the form on the Contact us page.

Your Matoha device warranty lasts 12 months from the date of delivery (or continuously, if you opted for a subscription), during which we’ll replace or repair our machines which are damaged or defective due to faulty materials, workmanship, or design. There are some exceptions where the warranty will be void, such if you disassemble the machine – for full T&Cs please see our Terms of Sale.

All components that we use in the devices are rated by our suppliers for at least 40 000 hours - that’s 5 000 days of 8-hour operation.  This also includes the infrared lamps.

The only exception is the internal battery in Handheld and Desktop devices. These are rated to retain 80% of charge for at least 500 charge-discharge cycles. The battery inside the devices can be replaced when needed by the end user, using spare parts from us or from the original battery supplier (Varta or Ansmann, depending on device model). Please get in touch if your battery needs replacing.

The devices are sealed for life, to prevent the ingress of dust. However, the internal re-chargeable battery can be replaced by the end user if required. Due to the complexity, there are no other user-serviceable parts. In general, apart from cleaning the optical surfaces, no maintenance should be needed.

The USB power supply shipped with each device, DSA-13PFC-05, has a wide range of safety certifications including TUV (safety), UL (safety), FCC (US), RCM (Australia), PSE (Japan) and CE (Europe).  

The internal battery in Matoha Handheld, PlasTell Pro and FabriTell Pro is certified to a wide range of industrial standards, including UL listing (safety), UN38.3 (shipping safety) and IEC EN 62133-2 (battery pack safety).

We declare our devices CE (Europe) and UKCA (UK) compliant. These declarations are also recognised in many other countries. Our devices are FCC (US) compliant by exemption (CFR 47 15.103).  Each instrument type has been tested by an external certified test laboratory to assess properties such as EMC compatibility. 

The mains power supply adapter shipped with the device is purchased from a reputable manufacturer, and has been certified under the following marks: CE (Europe), FCC (US), PSE (Japan), UKCA (UK), UL Listed (safety certification), CCC (China), IC (Canada) and ACMA (Australia).

You can find the declaration of conformity in the User manual supplied with the devices.

Your device is designed not to need servicing. It self-calibrates every time you turn the device on automatically. 

If you are observing a performance issue, please get in touch so that we can assist you.

Our Matoha devices are robust, built to last and come with a warranty. In the unlikely event that a repair is needed, this is either free (if covered by warranty), or based on case-by-case quote provided by our technical support.

Whilst the device software and hardware are closed-source, we do offer an open-source communication library ( https://gitlab.com/matohascience/mcl ) to interface with our devices!

To get the most out of your device, we recommend that you connect your instrument to a Wi-Fi network. This enables you to receive updates of the device firmware, library and algorithms, as well as access to measurement statistics since the device will be able to report measurement results to our Cloud. 

However, the device WILL work fully offline, and the identification also happens on the device, without needing an internet connection.

If you have a subscription, you will need to re-connect the device to the internet at least once per billing period (e.g. once per month if paying monthly, once a year if paying yearly). This connection only needs to be for a few minutes and then the device will continue operating offline.

Our sensors are not suitable to be fit onto a moving belt. This is because the sensor requires the sample being scanned to be still and held flat against the detector.

We ship to all countries except Russia, Belarus, Afghanistan, North Korea, China, Cuba, Iran and Syria. This is due to regulatory issues or sanctions by the UK government.

The shipping fee varies by package size & destination country - it is calculated automatically by our e-shop at the checkout stage. Please select what you need from the shop page, click Checkout and enter your address - the system will then calculate the cost.

We can accept card payments (processed via Stripe) or bank (wire) transfers. 

For bank transfers, we have a GBP account which can accept UK domestic and SWIFT international payments. We also have a EUR account which can accept Euro SEPA payments from within the EU, and USD account which can accept US domestic payments via wire / ACH.  

We offer a 21-day return policy for all products (21 days from the date of delivery). Items must be in their original condition and unused (beyond evaluating them). All accessories must be included. 

To start a return, you must contact us first and we’ll advise on the best way to send the device to us.

The customer is responsible for the return shipment and return shipping costs. After receiving the returned products and verifying their condition, we’ll refund you within 7 calendar days. The outbound shipping fee, any customs fees paid and the return shipping costs are non-refundable.

Some items, e.g. highly customised products, might not be returnable.

Yes, but you need to arrange it with us in advance.  By default, this would count as a “UK sale”, even if you live abroad, and we’ll have to charge UK VAT tax (20%).

We might be able to not charge UK VAT if you provide us with a proof of export - please get in touch to discuss the details, as it can be quite complex and paperwork-heavy.

UK customers

The invoice will include a 20% UK VAT. If you are a UK VAT registered business, you can reclaim the VAT on your next VAT return so that there is no net cost. 

International customers 

If you are based abroad, we can send the device to you by UPS – we’re able to send to almost any country. For international shipments there is no UK tax (VAT/GST). 

However, upon importation, you will need to pay import tax and duties / tariffs, to the customs authorities of your country. These fees are:

• Import tax (VAT/GST). This is typically around 20% but varies by country. For most countries, if your business is VAT registered, you can reclaim this cost on your tax return, so that there is zero net cost. Please speak to your accountant – we’re unable to provide legally binding advice on this.
• Import / customs duty / tariffs. The duty/tariff is a fee placed by certain countries in the import of goods. The customs HS code for our devices is 902730 and country of origin is UK. For most countries, the import duty on our devices is 0%. This includes imports into the EU and many other countries. Some of the countries that do charge import duties are the United States (currently 10%), Chile (6%), Brazil and Argentina (14%). You can use this third-party calculator to check: https://www.simplyduty.com (we’re not affiliated with SimplyDuty and cannot guarantee its accuracy) – enter “902730” as the HS code and United Kingdom as “Importing from”.

Most importations happen smoothly, and this includes customers who have never imported before. The process is almost fully handled by our courier service, UPS; please do look for communication from UPS and respond in a timely manner, to avoid UPS storage fees.

We have a network of trusted partners who have become distributors for us. If you are an existing customer and would like to distribute our devices in your country and we don’t yet have a distributor in this country, please do contact us!

PlasTell, like all other NIR devices, is unable to identify most black/dark plastics containing the carbon black pigment.

Currently, PlasTell can only scan mono-materials. However, via our app you can add your own custom materials as direct answers into your own spectra library, enabling you to tag that specific material for future scans. To do this, please follow our tutorial here.

We’re working on multi-layer film capability and expect being able to deliver this in the near future.

We expect a 95-99%+ accuracy for supported materials, if the Measurement Guidelines are followed.

For the identification to work, the material needs to be enabled and the sample needs to satisfy some requirements: unfortunately, the identification of majority of samples containing carbon black is not possible; it is also not possible to identify heavily contaminated samples as the device would e.g. see food residue instead of the plastic. Coatings may negatively impact the identification and therefore we recommend following the measurement guidelines.

Please have a look at our detailed explanation here.

There are several reasons why your measurement on the screen could be different to the garment label: 

• The label could be wrong due to inaccuracies in production. Research by Circle Economy found that up to 40% of labels are inaccurate or plainly wrong.
• Your item could be non-uniform. For example, a hoodie labelled as “70% cotton, 30% polyester” can have the inner linings being made of 100% polyester and the outer shell being 100% cotton.
• Another reason is correct measurement technique. For example, it is helpful to fold a very thin garment, so the sensor “sees” a thick section of fabric. For more measurement guidelines, please see our documentation.

Please have a look at the current list here.

The measured data are exclusively hosted in data centres from reputable cloud providers - this is currently exclusively Google Cloud. Geographically, the data are stored in UK data centres (eu-west-2 region), with back ups stored in the UK and the EU. 

The access to the data is highly restricted, with only a few of our employees having access.