Prime Cell

[Leon]

FWIW, I have been happy with Primecell. I have had a battery pack rebuilt in the past and it performed much better than the original.

Actually 5 days a week this battery has run from fully charged to almost fully discharged for the last 20 months and in the last two months has only run for about 1 hour from fully charged to fully discharged. Originally it ran for up to 2 hours for the first 15 or so months.

In the beginning of June I had another rebuilt for the same unit and it worked great for about 5 weeks and then in the last couple of weeks it has only lasted half the time from a full. It is not performing about as good as the battery it replaced.

Needless to say I am not happy. Their suggestion is to have my charger checked. I am in the process of having that done.

Now what really bothers me and you need to take this into consideration is their warranty.

Their warranty is 90 days but that is prorated. If the charger turns out to be OK and the battery pack is indeed faulty I get a 33% refund, I do not get a free exchange. The battery must be faulty in the first 30 days of the warranty to be repaired or exchanged. Any time after that you get a partial pro rated refund providing you give them back your battery. Then you have nothing to be rebuild by someone else.

I am not yet a disgruntled customer but the warranty sucks.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Glad to hear you are still "gruntled".

I just checked their web site and could find no mention of warranty. I checked a couple of other rebuilders and found 1 year warranty with no mention of pro-rated.

I've used PrimeCell a couple of times with good results, but the warranty sucks. Other places, though longer, were the final arbiters of what is good and not good so you may be screwed anyway.

[John McGaw]

I see one potential flaw in your 'test' beyond the potential for a charger flaw. What would happen if the tool (drill?) was mechanically degrading over time and was drawing more and more current to do the same work? The result might well look like what you describe.

[tiredofspam]

Can't you just send them the pack w/o the casing? And yes that is not a very good warranty. Most will stand by the battery for 1 year. After that nothing.

I bought high quality cells for my R/C planes years ago, and the more reputable companies stand behind for 1 year. My planes cost thousands of dollars , they were world class competitive machines. I would try to make the US team so when you have lots at stake you tend to spend a lot to protect them.

Are the Lion , Lipo, Nicad or Nimh cells?

[Leon]

;~)

It appears I may be OK, I found that the contacts on the "unit" were no longer shiny silver and after cleaning them the unit ran 70% longer than yesterday. I suspect that the resistance was causing an over heating situation during charging and stopped that process prematurely.

Primecell is aware of that development and I plan on keeping them informed.

I really was surprised that a company with a good product only offered free replacement for 30 days. The total 90 day warranty was not much of a surprise.

Are you still using Primecell?

[Leon]

I gave that a thought but the tool in question is an IRobot robot vacuum. It is just over 4 years old and runs close to 2 hours, 5 days a week. The previous battery performed better than the original and was finally retired about 7 weeks ago. The new 7 week old battery worked well for 5 weeks and non performs about as well as the retired battery. BUT I found the charger contacts were dirty, this thing parks and recharges itself after vacuuming. Cleaning the contacts resulted in a much longer run time today.

[Leon]

The pack is heat shrink tubing of some sort. This is a robot vacuum. So no, I would only be left with a curled up piece of thin plastic.

Nimh, oddly they will not rebuild Lion. Who are you using?

[tiredofspam]

Lost internet here for a while.. Nice big storm systems.

I have to lookup my info. I haven't flown in about 5 years so I am having problems remembering the names. There were 2 or 3 that I used for different items.

There is a guy on Long Island.. Larry Sribnick I think if I remember. He tests and balances the cells before building any pack. He wants only batteries that are similar in the curve.. They are good packs.. SR batteries.. That's his company... just remembered that.

The other guys I will look up. And get back to you tomorrow.

[tiredofspam]

BTW I have an IRobot too. My pack is a yellow brick.. It's plastic, not heat shrink wrapped. I replaced mine last year, it has been a good pack. I ordered it online. It was cheaper and more MAh then a rebuild.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've not needed anything for the past year or so, but I do have a couple of packs starting to wear down faster than in the past. I honestly never check the warranty until today and it is rather short compared to others. Given the new knowledge, I may stop and think about it before sending them away for rebuild.

[krw]

I've used Voltman in the past. I don't see a warranty on their site, though. Their prices aren't all that great anymore, either. It may not be worth rebuilding batteries anymore.

[Leon]

Thank you!

[Leon]

Yours is probably from an different build time. LOL.

[Leon]

Yeah the manufacturer is offering the unused/new battery for less than what I paid for the rebuild and the warranty is twice as long. I have seen one year warranties too.

[John McGaw]

I can say definitively that the Roomba is susceptible to a couple of problems which cause increased power draw. I have had my 560 for about five(?) years now and am on the third battery pack. The main problem with the design, beyond the low-capacity nimh cells, is that the spring-loaded drive wheel assemblies are not tightly sealed and manage to pick up carpet fibers and wrap them up inside and around the gears and shafts which bogs down the motors. This is in addition to its susceptibility to fibers wrapping around the components of the 'vacuum' component. I've had to disassemble my Roomba, once completely and once partially, to fix the 'fibers in the gears' problem. Getting the thing apart for cleaning and back together again can be a real challenge and is not something to tackle if there are distractions.

[Leon]

the wheels are not a problem with mine, we have no carpet down stairs, only Great Dane dog hair. ;~)

Ill have to take a look at the drive wheels and see if they need to be cleaned.

I have been into the brush assembly about 4 times in 3 years so far. I completely disassemble, clean, and add new lube to the gears.

there have ceen several brush carriage assemblies, red black and the current green .. The green being the latest has held up much better than the red or black.