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.

"Leon" lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in message
...
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.



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.

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.

On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.


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.

On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.
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?

On 7/26/2012 2:33 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
"Leon" lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in message
...
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.



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.

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.

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'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.

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?

On 7/26/2012 3:03 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.


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.

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.

On 7/26/2012 3:06 PM, tiredofspam wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.
Can't you just send them the pack w/o the casing?

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.

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?

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

On 7/26/2012 6:31 PM, Leon wrote:
On 7/26/2012 3:06 PM, tiredofspam wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.
Can't you just send them the pack w/o the casing?

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.

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?

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







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.

On 7/26/2012 6:31 PM, Leon wrote:
On 7/26/2012 3:06 PM, tiredofspam wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.
Can't you just send them the pack w/o the casing?

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.

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?

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






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.

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:12:19 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:



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.

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?


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.

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:26:54 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:12:19 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:



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.

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?


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.

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.

On 7/26/2012 9:15 PM, tiredofspam wrote:





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.



Thank you!

On 7/26/2012 9:17 PM, tiredofspam wrote:
On 7/26/2012 6:31 PM, Leon wrote:
On 7/26/2012 3:06 PM, tiredofspam wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
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.
Can't you just send them the pack w/o the casing?

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.

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?

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






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.

Yours is probably from an different build time. LOL. y very first was
replaced at 9 months in the to the 1 year unit warranty. Replaced with
a different composition battery and it lasted about 18 months. The
Primecell rebuild lasted about 20 and a few dollars less expensive
however ran about 30% longer. The Primecell rebuild is running very
close to 2 hours.

After cleaning the charging terminals and recharging I got 1 hour and 50
minutes yesterday.

I am happy with that but I am really disappointed in the Prinecell
replacement warranty/policy. They have probably gotten the last of my
money. I just cannot believe my luck will hold out and my batteries
will always last a long time. I could very easily see one going bad in
the period of time I have had this one and it costing me about $60 for 2
months usage and loosing the pieces to rebuild again.

On 7/26/2012 9:47 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:26:54 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:12:19 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:



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.

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?


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.

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.



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.

On 7/26/2012 6:27 PM, Leon wrote:
On 7/26/2012 3:03 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
snip...
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.

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.

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.

On 7/27/2012 1:05 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 7/26/2012 6:27 PM, Leon wrote:
On 7/26/2012 3:03 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 7/26/2012 2:08 PM, Leon wrote:
snip...
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.

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.

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.




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.