[ZackfromMO]

Hi Zack, pardon the post chop here -- 'wanted to leave your post up because it's a good in-depth review of the battery pack for our more DIY customers and we believe in good fair discussion and reviews

I just want to make the note here at the top of the thread that you are backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee and any customer can send in any component for complete replacement at no extra charge inside of two years after their purchase if there is any quality problem. We can't cover issues resulting from DIY system modification in our warranty, but even then we will work with people until everything is resolved.

Cheers,

Mike
Clean Republic
________________________________________

After excelent customer service from Mike I received a new SLA battery (at my shipping cost) that worked so well I purchased an extra one. Untill recently both the replacement battery and the extra one I purchased will not hold a charge for more than about 1/2 mile. The charger indication light shows them to be fully charged and even after leaving them on the charger over night still will not hold a charge beyond that 1/2 mile. Say about a month ago both were holding charge for about 6 miles. Both SLA batteries are less than 6 months old. So either these batteries don't last nearly as long as advertised or somethings wrong... I'm betting somethings wrong... Help please!

[martin75gk]

That's truly a problem ZackfromMO... You might want to check all of the connections and everything else inside the pack. There could be a problem there... I would think that the problem is coming from the charger because you said 3 different SLA batts have the SAME problem, but you used the same charger. That probably means that the problem does not lie within the batteries. Does it take 2.5 hours to charger and can you feel the heat from the charger? If it is not the charger or the wiring, then I'm not sure what it could be... If you ride everyday for more than 6 miles for 6 months, your battery life shouldn't even be half way...

[ZackfromMO]

The first charger I origionally got with my kit was sent back with that battery. This is the second charger I've had and it seems to work fine with the 2.5 hour charge time. Checked all connections and everything seems to be where it's supposed to be. and I do get a good go out of it for about 1/2 mile. If battery life is only a few months that's one thing but this is rediculouse!

[ZackfromMO]

since I've spent the majority of the weekend thinking about my problems with the hill topper. I wonder if temp. would play a role. I live in Missouri where temps reach 100+ degrees. But this happends even when it's cool out. Also the roads here aren't the best pretty bumpy at times. If that matters...

[martin75gk]

Temperature could be part of the problem, but if you only get full charge for 1/2 a mile, there has to be something else wrong... This goes beyond my experience with SLA batteries, but I'll try to think of possible sources for the problem. But first, when you ride, are the temps ever between 60 - 80 degrees? Also, after 1/2 a mile, are you still able to ride or the battery just goes completely dead?

[ZackfromMO]

new update. I just rode it and got 5 miles out of it! Possibly could have gone more but that's as far as I went. It did rain twice last week. Is it possible that something got wet that wasn't supposed to get wet?... I'm shooting in the dark here...

[martin75gk]

I'm pretty sure the C.R. battery packs are weather proof, but even if water found its way through the pack, it shouldn't be able to affect the battery range. Did you always charge the battery immediately after each ride? If you don't follow this procedure, your battery life will for sure be much shorter. I'm assuming you do hook-up the battery to the charger after each ride and think your main problem has to do with the weather. Check your batt range by riding on hot days or really cold days (if it gets cold in Missouri) and record your distance. Then try riding on a day where the weather is between 60 - 80 degrees and then record your distance again. I personally think your problems have to do with the weather... Keep riding on days when it does not rain and if your results are good, then maybe it was the rain... I can't be a 100% sure what your problem is if I don't test out the kit for myself... but I think your heading in the right direction.

[ZackfromMO]

after some trial and error this week. I think your right. I have two batteries and just one charger. so I left one of the batteries on the charger and charged as much as possible when I wasn't rideing. It seemed to work. So I went ahead and ordered a second charger. I hope this works! Thanks for your help martin!