One Month Battery Warranty, Really?

[KramerMD]

My Q500 4K, is less than 30 days old. It has flown only 3 times, in part, waiting for a replacement camera from Yuneec. Each flight I landed at first warning, and didn't recharge until right before the next flight. At second charge, the charger became real hot charging only one of the batteries. The other battery did not result in the hot charger. On Saturday, (day 23) after the 3rd charge, the one charger hot battery, upon take off, the low voltage warning came on. I landed quickly with no issue.

Today, called Yuneec, Mike said appears the one battery is bad... Batteries only have a 1 month warranty.... If, I am inside one month of purchase, they will replace it. I am, so no concern.

I pointed out the written warranty is 6 months, and mentions nothing about battery limited to one month. Mike disagreed.

The written warranty, "...accessories are guaranteed against manufacturing defects for six (6) months from the original date of purchase."

 

[Sticks]

I don't know of anyone giving a Warranty on a battery unless it was DOA. Way to easy for the user to abuse and ruin it in a single flight.

You can try to keep contacting Yuneec CS and see what happens. I strongly recommend getting a decent after market balance charger, with a storage charge feature. Tenergy is the brand that I have. Carolina Dronz sells a couple different ones.

 

[dsudweeks]

My Q500 4K, is less than 30 days old. It has flown only 3 times, in part, waiting for a replacement camera from Yuneec. Each flight I landed at first warning, and didn't recharge until right before the next flight. At second charge, the charger became real hot charging only one of the batteries. The other battery did not result in the hot charger. On Saturday, (day 23) after the 3rd charge, the one charger hot battery, upon take off, the low voltage warning came on. I landed quickly with no issue.

Today, called Yuneec, Mike said appears the one battery is bad... Batteries only have a 1 month warranty.... If, I am inside one month of purchase, they will replace it. I am, so no concern.

I pointed out the written warranty is 6 months, and mentions nothing about battery limited to one month. Mike disagreed.

The written warranty, "...accessories are guaranteed against manufacturing defects for six (6) months from the original date of purchase."

I've had similar problems with the Yuneec battery, but I think the main problem is with their included charger. I purchased a better balanced LiPo charger (HiTec) and after a few discharge/charge cycles using both the balance and power leads, I was able to recover the battery and it works fine now. Also would recommend purchasing an inexpensive balance meter. These will generally "discharge" any high cells, so the next time you charge, the cells will be balanced to start with.

 

[rydfree]

You can land at first warning and still damage a lipo. It's all according to how conditions are and how long it took to actually land. Waiting on the warning is never good practice . One should always time the flights to land before each cell of a lipo reaches 3.7volts.

 

[Tim Lewis]

I've had red screen warnings flash on my screen, and there's some beeping. I've just landed immediately. The warnings show for less than a second, so I don't know what they state. I've watched the voltage meter for the Typhoons battery on the ST10+ jump around, going down to 10. 1, then jumping to 12.7, then dropping to 11.2...... Is it normal for the reading to jump around so fast? Maybe the delay of the wifi signal?

 

[Sticks]

It's the load you are putting on the batteries, full climb and full forward while recording has the most power draw, likewise with trying to fly upwind.

Do either of those and your voltage will drop, return to hover, and the voltage will go back up. Same reason that when you land and turn off the motors and camera the voltage will jump over 11, when you were in the low 10s on approach.

 

[rydfree]

As Sticks said , your amperage draw is more when the quad is working harder , less if it isn't having to fight to stay level etc . Bottom line is what the lipo has left in it after you land . You never want to use more than 80% of total capacity . The Typhoon uses a 3 cell lipo battery and when fully charged each cell will be at 4.20 volts so 12.60 volts . To get best life out of the batteries they should never go below 3.70 volts per cell which would be 11.1 volts when you land . The higher Mah the more minutes you will be able to fly before it gets to that level of discharge . As a lipo discharges below nominal voltage level it heats up considerably and the cells can swell (Puff) which is a sign the battery is being damaged . The hard case on the stock batteries can hide this fact until it is too late . My stock lipo gives me between 23-25 minutes of flight time so I time all my flights and always land around the 20 minute mark to be safe .

 

[Florentin]

@rydfree .. you got that fly time, ignoring the low battery alert ? I only reached maximum 15 min till the alert came out, then I go landing. I watch a video, where a guy ignored the alert, and had no time to safe land. So, I guess you do no have much spare time, from the alert popup. Then I ask, haw someone can reach those 20 or 25 min advertised ?
Thank you.

 

[Sticks]

No camera, probably no landing gear, sea level, 80+*, high humidity, no wind, and flying around at medium speed.

Kind of like the same way they figure a new cars MPG rating that you will never get close to.

 

[rydfree]

I do not ignore the alert. I really don't even know what they have the alert set at but the first few times I flew it and waited for the alert the batteries were at 3.4 volts per cell after I landed and that's lower than I like. I also made sure I didn't fly too far away that first few flights so l landed within a few seconds of the alarm. I routinely get 20 minutes from takeoff to landing without alarm though. I hardly ever hover for long and I'm usually flying a nice steady speed and altitude. Usually the cell voltage is like 3.74. I get 15 minutes out of my old camera ship , a QAV 500 with 5400Mah lipos but it is considerably heavier than the Typhoon.

 

[Florentin]

Well... same here. With my old F550 FPV ready (full loaded) I reached 18 min. If Yuneec would not have fallow me and watch me mode, I would not bought it.
So overall, reading owners opinions, they confirmed once again, that is al about taking our money.
This said , and taken in consideration the price of spare batteries, I guess I made a bad choice.