Tool thread

[Dr.Jeff]

I bought this little flashlight about a year ago and it's now part of my EDC. It has replaced a shop light for working on my cars for like 99% of the time now. The magnets allow me to stick it in the wheel well, under the dash, in the engine compartment, anywhere I need hands-free lighting to do a job. The side LED's do a fantastic job of providing broad lamination (as opposed to spotlight) to do most jobs. Highly recommended.

Amazon.com

EDC? Guess I'm out of touch cause I don't know what that means.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

These printed guns use a ceramic nozzle - as do the "proper" guns.

I've noticed there is a guy near your way (NZ) that offers the file for this. The one I read about is in the US. There may be a difference between them. If I recall correctly one uses existing ceramic nozzles and the other uses printed ones. But it might be interchangeable.

 

[SuperTopo]

EDC? Guess I'm out of touch cause I don't know what that means.

It's a term popular with the kids these days. Every-Day-Carry

 

[Dr.Jeff]

It's a term popular with the kids these days. Every-Day-Carry

Well there's my problem, I haven't reached kid mentality yet.

Funny thing is I saw the listing for the light even used the abbreviation so I figured it must be something common.

 

[Steve Thomas]

However the blast media still travels through the body of the gun. Including the area where the water and media mix, prior to the nozzle. It might eventually wear those passages over time. In one write up the guy found that happening so he changed the STL file to provide more layers of the printed material (vs the support material) around the critical areas.

Yeah, I don't see the need to print these guns. They are very far from the main cost of a system, printing is very very slow and I reckon gun life would be short. The materials aren't cheap either - assuming an actual functional plastic is used as it would have to be to have any life at all. I know, we should make it with AI, the present panacea.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Following on some earlier posts in this thread....more on battery maintainers (used to keep stored batteries healthy).

Back in posts #132 and #138 I mentioned how my frustration with failing "brand name" maintainers led me to try a couple of cheap WalMart brand units.....with the "EverStart" label. The first one was bought back in 2020 and the second in 2021. Today I discovered both have since failed. I'm not certain exactly when each failed because I only check them every few months.

On the older unit (rated at 3 amps) the indicator lights showed that everything was working fine and the battery was fully charged. However when I tested the battery it was down to 9 volts. So I connected it to another battery and once again the indicator lights showed everything good despite the battery being low. I then connected a known good maintainer to that battery and it went into the charging mode to bring the battery back up to a normal level. Obviously the EverStart maintainer is malfunctioning despite the indicators saying otherwise.

On the newer unit (rated at 1 amp) the indicator lights showed that the leads were reversed (+/- polarity crossed), but they weren't. I discovered the maintainer had no output and the battery was very low when tested. Connecting this maintainer to another battery showed the same results....reversed leads indicated (despite being correct) and no output. Apparently the unit has shorted internally.

I guess these EverStart units are no different than all of the other brands I've tried. However they are MUCH less expensive. So perhaps the best option is to keep buying them and just plan to replace it every couple of years?

As to why they keep failing, its possible the harsh climate here has something to do with it. While some of my units are kept outside (where it gets incredibly hot), others are kept in the shop (where it only gets really hot). Remembering what Don said in a prior post, he found the cause of a failed maintainer appeared to be from overheating internally. They are warm to the touch when operating. So the combined high ambient heat on top of the operating temp might be leading to their early demise. I might take one apart and see it if it can be modified with additional heat sinks and air ventilation to help prolong its life.

 

[MikeHynes]

I've had many battery charger and maintainer failures over the years. And the failures don't seem to be related to price. I've had expensive ones fail right along with the inexpensive ones. And of course no one will fix the expensive ones. That's frustrating, but what's really upsetting is a manufacturer who refuses to honor their warranty! I bought an Optima branded charger that was bad out of the box. When I tried to claim warranty Optima simply ignored me. I followed their convoluted process and was told that Optima would review the situation. Then nothing happened. When I called back to follow up I was told that the "supervisor" would have to "clear it". Then nothing happened. The next follow up another week later got me the reply that "shipping had screwed up again". The next follow up a couple of weeks later was that my claim would be expedited. Still no response weeks later, they simply ignored me. After a couple of months and way too many calls I contacted my credit card company and made a claim with them. They were polite and told me it could take up to 90 days to investigate. After 90 days I called the credit card lady back to see what the verdict was. She told me that the vendor, Optima, failed to respond to her inquiry. That didn't surprise me. The credit card company refunded my purchase. I wonder if other folks have been ignored when making warranty claims with Optima?

 

[JKIDD]

I've got a Battery Tender brand I received as a gift. It failed after a few years but still under the manufacturer warranty. I called them but didn't have a receipt. Fortunately is was still covered by serial number & I had to ship my unit in. They shipped me a replacement pretty quickly. That has to be 5 + years ago. Now I don't leave mine on constantly. I rotate it around every few months to top off the batteries & store it between.

 

[carl]

Mike, I bet the credit card companies get stuck as the paying middle man all the time with companies like this that just look you straight in the face and say "no we are not going to honor our warrantee and we can wait you out no problem". Maybe if you were friends with a connected guy who offered to drop by the corporate office with two of his 250 pound buddies you would have gotten your warrantee honored right away. Or I should stop watching so much TV.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I've had many battery charger and maintainer failures over the years. And the failures don't seem to be related to price. I've had expensive ones fail right along with the inexpensive ones. And of course no one will fix the expensive ones. That's frustrating, but what's really upsetting is a manufacturer who refuses to honor their warranty! I bought an Optima branded charger that was bad out of the box. When I tried to claim warranty Optima simply ignored me. I followed their convoluted process and was told that Optima would review the situation. Then nothing happened. When I called back to follow up I was told that the "supervisor" would have to "clear it". Then nothing happened. The next follow up another week later got me the reply that "shipping had screwed up again". The next follow up a couple of weeks later was that my claim would be expedited. Still no response weeks later, they simply ignored me. After a couple of months and way too many calls I contacted my credit card company and made a claim with them. They were polite and told me it could take up to 90 days to investigate. After 90 days I called the credit card lady back to see what the verdict was. She told me that the vendor, Optima, failed to respond to her inquiry. That didn't surprise me. The credit card company refunded my purchase. I wonder if other folks have been ignored when making warranty claims with Optima?

I agree, price and brand name seem to have no influence on how long they last. The failures I've experienced have been completely random; some happen within a very short time - others a couple of years later, some inexpensive - others quite costly, some famous top name brands - others generic, some used outdoors - others indoors, on motorcycle or car batteries, wet flooded or AGM or Li-ion or deep cycle....doesn't seem to matter.

I've never tried to get a warranty claim on any of them (see EDIT below)*. Most come with one year coverage and they seem to fail soon after that. I did get a pair of new units given to me by the company rep at a major trade show. I ran into their booth and decided to express my dissatisfaction with their product failing....that particular example destroyed a rather expensive battery that it was connected to. He told me some lame excuses - "that never happens" kind of crap, and handed me two from his display as a token. Nice gesture, but both failed within a year or two.

This is why I think my best option is to just buy the cheap WM ones and replace them as needed. I'll have to check on them more frequently though.

*EDIT: Not sure if this counts as a warranty or not, but I bought two "Battery Tender" brand units from CostCo and both failed. So I took them back to CostCo and they refunded the cost. Honestly I don't recall how long I had the units so I don't know if they were under any warranty or not. However CostCo is very good about that with all of their merchandise, regardless if there is a warranty.

 

[Bryce-o-rama]

I’ve used a CTEK battery charger since around 2005 or 2006 when I was given one to test for a motor scooter magazine for which I wrote. It’s worked really well for me.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I’ve used a CTEK battery charger since around 2005 or 2006 when I was given one to test for a motor scooter magazine for which I wrote. It’s worked really well for me.

Thanks for the feedback Bryce.

CTEK definitely markets them as a superior product, with a price to match. Like anything else, I've heard good and bad reviews for them...so who knows. Honestly every time I consider buying one the price keeps me from doing it. I will say the maintainers I bought 20 years ago (any brand) definitely lasted longer than ones I've purchased in recent years. So I wonder if the newer CTEK's are as good as the older ones. I also wonder if a unit given to a magazine for evaluation might be a "special" one in order to assure a good review. But either way you have certainly got you moneys worth.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

The post by @Bryce-o-rama about battery maintainers reminded me that I intended to give a little update about one of mine.

One potential reason a maintainer might fail could be heat. As we've discussed before they can get pretty warm and over time the increased thermal load may lead to failure of a component on the circuit board. @dllubin can offer a better explanation than I can. So I decided to open up a unit that I'm currently using to see if a heat sink could be added to help dissipate the heat. This is one of the inexpensive "Everstart" ones from WalMart.

The plastic enclosure has ventilation slots on both sides of it...or so I thought. Once I opened the case and could get a better look, it turns out they are 'fake' slots; molded recesses that look like they are open but have a deeper partition also molded into it that blocks them off. However there are two heat sinks inside. Essentially just aluminum plates that capacitors(?) rest against. The aluminum plates are located along each side of the case, right where the fake vents are. The obvious thought is those should be real vents open to the outside to allow the heat from the heat sinks to radiate away. But as I said they do not. In fact the entire case (plastic enclosure) is sealed up pretty well with no airflow at all. I imagine this is so the unit can be used in more exposed environments without water getting inside.

Given heat sinks already exist I decided to modify the case by cutting the two sides open (were the sinks are located) so they can breath. This maintainer is always kept inside the shop for a stored battery so exposure isn't an issue. We'll see if this mod makes any difference in the operating temperature of the unit.

The thing I learned from this is heat may indeed be a major reason for maintainers failing. Especially since they may not have any ventilation to allow the heat to escape.