Rad Semi-Integrated Battery Pack

[jcvdd]

I think they are understaffed in customer service. Took they a few days to assess my battery claim, but they eventually approved it. Battery still hasn?t shipped though.  Hang in there and keep at them.

Hello Adam - Interesting, but I was also approved for a new replacement battery 10 days ago and like yours, it hasn't ship yet. I guess their warehouse must be short-staffed. Hopefully your new replacement battery will resolve your issues as the Rad bike is very fun to ride.

[Rover]

I?m assuming the battery for the City 5 Plus and the Rover 6 Plus are the same and interchangeable. Is that correct?

[Treefriend]

I think they are understaffed in customer service. Took they a few days to assess my battery claim, but they eventually approved it. Battery still hasn?t shipped though.  Hang in there and keep at them.

The customer service must be somewhere in Europe or Africa. The time stamp is GMT+2. About 10 hours ahead
of where I am. Also the language in the emails is stilted like someone whose first language is not English.

[Treefriend]

Well I had to jump through several hoops including submitting several pictures and a video not once but twice
and it has taken a while BUT today I received this email so eventually (hopefully before summer is over) I will
be able to ride my new bike.

I also have a 2017 Rad Power Wagon and it has been a good bike with no issues. I really like the bike
and I have been satisfied with it so, in spite of this hiccup with the new integrated battery, I can and will
recommend Rad to anyone looking for an ebike.

Hey there,

I am very sorry for the late reply. We have been experiencing an extremely high amount of support requests lately, both email and phone calls, and have been working through them as best we can in the order received.

Your battery replacement was approved and I went ahead and placed an order for your new battery to the address you confirmed, order #--------.

Our batteries are classified as Hazardous Materials and due to this, must abide by Federal HAZMAT regulations. Before batteries are fulfilled from our warehouse, they have to go through HAZMAT certification and approval to ensure safe shipment, which takes roughly 5-7 business days to complete. Once the certification is approved, your battery can then begin the fulfillment process which takes 3-5 business days for your order to leave our warehouse. Batteries must be shipped via ground transportation, so transit times will vary beyond that depending on your location in the US or Canada. You will receive a shipping confirmation email when the order has left our warehouse, which will include a tracking number from the courier.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting your order to you as soon as possible!

Thank you,

-------.
Product Support Specialist
Rad Power Bikes

[Adams]

Not to hijack your thread more, but I did receive my warranty claim battery within a week of them approving the claim.

[JedidiahStolzfus]

Rad person on phone was helpful and pleasant.  They were simply working down a decision tree matrix to check all the boxes before saying send in pics to verify warrant claim. Haven?t gotten a response from Rad yet, but there are no external signs of an arc or short that could have caused a blown fuse.

I did ride off road through some pretty bouncy stuff just before charging it. Maybe the fuse has a bad solder job and it loosened.

Jcvdd- any update on trying to solve it?

This is a distinct possibility.  Over the past 2 decades or so, there's been a big push to use lead free solder due to the risk of exposure to lead.  Unfortunately that comes with consequences, lead free solder has a tendency to be more brittle, and prone to breaking with sharp impacts.  Much like you'd see on a bike.  The joints can crack along very fine lines and sometimes they'll make contact and others they won't.

The quick way to fix it is to reflow the solder on the broken joints.  The best way to fix it is to remove the lead free solder and flow in good solder.  You can sometimes see the broken joints with your eye or under magnification. 

Also, lead free solder has a greater chance of solder balls being left on the boards.  Most of the time, they'll stay put, but they can break and roll into the circuit causing a short.  Problem is, that you'll probably never find it because once you start tearing the device part, they fall out and they're tiny. 

The last thing that can happen is solder whiskers.  This is when the solder grows very fine hair like appendages that can reach out and touch other joints, causing shorts.  Lead free solder is known to do this, and there's a reason that NASA and any company that produces products for the military doesn't use lead free, because they want their devices to work for the long term.

Don't want to get lead poisoning from your devices, don't lick the circuit boards.

[Ddaybc]

JedidiahStoizfus, Man I laughed so hard at your comment "Don't want to get lead poisoning from your devices, don't lick the circuit boards."
That took me so off guard I spit out my coffee.