Buyer beware: HobbyKing Turnigy Accucell 6

Batteries and Chargers Chargers
1

Folks,

Recently made my first purchase from HobbyKing and unfortunately I have to say I've come away incredibly disappointed with their quality control and also commitment to post-sales service.

Cut a very long story short, my Accucell 6 (which is an excellent value hobby charger - though pretty much internally identical to numerous other hobby chargers around the same price) arrived and looked fine.

However, upon first usage I found that the fan was faulty &/or dying - sputtered on and off - really struggling to work - INCREDIBLY noisey (30mm fans are always loud but rest assured this was FAULTY loud). This is a very well known problem with the Accucell 6 and to HobbyKing's shame they've done NOTHING to correct this except allow users to upload a text document on their product page detailing how to open the case and lubricate the fan.

Interestingly this 'solution' while clearly sanctioned by HobbyKing (by allowing it to remain on their main product page (when their mods very heavily 'censor' reviews and product comments) also just happens to TECHNICALLY void your warranty on the Accucell 6 - as you've opened the item's case and 'modded' it. Go figure.

Anyway I did this - using a quite expensive teflon based lubricant - and then when this made no difference a more common machine oil one - again no difference.

BUT the real shocker for me was the terrible condition of the LCD and insides of the charger. The pictures tell the story - but in short:

  • border of LCD screen was covered in flaking/fall off paint
  • LCD screen cover (meant to stay on?) had massive bubbles under it - finger prints and dust
  • significant amounts of white heatsink paste smeared around the internals of device

The faulty fan was annoying but not unexpected (I knew this was a known problem but still very poor on day 1 of use!) however getting this level of quality control was unacceptable. I ended up sending 6 emails to Hobby King's customer service team who refused to take any responsibility for the state of the item. The only option I was given was returning the item to them as my expense and they'd examine the item and consider providing a replacement item.

However, I'd be out of pocket the return postage fee (from Australia 50% of the items original cost) and obviously inconvenienced without the item whilst the process occured. I argued quite hard with them but they would not do anything more than this.

I write this as a warning to prospective buyers from HobbyKing - if you have any faults with your item you will have to wear the return postage costs and obviously quality control at HobbyKing's end is quite poor.

Considering they already charge quite heavily for postage (sub-500g parcel from HKG to Aus is $USD10!) I find this a very poor practice - I'd consider DOA items their responsibility (same for perhaps the first 2-4weeks usage).

In the end I told them to stick their customer service and have removed the fan an am operating it 100% passive (using active external fan when needed). To be fair its a very nice little charger but HobbyKing's customer service is abysmal and prospective buyers may wish to consider trustworthy localised sellers instead or go for clones of this charger e.g Imax B6

Cheers, Nick

PICTURES (apologies problems embedding forum sized thumbs

LCD from above

One of many globs of thermal paste!

PS. Sorry for woes with uploading pictures!

2

Thanks for the heads up. I have been looking at that same unit from the very same seller. Will explore other options....

3

As for the bubbling LCD, That is the protective plastic. It is meant to protect durring transit and installation.

I feel for how they handled your case and how a sanctioned fix voids all if said fix actually does not work for you.

Wow your sample is rather sloppy. Did you paypal or use CC with checkout?

4

Yeah , Ive ordered a ton of stuff from Hobby King , I think they suffer just as any HK dealer from , stuff sometimes being crap ..

Is that the fault of Hobby King , not really ... There problem is how they deal with it ...

I recently started looking at RC again , to get the FK away from the puter , Electric Heli's are cheap ...

And now there is DLG , for an old glider jock it was too much , I have to try DLG [ Discus Launch Glider ]

I pulled my old 2 channel slope out of the shed , havent flown it since fuel prices went over $1 a litre ...

But DLG , damn I could walk to the park and fly [ I like that ]

So ATM researching 1/2DLG [ what I call it ] since I want to build one half the size of a regular DLG ... [ 1.5meter wing span - I want to build one 750mm maybe 1meter ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP44_8sR8QQ

Been hitting Hobby King for servo's , voltage regulators , n stuff ...

5

Thanks for replies.

Yes, I figured that the LCD plastic cover was meant to be just an intransit-temporary measure BUT if thats the case they've implemented it badly with it impossible to remove without taking the top of the case off. Even the little, tiny tab to help you grasp it is hidden to the far left which you can only get at under the case lid. So I know you're right but they've done it badly .....I've just left mine on as when its powered up you can't see the bubbles and may be of minor protection value.

Yes, I did pay via Paypal and I know where you're going with this but I've gone through a Paypal dispute before and they are the absolute WORST to deal with.

They make you get some independant expert (who they'll almost ramdomly decide is or isn't suitable) write a document stating the item is as you say and then they'll consider returning your funds to you.

Unbelieveably painful - I dealt with them over a fake Samsung HDD I was sold on Ebay and even when Samsung Australia confirmed it was fake (they'd never made a HDD that looked even vaguely close to this one) this wasn't good enough for Paypal.

As I said the charger is very good (though as stated its internals are basically 100% identical with several other hobby chargers that sell for the same price - so you're not missing out going with another model/vendor) - but HobbyKing's service is shocking.

Other Hong Kong/Chinese vendors are far better with their service - I had problems with DinoDirect and got very good solutions given where they refunded significant % of item's price as it was sub-standard. HobbyKing don't want to resolve the issues once they have your money - if you want to pay to post it back they'll send you another of the same items MAYBE. Not really good enough IMHO.

I tried to give them several ways to solve (I replace fan myself and they reimburse me, partial refund) - personally I'd be quite happy to pay significantly more and deal with a more trusted vendor in the future.....as if you have any problems with the item any saving you made goes up in smoke PLUS you've a lot of frustrations/delays on top.

:-)

6

I didn't have any trouble removing the plastic film from my LCD. I have heard about troubles with the fan, and fortunately mine doesn't have that problem. Sad they don't have better QC and consistency, because it seems like they have a great product at a price point not much higher than much less capable chargers (cheaper than the vaunted Pila).

7

Isnt it the other way around? SkyRC, a large innovative company and a technology leader, is against clones.

Anyway. Yup, i've seen much better problem resolutions from other HK dealers (e.g. HKE) or DD. Sorry to hear!

Congrats to the purchase anyway, great item! ( you could easily buy *any* same-sized fan, e.g. a computer CPU cooler fan, and replace your faulty sample )

What are you going to charge/recharge with the Tenergy? :)

8

Or maybe disable the fan? As long as you aren't cranking a lot of watts through it, it seems like it should be okay. Charging or discharging one 18650 battery isn't making it work very hard.

9

Thanks for the heads up. I was getting ready to buy a charger from them, but it sounds like bad CS.