LaCrosse BC-9009 / BC-900 - The Melt-Downs Continue...

[RepProdigious]

RepProdigious whats on the other side of that board above the burnt area?

Big *** capacitor. Unfortunately i tossed the adapter so i cant shoot any pics but there was as good as no visible damage on the other side of the board.

 

[HooNz]

Ah, but the picture in question is of the mains AC power supply, not the charger...

Thanks , that explains that and also that i should read more carefully and not just look at pictures! .

 

[HooNz]

Double post.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Background and resolution:
My friend purchased two BC-9009 at a greatly discounted price. They were discounted because it was a brand new full kit, sans charging adapter. I guess it had been cannibalized to fix another customer's already purchased 9009. Anyways, he was looking for a suitable adapter and had a generic multi-range power adapter. I tested it and the voltage was way off, so I advised him not to use it until I could find a suitable replacement. In the mean time, he called up LaCrosse and explained that he had purchased these two chargers and that they did not come with any power adapters. They are sending him two adapters FoC.

 

[RepProdigious]

Background and resolution:
My friend purchased two BC-9009 at a greatly discounted price. They were discounted because it was a brand new full kit, sans charging adapter. I guess it had been cannibalized to fix another customer's already purchased 9009. Anyways, he was looking for a suitable adapter and had a generic multi-range power adapter. I tested it and the voltage was way off, so I advised him not to use it until I could find a suitable replacement. In the mean time, he called up LaCrosse and explained that he had purchased these two chargers and that they did not come with any power adapters. They are sending him two adapters FoC.

Im typing them an e-mail right now!!

 

[mmbridges]

I sent an email to La Crosse hoping to find when the BC-1000 will be released. Here is the response I got:

[FONT=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial]Regarding Model Number: BC-1000

Thank you for your email and interest in our product. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a date of release or suggested retail price that can be provided. Please watch our website for any updates. Thanks again.

For efficient processing when responding to this e-mail please use your email program's "Reply" option to maintain the email thread. Please do not change the subject line of your email.
If you have not already done so, please provide your full name and contact information. This will enable us to serve you better and more efficiently.
Regards,

Technical Support Representative
La Crosse Technology Ltd.
2817 Losey Boulevard S
La Crosse, WI 54601
www.lacrossetechnology.com/support





The suspense is killing me! Anyone else got any insight? I'm wondering if they are delaying in order to keep from cannibalizing their BC 9009 sales? In the meantime any alernatives with the same detailed capacity reporting features?

[/FONT]

 

[MarioJP]

I have 2 La Crosse AC adapters and both of them are putting out 3.00v on the dot. I am trying to understand, and ask the question.. What happened??. Why did they change the specs of their AC adapter for the BC-9009??

 

[caltemus]

They changed the adapter to meet California efficiency regulations, but this caused an issue with the voltage output from the power supply, causing the charger, which has little tolerance for over-voltage, to fail and it melted and/or damaged cells.

 

[Nite]

My BC 9 series charger had a single button sink down a bit. I own two of these, one seems ok. One is slightly newer than the other, Both needed new power adaptors, but one seems to have gotten too hot anyway... It got kinda hot when I tried charging some AAA nimh at 500mah. It should've detected the high temperature and shutoff, or so I thought.

 

[beegdaddy]

Hi guys

I just bought a BC-1000 last Friday and have been TESTing my batteries at 500mA/1A over the past 2-3 days.

Haven't gotten any burnouts yet (fingers crossed).

 

[jayflash]

Not that it's of ultimate importance, but my old BC- 900's power supply has a much heavier cord than my new Maha -- which is twice the size of the LaCrosse charger.

 

[HIDC]

Three BC-900, 6 years, no burnouts yet but the power adapter on one of them died a few days ago.

 

[MarioJP]

Hmmm. I wonder if this thread is gonna have a chapter. Is it one of those things in life, where La Crosse is forever cursed no matter what they do?:devil:. What I don't understand is how can a couple of 100mV turn into a serious situation...wow.

 

[ShawnLam]

When they initially confirmed that they had a problem with their power adapters they put a link on their website to request a replacement (and thus avoid a recall). But I'm not sure if they even honoured these requests. My request was never fulfilled and the link is long gone.

 

[Russel]

[...] What I don't understand is how can a couple of 100mV turn into a serious situation...wow.

As I understand it, the LaCrosse BC-9009 and BC-900 chargers use a linear voltage regulator to control the charging output voltage. That means that the excess voltage is disipated in the regulator as heat. More voltage = more heat. If the regulator is already being stressed to or past is design specification a couple hundred miliivolts on a 1.5V regulator can result in catastrophic failure.

I have two BC-900, and two BC700 chargers that have never had a problem, but the power supplys on all four chargers don't exceed 3.0 volts.

 

[lemlux]

I also have 3 BC900's that are about 6 years old. I paid for two of them and LaCrosse sent me the third no charge because one charger's third position display wouldn't light up and the second and four positions only light up partially. "Partially" allows me to distinguish between "Full" and a partial number.

I still have the partial display charger because LaCrosse's gracious support people didn't want to deal with the hassle of processing a return. It's sad to read that their customer service seems to have gone downhill in the intervening years.

The two perfect chargers still do everything satisfactorily. The charger with the partial display is used for conditioning cycles only.

I really appreciate being able to discharge my BC900's at 500mA. Heat management concerns seem to limit most chargers' discharge rates to between 300 to 350 mA.

 

[bdcolletti]

Re: LaCrosse BC-9009 / BC-900 - The Melt-downs Continue...

How can I explain this to you? It is not normal behavior, it is a fault. It does not happen to every charger all the time, it happens to perhaps one charger in a hundred, or 1 in 1000. Your chargers may never develop the fault and may never do anything bad. If one person has a car that breaks down, does it mean that every car of that kind is going to break down?

I have a BC-900 from July 2007 that still works without problems. I used it everyday for the first four years, then used it less often. It never overheated, even with a full load.

 

[n3eg]

Re: LaCrosse BC-9009 / BC-900 - The Melt-downs Continue...

Is there anyone still watching this thread who knows the part number for the FET? I picked up a BC-900 real cheap that has one bad channel and a toasted FET, and would like to replace it.