Power Tap SL 2.4

Cold is tough on batteries. I'm lucky to be in Austin, but if I were you, I'd bring the wheel and head unit into the house for cold spells.

packfill said:

I have had issues with the CPU eating up batteries after only a couple months. Even if snow keeps the bike on a peg in the garage, it starts to give a low battery warning upon clearing. I have up to date firm ware.

Anyone have this problem? Is it normal life expectancy? Otherwise the unit woks fine. Do you think it is defective?

After 1 year, 500 hrs of use, I changed my hub batteries (when I lost the signal in the middle of a 3 hr cold ride). In that year I had changed the CPU battery a couple times already.

I think I once read clearing the data after downloading may help save the batteries...not sure if that really matters or not.

For what its worth I have gotten about 2000mi or so out of each battery I have put in the head unit. I do clear the computer right after I download and make a copy of the file. It is also possible to get the LoBatt indication erroneously. I have had it come on and then not been able to get it to return for quite sometime.

I use energizer replacement batteries, bought enough for a lifetime on ebay for very little. Incidentally I also bought some for the hub from the same guy. About 4000 miles on my first set of hub batteries.

Well, I don't know how long in hours 2000 miles might be, but I am off of that pace. I don't want to wait too long as the warranty will run, but I had such a hard time getting the thing to pair with the speed/cadence sensor that I would hate to just end up "de-bugging" another unit. It seems that these things get penty of quality comments on this board.

Would you send it back if you were going through 4 batteries a year?

Do you store the head unit in the garage or just the hub itself? Others, especially iBike (same battery as powertap head) users have reported short lifespans for batteries stored in the cold. Also all batteries are not created equal, I use energizer, not sure what was originally in the head but the hub had energizers and I have been replacing with same.

4 batteries a year for the head sounds like no big deal to me for the head battery. I think many iBike users go through that many in a month.

kytyree said:

4 batteries a year for the head sounds like no big deal to me for the head battery. I think many iBike users go through that many in a month.

True enough. I appreciate the reply. Its one more thing to keep on top of, but could be worse...