Powertap P1 Pedals Warning

mrbenj

Bought a set of P1s in May and after 3 months they stopped working. Sent them back to Powertap who said they'd send me a new pair under warranty. The problem is that they don't have any and it's now been 7 weeks without any pedals!

I get that power meters have problems. I know people with Garmins, Stages and Powertap and they've all had problems. The technology is still in it's infancy. And, everyone I know has been offered replacements when they've had a problem. I don't think there's a lot to distinguish between the brands on these issues.

But, most people seem with Garmin or Stages seem to get a new pair within a week or two (which seems reasonable). Powertap have serious supply issues. If you have to wait 7 weeks (or more since I still don't have any) when you're pedals go wrong then your power based training is going to take a bit of a hit and it sort of defeats the object. I'm requesting a refund now and off to buy a set of Vectors so that at least when they go wrong I'll get a replacement quickly.

joe2008

mrbenJ wrote:

Bought a set of P1s in May and after 3 months they stopped working. Sent them back to Powertap who said they'd send me a new pair under warranty. The problem is that they don't have any and it's now been 7 weeks without any pedals!

I get that power meters have problems. I know people with Garmins, Stages and Powertap and they've all had problems. The technology is still in it's infancy. And, everyone I know has been offered replacements when they've had a problem. I don't think there's a lot to distinguish between the brands on these issues.

But, most people seem with Garmin or Stages seem to get a new pair within a week or two (which seems reasonable). Powertap have serious supply issues. If you have to wait 7 weeks (or more since I still don't have any) when you're pedals go wrong then your power based training is going to take a bit of a hit and it sort of defeats the object. I'm requesting a refund now and off to buy a set of Vectors so that at least when they go wrong I'll get a replacement quickly.

Don't buy Vectors, buy Favero BePros, half the price, and much easier to calibrate.

Mine have been 100% reliable since April (10+ hours a week), not one power drop-out or spike. They're really simple to set up, batteries last 29 hours and they have a 4 hour low battery warning. They recharge via USB plug, so you're not carrying around 'heavy' batteries in your pedals like the P1's.

redvision

I am currently on my 4th set of p1s and am waiting for a return authorisation on this set. I originally bought the p1s in Sept 2015.

I was the biggest advocate of them but now will not recommend them to anyone.
When they work they are awesome but the build quality is frankly awful.

I weigh 70kg and each set has developed significant play in the pedal after a few weeks /months. When the play starts the power data starts to become unreliable and eventually stops.

I am really concerned what I will do with mine when the 2 year warranty expires. PT have never quibbled about honoring the warranty with each set I have returned, they have also tried to be helpful over emails and the phone, but once the warranty period expires I think it would cost a fortune to keep having to return them for repair.

It seems these issues are widely reported and have been since the p1s were launched over a year ago. So it is a big concern that the problems are still ongoing.

teebs_123

Similar issues to my P1 pedals. I sent them back to Wiggle who refunded me in 3 days or so

Great when they worked....

stueys

Vectors are far more stable now than when they launched, and I found Garmin support to be fairly epic, but in the end I still end I never finally got to a 100% consistently working product.

Having had a power2max for a year I've come to the conclusion that crank based just seems to be a far more tried and tested location for power, it just works. And if you sync up bottom bracket standards you don't really take a hit on portability of the power meter, unless you are looking for rental usage etc.

edenmain

My powertap pedals started failing a couple of months after the warranty ran out, the option was to buy crash replacement for £450 or new ones for £750. This is about £350 per year to sustain a pedal based power system. I'd rarely used them in the first year I had them and only used them a lot during the summer months on my best bikes but even then not more than 5k miles.
Pretty pissed off to say the least, is there no one who would attempt to mend them? Or is it not even worth me paying for the postage for them to be sent back to me?