Less than a year old RED BRICK has failed me

[Rick Darge]

So I have a Red brick that won't hold a charge. Tried 3 different battery chargers and nothing. Red won't repair it because it's a dangerous good which is frustrating beyond belief. What are my options here? The battery has been working flawlessly up until today. Are there 3rd party repair places in Los Angeles.

[Kyle Broom]

I had 2 red bricks that failed after being returned from a rental. The producer pretty much shafted me on L&D. After much looking around, I found this company: http://katamount.com/. They repaired my bricks for $35 each. I can't say too much for their customer service or the speed of repair (took about month from the time I shipped to get them back), but, as far as I could find they're the only place that will fix them for a decent price.

[Thibaut de Chemellier]

Try to open your redbrick with care and pull out the Batteries from the plastic shell.
There's two flimsy wires on the back. Problems often comes from those..
You may see that a wire is broken or unplugged.
If the repair is not obvious or if you're not easy with a soldering iron, don't do anything.
I've repaired one of mine just like that, 10 minutes work !

[John Ritter]

I repair Video camera batteries, have done over 800 Li-Ion packs, the majority being the Anton Bauer Dionics, the rest being IDX, Sony, Frezzi, Varizoom and an assortment of Chinese knockoff.
Been looking to get hold of a Red brick to evaluate and do a test repair on it.

If anyone has a bad one laying around and wants to send it to me I will do a couple for free to get some feedback on the results.

You can contact me at 954-557-9765, Email siebold35@hotmail.com, website: www.ritterbattery.com

[John Ritter]

Hello all

I wish to thank everyone that responded to the repair offer, I received an overwhelming response so
the free repair is no longer available.
I will be posting the results in the next few weeks as soon as the promised shipments arrive.

Regards John Ritter
www.ritterbattery.com

[John Ritter]

Update:

So far I have received 3 Red battery packs, 2 - 9.4AH & 1 - 10.4AH

Interestingly; all 3 packs use the same control board but 3 different manufacturer's cells: Sanyo, LG Chem, Samsung and 3 cell ratings: 2200, 2250, 2600

Also all 3 had either a pinched wire (manufacturer process) or a broken wire to the control board.
All of them were a simple repair, but resetting the on board EPROM requires that the balance leads be disconnected from the control board.

The longest part is, the time required to test the packs as discharge time varies from 2 hours to 5 hours and recharge is about 3-4 hours.

So I can say that the RED battery packs are repairable and can be Re-Celled, I will post the users experience after I send them back, still want to do a couple of rounds of cycle testing.

All 3 packs tested out at 70% or better of original capacity (I only tested to 5 amp load or 70 watts nominal)

Regards John Ritter
www.ritterbattery.com

[John Ritter]

New Update:

Well so far the count is, 8 Red Brick batteries that I have seen. (9.4 & 10.4AH)

All were completely repairable, minor broken wiring issue's, I have returned the last 3 today and I await
feedback on the results.

So Yes the RED Battery is fully repairable and can be Re-Celled.

It seems to be a common problem after the first batch to cross my workbench, this kind of repair and test service will run about $50.00
including the return shipping (CONUSA only international would be additional).

If a full cell bank replacement is required (RE-Cell) this would run $240.00 per pack (Re-Cell would be to 10.4AH).

Regards John Ritter
www.ritterbattery.com

[John Ritter]

Latest Update;

OK so the count on RED Brick batteries so far is at 39 that I have seen.......

So far only 4 have had actual worn depleted cells were the capacity was below 50% of original spec.
(this was a mix of 9.4AH & 10.4 AH) unfortunately almost all have the serial number worn off so it is hard to define the age exactly.

Conclusion is that the majority of the packs experienced shock damage of some type, i.e, a drop, bump in transport, etc.

Out of the 39 a total of 35 were repairable; loose connections, broken weld tabs, broken or loose solder joints and one were the
LED switch just did not make contact with the circuit board (shimmed up the circuit board and it worked fine).

So a heads up if your battery stops working abruptly it may well be just a simple fix.

Regards John Ritter 954-557-9765
www.ritterbattery.com

[Will Keir]

That's good to know someone fixes RED BRICKS. What about Redvolts John?

[John Ritter]

Hi Will

Have not opened up a RedVolt pack yet, If I get one in I will post the results, the smaller packs will usually sustain some cosmetic damage
from the dis-assembly process.

John Ritter
www.ritterbattery.com