Gerbing's Heated Gear Problems
Last year, I
bought the Gerbings G3 microwire gloves, microwire heated
liner and the dual temperature
controller.
Well....the dual temperature controller failed about 3 weeks
after I got it. I was on a ride on a very cold day and all
of a sudden I got cold...very cold. I fussed around with the
controller and still no heat. At the first stop, I checked
everything out and long story short it was the controller. I took
it back to the store and they happily swapped it out. I
think I used it about 4 times before it died.
Fast forward to this year and the darn thing crapped out again!!
But this time it is stuck on high!! It's like riding around with
a blow torch on your skin. I think I may have gotten 6 - 8 rides
out of it before it started acting up.
But this time I called Gerbings Heating Gear.....since their
products have a lifetime warranty. And this is where it gets
interesting.
Well....I was told the warranty is if you send it your
registration card and you are the original owner. If you do
not, then.....you are out of luck! They will not replace
it. You can pay for them to repair it at $35/hour or you can buy
another one. Me? I never send in the cards because all it
triggers is a bunch of junk mail.
Not one to argue but I did ask.....if it has a lifetime warranty,
why does it matter who purchased it?
Needless to say, I am not happy about this. Their stuff is not
cheap and to have them fail back to back is not good. Just think
if it would have happened on a 20 degree day and I was 2 hours
from home?
Since this is the second one that died on me, I'm not looking to
try it a third time. Has this happened to anyone out there?
Anyone have any
suggestions on a different controller?
6 Comments
I've heard from quite a few people that the controllers go bad. At the time I didn't pay much attention to them because I didn't ride in cold weather. I never understood why there were complaining so loudly. No I do!
I reached out to the the folks at www.warmnsafe.com and they are very interested in working with us on a video review of their line of heated clothing. They will be back in town next week and maybe I'll ask them to write a blog on their products......at least we can get that going before we do a video review.
In this months "Wing World" magazine I get as a member of the Gold Wing Riders Asso. the Director of Sales and Marketing for Gerbing's, Fernando Belair" wrote an article about heated clothing, and of course, featured Gerbing's items as examples. What he said about temperature controllers I found interesting and based o the problems you've had thought worth sharing. Belair writes; "temperature controllers are pulse-width modulators (as compared to the old potentiometers that control resistance) or constantly active switches. At a low setting, they might cycle on/off in one second spurts, with .2s/ .8s on/off split for example. As you turn up the setting, they climb gradually up through a .5s/ .5s midpoint and continue upward, shifting the cycle more to on than off. This culminates in a full-on setting where the controller is delivering full power to the garment." He goes on to say that a good quality heat garment should not need more tha one third power, or worst cast 50% power to provide the level of heat most riders would demand. Gerbing's has been making heated garments for 35 years and is primary supplier of heated garments to the US military. You would think they would have their "act in order" but certainly your experieince says otherwise!!
Thanks for the info and the feedback. One would figure they would stand behind their product but in the case of the controller it seems they are running away from it. Reminds me of how Apple tried to blame iPhone users by saying "you are holding it wrong, that's why you have no signal." They were basically shamed into giving away free rubber cases and fixing the design flaw in the antenna.
Sometimes a little bit of sunshine goes a long way into getting problems fixed. That's just the nature of the beast.
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