I haven’t tried the latest firmware yet (it’s not yet public). I got notice about three hours ago, but was already in the middle of my ride for the day.
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For high-end consumer goods, 3-4% return rate is very high. As a comparison, companies like Apple impose quality targets to their suppliers two orders of magnitude better than this. The total cost of this non-quality for Wahoo must be staggering.
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I don’t disagree - but that was at the height of the issue, last fall, not now.
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I purchased a Kickr 18 last week, and was expecting pretty great things, I have been on a cyclops fluid trainer for about 6-7years.
Power accuracy of the Kickr was consistent with my PM.
I did 2 rides on the Kickr and my feet were numb/tingling for about 12 hrs after from high frequency vibration through the Trainer. It got progressively worse at higher flywheel speeds.
The trainer was level, feet adjusted, on a rubber trainer mat which sits on old firm carpet.
The vibrations were present regardless if I was pedalling, so I’m assuming it was flywheel balancing.
Put me down as a dissatisfied Kickr purchaser.
Having spent limited time on a smart trainer this maybe normal for the high flywheel speeds relative to my Fluid.
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Do you have the chevron stickers on the flywheel? After I removed them, the vibration issues ceased on my Kickr Core. Idk why Wahoo don’t machine etch that design into the flywheel to ensure the it is balanced instead of putting stickers on in a much less precise manner. In any case, try removing all the stickers and seeing how it goes.
EDIT: Also, put me in the camp of having a 2018 Kickr product (Kickr Core ordered at launch) and no issues whatsoever with the unit. As @dcrainmaker said, the extent of the problem is bigger than Wahoo would have liked, but hardly a rampant issue. In this case, all the satisfied customers aren’t making posts about being satisfied. Only the dissatisfied people are making angry posts about their problems (rightfully so), but that skewed (and continues to skew) the perception of the problem, which at this point in production is basically a non-issue.
As someone who worked in the car industry during my time at university, everything worse than 2ppm (two parts per million) was a disaster and lawyer would be informed immediately.
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I’m curious if only 3-4% of the people on this board think your a shill would it bother you?
Great insight, thank you for posting that.
If only this was even remotely true. Unfortunately, it’s not. A simple Google search will demonstrate it’s far higher than that - way higher than that in fact (for the automotive industry specifically).
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FIrst of all it is an ongoing issue.
June
I’m on the 3rd Kickr Core in slightly over 3 months.
With no immediate issues from unit #4 these will finally be returned.
July
After having 3 Kickr 18 with Induráin I can say today that Im verry happy with my Neo 2
Put me down as a dissatisfied Kickr purchaser.
August
I think it might be time to cut slingload with Wahoo. I have nothing to add to your situation, other than to say, after multiple failed Wahoo Kickr units, I went to Cycleops H2.
I could go on and on and on.
Further, where are the angry posts about other trainer brands? That’s the little nugget that people seem to be so eager to overlook. Where are the other 500 post threads with issues on other trainer brands? I don’t care if it’s the vocal minority that are complaining, they are complaining about the Kickr. There aren’t any other threads that are even comparable in any way to the constant and recurring issues with the Kickr. There is a recent post here with a guy on his FIFTH Kickr. Ray said it was a 1% problem, now adjusts that to a 3-4% problem, but what’s the real number?
This thread is titled “Anybody have a Wahoo Kickr 2018 that DOES NOT have any issues?” I don’t find any such threads on other trainer brands. This is a relevant and current problem and I don’t side with the apologists defending a product with obvious defects.
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Do we know what the problem rate is for replacement units? It seems to me, anecdotally, there are enough people with recurring issues that would belie a 3% issue rate. I wouldn’t have a problem with returning one unit, but the second unit better be good. If however you are given a refurbished unit then this is a nightmare scenario because you could be stuck in a world of always replacing your unit from a population with high failure rates. This perception is what scared me off of buying a Wahoo (I bought an H3)
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A simple Google search for Kickr issues shows all kinds of threads just on TR discussing issues with the Kickr. Too bad it’s not even remotely true that this ISN’T an ongoing issue.
I’ve long ago given up on trying to make everyone happy. If they (or you) can’t read what I write and then want to complain about it later on, that’s frankly on them (or you).
I’ve explained in those various posts why someone (for example) could actually very easily go through five KICKR’s (primarily back in the day). Once you understand why, it makes sense engineering wise. I think I’ve been pretty clear that was a problem Wahoo had to fix. At this point, it seems like the number of people complaining about issues has largely evaporated.
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Not in Fall 2019. We know the rates for last fall, but that’s about it. But one can simply look at the dates on various threads (here and otherwise), and see that by and large the problem has mostly gone away. People don’t really seem to remember how vibrant that discussion was last Dec/Jan.
In fact, the post a few above mine from Stringwise, while attempting to be witty, actually proves the point beautifully: Aside from this thread, almost everything else is pretty old.
There is certainly a few people dealing with it today, mostly it seems from older units that have had their stuff finally click over. And given KICKR sales/manufacturing have only increased since then, it shows the problem seems to be few and far between.
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Not true and I understand that for you clicks on your website matter and since the Kickr sells a lot of units it’s important to you to sustain that revenue stream.
I will even help you out.
Here is the link on Ray’s website to save 10% on the Kickr:
I don’t have a dog in this hunt so you can stop trying to convince me that this isn’t a problem.
I don’t care to negatively impact your business but it is bothersome that you dive into these threads to defend Wahoo so emphatically.
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Mod hat on:
- Please refrain from comments like this that flirt with violating the forum rules.
- These border on a personal attacks, and have no place in our group.
- Clean up future posts and show the proper respect to all forum members, or I will take action.
Be Excellent to Each Other
- Speak to people like you would in person. It sounds simple but the forum can be so much more valuable if we just show each other a little kindness.
Attack the Idea, not the Person
- This builds on rule #1. The best arguments focus on the idea rather than the person who’s communicating the idea. Let’s strive to live in the “counterargument” and above. And opinion is important! This is cycling, lots of stuff is subjective.
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Understood Chad. 
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The norm in telco equipment is in the order of 6000 ppm for complete sub-systems (a core router, for example), which forces one order of magnitude tighter requirements on parts and sub-systems - so in the hundreds of ppm order of magnitude. From what I know, automotive components quality targets are in the high tens to low hundreds of ppm. Keep in mind that different targets apply to different metrics - the limit on reject rate on receipt is much tighter than on ERI (Early return index), which is the metric closest to the issue referred to in this thread.
That simply isn’t consistent with what we see on various FB groups/forums on a daily basis. Obviously you expect that you’ll see more complaints than kudos on forums, but we/I didn’t see ANYWHERE near the volume of complaints on the 2014-2017 models. I simply can’t believe that the issues plaguing the 2018 KICKR has been resolved at this point.
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I think the vast majority of issues we see at this point on those groups are from people with older units, not brand new off the shelf units (and that even mirrors this thread here).
As for 2014-2017 models, nope, we didn’t see the 2-3 main issues for the 2018 models (noise and chipset frying) - but, less we forgot the issue with the power meter becoming dislodged, which actually people had plenty of issues with. What’s old is new again, just a different trainer.
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