Team Zwatt Power Meter Users - your experience so far

Hi,

I just wondered if there were any Team Zwatt power meter users on here and how they were finding the product?

The Zpider FTP deal is an attractively priced proposition but only if it’s accurate.

I have the Zimanox, left only, and have suffered a cracked cover on the charging cover. It’s currently heading back to Denmark for a repair.

Scott

I got a Zimanox as well on the kickstarter thing. Like yours mine cracked a cover but when I was informed there was no warranty on kickstarter things and they would charge me £25 plus 2 lots of carriage to Denmark & back I decided not to bother spending more money on an unwarranted product. I’ve just glued and taped it up and it’s working OK. I use an old inner tube over the crank arm to keep as much moisture and rubbish out of it as well. My feeling is that the Zimanox is quite accurate though. I do get a bit tired of their emails telling me how SUPER happy or SUPER excited they are about everything.

Hi, I got the Zspider as part of the Kickstarter back in June 2017 and have used it on my TT bike since then. I’ve done a few tests using my Kickr as a control and measured it against my other PM (Power2Max). The power is very similar between the two and both are about 10-12% lower than the Kickr - this seems to be in line with other users experience.

Given the P2M is Ant+ only I bought another Zspider to use on my road bike when they had the big sale a few months ago, as I remember it was only around £200 plus the monthly subscription (I already had some chainrings).

The only small problem I have is remembering to save a 30 min ride each month using the app. On my TT bike I’m either racing so no phone or on the turbo so have it connected to TrainerRoad via bluetooth.

Hi carytb,

I was super pleased to see that someone else on the forum had a Zimanox too.

Interesting that you feel yours is accurate. Mine seems to be well out on power but tracks well on cadence vs my Neo.

https://analyze.dcrainmaker.com/#/dcc/a0efdb56-286a-4b86-5c82-a486288b18cd

This was the reason I stumped up the cash to send it back and have it recalibrated and the casing fixed at the same time.

Cheers

Scott

JPJ,

So if the P2M & Zspider match do you think that it’s the Kickr that’s out? It’s difficult to find other user experiences as ZWatt closed their Facebook comments early on after the product shipped.

It’s not so much remembering to save a ride on the app it’s the length of time it takes to connect to bluetooth that I find frustrating, minutes.

Cheers Scott

That’s s super. I’d actually forgotten that, yes, when it first arrived I thought the power was off but initially they wouldn’t believe me until I did a comparison with a Stages PM coupled with historical data re HR that they agreed to take it back at their expense and recalibrate it. It was only then that I thought it was accurate. The main complaint I have is the monthly ride data you (supposedly) have to send to them. Sometimes the data doesn’t record and I have to record it on my phone in addition to the Garmin as their App is not compatible with any training platform. Would I get their dual sided one? I’m honestly not sure.

I’ve got the Zimanox on my winter bike. Records power about 10-12% higher than my KICKR which I’ve found disappointing. Recently put some Garmin Vector 3 on my best bike and this is pretty close to my KICKR, so I’m fairly confident it is the Zimanox that is out.

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Hi, up until a couple of months ago I did think it was the Kickr that was off but I’ve done a number of flat time trails this season and the power on the latter ones looks low when I compare to other riders with a similar time (I know there are many other factors but the difference is large). It’s frustrating as I’m not too concerned with the overall level but do want it consistent. There is a way to manually calibrate the P2M using a big weight, I’m not sure this is possible with the Zspider.

It would be really useful if the power meter manufacturers enabled you to put a percentage variation and/or an offset to enable you to match up different power meters. I e-mailed Stages about that sort of feature and their response was basically " we would we both to do that. Our meters are accurate"

@carytb you can do that on Quarq, Zspider and Pioneer, plus others I’m sure.

There is a bit more discussion on the Matching Up Power Meters thread here

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There is also that feature on the Precision 4iii PM

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This thread has got me thinking. I’m now sure the Zspider on my TT bike is under reading, I did a ramp test on Tuesday (in the TT position) and got an FTP of 286w. I haven’t been training properly for a few weeks but was still surprised by the drop, I’ve been using an FTP of 323w for most of the summer which felt about right.

So went for an outdoor ride this morning and did 1hr 30m at 297NP on my road bike fitted with a 2nd Zspider, so the FTP is defo too low. I re-calibrated when I got home and got a torque offset of -255, I’ll do the TT bike tonight.

I’ve had a quick look on the website and they recommend you submit a fit file and the data saved through the app if you think the power is out. I was also thinking of doing a couple of 10 min efforts at 250w with the Kicker connected to TR and the TT PM then road bike PM connected to my Wahoo. This should give a set of numbers to compare.

I guess I then have the choice to either adjust the offset in the app or send it back for re-calibration.

Anyone got any similar experience? What steps did you take?

Cheers Jon

@JPJ whereabouts in the app is the offset found?

I think it’s the ‘Power Measurement Trimming’ option in settings but I have never used it and can’t find any details on the website. I’ll have a play tonight

I did Mount Field this morning and got some interesting results comparing Kickr (through TR) and Zspider (Element) -

Interval Kickr Zwatt (TT) Diff
4m 232 202 -14.9%
3m 312 276 -13.0%
12m 275 237 -16.0%
12m 276 237 -16.5%
12m 275 236 -16.5%

Last time I did a similar comparison the differences were max 2-3%, I was getting a bit demotivated by my lack of power so this explains a lot!

I’ve contacted support and sent the various files, they got back to me with more questions within an hour so let’s see what happens.

I sent my Zimanox back to Zwatt to have the cracked case replaced and the unit recalibrated. Just ridden it for the first time since getting it back and compared it to my Neo whilst doing the Ramp test. The Neo gave me 37% higher FTP. :frowning:

I tried the power measurement trimming option in the app. The maximum it goes to is 30% so I tried this. I can’t see that it makes a difference to the reading on either my Garmin head unit or the ZWatt app. Does it make a difference for anybody else?

Frustrating!

I was one of first people to back them on Kickstarter, got the cheapest option — Zhimanox (single sided).

Overall I am satisfied, but I also experienced a cracked cover problem and power dropouts (up to 10 seconds during harder efforts). It was fixed by sending it to Denmark. I had to pay service fee plus shipping as Kickstarter products are not covered by their warranty.

I can not verify its accuracy, but it seems that it tracks well with my heart rate and estimated effort from past experience with TrainerRoad’s virtual power.

I had problems with their app at the start, but now it works without any issues. I have high-end phone, though.

It is not clear what is the future for Zhimanox model as it has been marked as out of stock for a year. It seems that they are more interested in developing more expensive options and one for MTB riders.

@JPJ did you ever get anywhere with the differences?

After sending mine back for recalibration it’s exactly the same.

I had a fiddle with the trimming in the app but it didn’t seem to do anything.

Hi, mine is currently back with Zwatt, as I got it through Kickstarter there is no warranty so had to pay €35 to recalibrate. Should be back early next week so I’ll let you know how it looks.

I was considering buying a Zpider with their FTP deal , after reading through this thread i am happy that I did not do it!