Riva 901 battery problem solved: design fault.

[fly poster]

O.K, finally figured out the problem with Riva batteries, took some figuring out, 4 batteries of mine have all failed in sucession. Look in the top of the battery, you see the bit that looks like a slotted screw? well the atty pushes down on this, so that after a few charges it cannot reach the connect in the charger. It's a simple design fault. I suspected that, so I measured the distance from the edge, to the inner bit on an unused battery, verses a bust one, a fraction of difference, but enough, then I took apart my charger, and very carfully used the wires to connect to the middle and the edge, it began to charge. I soldered back together my charger, then using a match head, prised up the slotted bit in the battery(used something non conductive, or short you battery!!!), plugged it in. and it charges. hope that helps. I found that slightly thinning down the match, so it just fits, and running around the bottom edge of the slotted bit prising up the best way.

Continuiung to do this rather annoying proceedure with batteries that won't turn the light red on the charger, eventually ruins the battery. Makers of Riva, sort it out! A suggestion would be to lighty as possible screw in your atty, until it just connects, to stop this lowering of the middle connect.

two of my batteries have died well prior to their expected life through doing this Match trick, but in an emergency, it's better than smoking, which I have had to do on several occasions.

 

[Ghostsamurai25]

I have four dead riva batteries that have all died in the last two weeks.
One set was new, however purchased last august with the other kit.
I cant believe my damn luck, now Im going to have to buy a pack of cigs
because I have no batteries. Boy am I heated over these damn pos batteries!

 

[Zen~]

Why don't you guys pick up a PV that uses real batteries and real chargers?

This is one of the MANY reasons I am so negative about Rivas, eGos and fat bats... They fail without warning!

 

[Dartster]

The simpler method to this is to just use the set screw in the Riva battery and turn it out towards the top of the threads. Takes 5 or 6 turns and the battery will charge. I had this problem and this is what I do. No issues and they fire right off when I go to charge them.

 

[Ghostsamurai25]

No, the riva batteries suck! Its not a charging matter, its a matter of the circuits burning out.
I have over 12 dead and fried batteries. Two I just received 2 days ago. Piece of .... product forced me to spend 200+ on a provari. I cant wait till it arrives.

 

[jjcordone]

Dartster: Thanks for the tip! One of my Riva's did the same thing and I was ready to return it. I moved out the set screw as you said and game on, back in business! I assume just connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting works the set screw further in to the point where it won't make contact, correct? Anyone have an idea of a perm fix for this? Maybe some locktight on the screw?

 

[tonyorion]

Do not feel badly. I lost 8 of 10 Ego's and all 3 of my Rivas over the course of a year. The Rivas have a switch problem and the eGo's a mofset problem. That is a problem with integrated PV's with non replaceable parts.

Of course, many of you will answer "Mine work fine!". The survey here shows that they are anything but perfect. 30% reported failure rate on the ECF survey. One supplier reported a 87/500 fail rate on an incoming shipment of eGo's.

We have so knock off's out there that it is hard pinpoint the factory.

In general here are my rubs against both systems:

1) I am into e cigs because they are a smoking cessation method that has worked for me (one year).
2) I travel a lot and cannot afford a failure when on the road. My two Rivas failed me when traveling. Managed to find some garbage e cig in a gas station that kept me from cigarettes. Now I travel with a spare switch and plenty of charged batteries to last me a trip in the event of a charger failure.
3) Never again will I buy an integrated e cig with a proprietary battery and non replaceable parts. The regulated circuit is nice but IMHO not really needed on a fixed voltage device with Li Ion batteries since the voltage output on LiIon's is fairly flat except at the beginning and very end of the discharge cycle.
4) There are plenty of small, compact mods out there with replaceable batteries and switches like the Icon and ePower. Li Ion batteries are rated for about 300 charge cycles which for me represents less than a year's use since I am a heavy vaper. Only I can get batteries from DealExtreme for less than $4 shipped vs. $15-$25 for a Riva/Ego. The math becomes very easy

 

[countrygirl1291]

The simpler method to this is to just use the set screw in the Riva battery and turn it out towards the top of the threads. Takes 5 or 6 turns and the battery will charge. I had this problem and this is what I do. No issues and they fire right off when I go to charge them.

Can you 'splain this a little more? How do you 'catch hold' of the screw? It's recessed into the bat case, the screw has a flat top w/no driver indent, and there's not enough space between the screw and the side of the bat case to grab it w/tweezers.

A RiVa bat that I started using on 6/2/11 went dead on me yesterday, but when I put it on the charger, the light is green. I expected more than 6 weeks life out of it, considering that I rotate it w/other bats and I don't think I've ever let it get fully discharged.

 

[joeman]

I hope this helps. I had a similar problem with a kit with 2 900 mah batts. One of the batt connectors was slightly lower than the other. Some atty's would work but cartos, no. A friend on this forum said use a fine point toothpick and slightly raise up the conn. on all sides till its raised and bam worked fine. I guess I had been screwing all my attys and cartos on too tight and it isn't necessary. Now after doing this before charging and before screwing a atty in I discovered all I had to do was to hold the batt from opposite end and give it a downward flick and I would hear the conn click back into place. So sometimes a good old flick will fix your bic. It isn't necessary to tighten your atty's on to tight just enough to make contact.

 

[WillyB]

O.K, finally figured out the problem with Riva batteries, took some figuring out, 4 batteries of mine have all failed in sucession. Look in the top of the battery, you see the bit that looks like a slotted screw? well the atty pushes down on this, so that after a few charges it cannot reach the connect in the charger. It's a simple design fault...

Well I would call this user error, these aren't like lug nuts on a car, you only have to make contact.