Product Changes for 2017

Add me to the list of leaking batteries. Glad I kept reading this thread. You would think someone from ST would acknowledge the complaints. I just threw mine out and will run it without batteries now.

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Add me to the “due to other battery reports I’ll check mine too” club. Mine were very corroded/leaking. My hub is 18 months old with original Rayovac batteries. Not sure how long the batterirs should last, but i didnt notice any issues the last time i opened the hub a month ago.

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Some helpful info
 http://www.consumerreports.org/batteries/whybatteriesleak/

So What Do You Do?
To clean a gadget caked with the aftermath of a leaking battery, dip a cotton swab in an acid such as lemon juice or distilled white vinegar and dab it on the potassium carbonate—that neutralizes it. Go slowly. You don’t want the acid to wreak havoc on the device’s other components. The liquid will start to fizzle as it interacts with the potassium carbonate. Once the white powder softens, you can gently rub it away with a cloth or toothbrush.

When you’ve finally restored your prized possession to working order, consider using lithium batteries in place of alkaline. They’re more expensive but far less prone to leaking and less likely to self-discharge, too.

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Again – – that advice only applies if you know why the first set of batteries corroded, and in particular if they corroded simply because you had let them die inside the device.

Since for this situation we suspect there may be a design flaw which could be either feeding charge back into the batteries or overheating or simply draining the batteries too quickly, and we don’t know which problem it is, it’s not a good idea to change to lithium batteries at this time. If the problem is one of the first two, a lithium battery could explode in the same situation.

If later it is determined that the only problem is that the hub is drawing power unnecessarily, then lithium batteries might be a good option.

But for right now, changing to lithium should wait until we know more about what is causing the problem, not just what the symptom is.

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Thanks guys, for discussing the battery issues. Just checked: same problem. Why wouldn’t ST send out an e-mail to warn us? This was the first time I heard about it.

Concerning Windows: good thing they focus on the more future proof platforms. However frustrating that may be for existing customers.

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I agree, I guess I should’ve left that part out. It was more because my OCD wouldn’t let me leave my battery compartment like that. :fearful: Does the STH not monitor the battery voltage to send a low battery alert?

I couldn’t care less about an obscure reader app but I’ve been using Netflix enough to pay attention to it.

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A surge protector outlet is just like as you call it “dumb” splitter with MOV (metal oxide varistors) that have no function under normal condition but will open a current path when a fast transient happens. As such, it will not affect the ups in any way.

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All I know is that all the UPS manufacturers have warnings about surge protectors. Here is one:

And when I plug some of my equipment into a surge protector strip and then into my UPS, my UPS buzzes angrily when it’s on battery power. The brand of surge protector doesn’t seem to matter. Same devices plugged directly in to the UPS, I get no buzzing.

Definitely not saying you’re not right about this. It’s just counter to what I understand and have experienced.

I have a whole house surge protector. Does that mean I can’t use a UPS?

:):):slight_smile:

Couldn’t they have thrown in something to look forward to? The only things they are committing to are things they aren’t going to do. How about saying that the tv app or samsung tv control functionality might actually be working sometime soon.

I’ve run both my hubs without batteries from day one, about a year now, without problems. My thinking was that nothing would work without the mains supply anyway, and the hubs become operational again within minutes once power is restored.

With you totally on that one.
Unless you have ups keeping everything alive, why keep the batteries in.

Mine didn’t come with batteries - pretty glad it didn’t now! :slight_smile:

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Again, the new Netflix UWP app is PC only. It is not available on mobile. The developer gets to choose which platforms they deploy to, and the Netflix app available on phones is only the Silverlight WP8.1 app. That’s why Netflix doesn’t have any Continuum support on phone either. The article you link says that the UWP app will be available on phones in the near future
 except it never happened.

Netflix on the phone is version 4.12.0.54, the old Silverlight version. Netflix on PC is UWP and is version 6.17.61. I don’t know how many more ways I can say the same thing. As I said before, even the developers who are putting out UWP apps just aren’t bothering with phone in many cases.

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Only had batteries in my v2 since Early December. Opened it up today due to comments & the rayovac’s were leaking acid! Thanks for the heads up in this thread. This really should go out to all owners. Bottom of the unit seemed a bit warm also but I haven’t gone back to check if that was due to battery presence or unit itself.

I got the following reply back from support, go figure

Thanks for reaching out! I’m sorry to hear you experienced this problem with the corrosion of your Hub’s batteries. There is nothing wrong with your Hub or batteries, and this will naturally occur when devices constantly draw power from batteries in a backup capacity.

We definitely apologize for not alerting people sooner but we did recently publish a support article that addresses why this occurs, how to clean the corrosion, and steps you can take to prevent this from happening again. Please check out the following link:

So much for taking any ownership
Rick

The article is nothing more than an attempt at misdirection. The fact is that batteries are going dead in 1-3 months for some people. There is more going on here than simply old batteries that are leaking from natural neglect.

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Same here
 Thanks for the heads up to check.

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Checked mine last night and snap. exactly the same issue. thanks for the heads up but rather disappointed tbh. suppose i will have to look into a UPS

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