Light cord leak on Helios

[MXGratefulDiver]

All,
I sent it back to Halcyon and they repaired it in about a month. I just got it back, but before I go dashing for the shore, I wanted to know if anyone else had this problem and how they resolved it.

It took them a month to get the light back to you? That's not very good customer service.

I own one piece of Halcyon gear ... and I have to say I'm completely underwhelmed with the quality of the product.

It's a Helios 9 that I purchased from a friend who needed to raise some cash. He bought it in April 2004, new, and sold it to me three months later ... at the time with about 30 dives on it. I knew, and accepted at the time that not buying it from a dealer would mean no warranty on the product, but hey ... it's Halcyon ... it MUST be good stuff, right?

Wrong!

When I purchased it, the first thing I noticed is that the charger has what I found out was a "known problem" ... it will charge only until the thermistor warms up, then you have to unplug the thing, wait a few seconds, and plug it in again. Nice design ...

I figured out the charger kicks off at roughly 6 minutes and 20 seconds, so in order to charge my light I have a timer sitting next to the charger to let me know when the light switches from yellow to green. Then I have to unplug the light for roughly five seconds and plug it back in ... less and the green light comes back on, more and the thermistor-warming cycle repeats itself. This isn't something I would expect to have to put up with in a quality piece of gear.

Next problem is a light bulb that has a tendency to work itself out of the seat ... causing the light to sparkle, but not fire, when you turn it on. Then I have to reseat the bulb before I can start the dive ... which usually involves getting out of the water, walking back to my car, getting out of my rig, taking care of business, and redoing the whole start of the dive. What a PITA.

Next came the flood ... one of the locking latches somehow came unlocked during a dive. I noticed it when I took my gear off ... and the damage was done. The battery was toast. Halcyon, of course, charges two and a half times what everyone else does for the battery ($400 ... three other sources offer the same battery for $150).

Unfortunately, the money-drain doesn't stop there. Now the light switches itself off at most inconvenient times ... like when I was just entering the Sasketchewan on Sunday ... causing me to back out of the wreck and modify my dive plan on the fly. I can turn the light back on by playing with the switch ... but it'll turn itself off again a few minutes (or a few seconds) later. Apparently when it flooded some water got into the switch, and it's corroded.

Oh ... and now I'm advised to get the light cord replaced before it breaks, because Halcyon was too cheap to put a strain relief on it. But hey, that's only an additional $60.

Meanwhile, I've been watching my buddies Halcyon wings self-inflate because the inflator they used to replace the one they recalled also doesn't work properly.

So far I'm not impressed with what I see coming from Halcyon. Perhaps that's why it takes a whole month to turn around a repair ... because they've got so much of it to deal with.

I can tell you that when this Helios 9 finally does get repaired, I'll take the loss and sell it ... and I can't see myself owning anything else this company sells. Not, at least, until they figure out that quality requires more than putting a blue H on your product.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MAK52580]

Touche Bob

Yeah, thus far, I have been unimpressed with the light. We will see how it works in the pool in a day or two.

I would definitely think that the strain relief would be a little cheaper since you can get a hose protector for about $3 and it is essentially the same thing. I have not had the problem with the charger that you have had, it charges on its own with no problem. And thus far, my SS inflator on my wings hasn't self-inflated, but I agree with you, at some point, the price is not worth the quality and service.

In this case, it took a month because of the holidays and hurricanes. Since it was not the middle of the dive season and I have been out of town for work a lot it wasn't really a problem.


I am not defending or flaming on Halcyon because I can see both POV. But I do agree at least from a manufacturing and business perspective, there are changes within the Halcyon company that need to be made.

It took them a month to get the light back to you? That's not very good customer service.

I own one piece of Halcyon gear ... and I have to say I'm completely underwhelmed with the quality of the product.

It's a Helios 9 that I purchased from a friend who needed to raise some cash. He bought it in April 2004, new, and sold it to me three months later ... at the time with about 30 dives on it. I knew, and accepted at the time that not buying it from a dealer would mean no warranty on the product, but hey ... it's Halcyon ... it MUST be good stuff, right?

Wrong!

When I purchased it, the first thing I noticed is that the charger has what I found out was a "known problem" ... it will charge only until the thermistor warms up, then you have to unplug the thing, wait a few seconds, and plug it in again. Nice design ...

I figured out the charger kicks off at roughly 6 minutes and 20 seconds, so in order to charge my light I have a timer sitting next to the charger to let me know when the light switches from yellow to green. Then I have to unplug the light for roughly five seconds and plug it back in ... less and the green light comes back on, more and the thermistor-warming cycle repeats itself. This isn't something I would expect to have to put up with in a quality piece of gear.

Next problem is a light bulb that has a tendency to work itself out of the seat ... causing the light to sparkle, but not fire, when you turn it on. Then I have to reseat the bulb before I can start the dive ... which usually involves getting out of the water, walking back to my car, getting out of my rig, taking care of business, and redoing the whole start of the dive. What a PITA.

Next came the flood ... one of the locking latches somehow came unlocked during a dive. I noticed it when I took my gear off ... and the damage was done. The battery was toast. Halcyon, of course, charges two and a half times what everyone else does for the battery ($400 ... three other sources offer the same battery for $150).

Unfortunately, the money-drain doesn't stop there. Now the light switches itself off at most inconvenient times ... like when I was just entering the Sasketchewan on Sunday ... causing me to back out of the wreck and modify my dive plan on the fly. I can turn the light back on by playing with the switch ... but it'll turn itself off again a few minutes (or a few seconds) later. Apparently when it flooded some water got into the switch, and it's corroded.

Oh ... and now I'm advised to get the light cord replaced before it breaks, because Halcyon was too cheap to put a strain relief on it. But hey, that's only an additional $60.

Meanwhile, I've been watching my buddies Halcyon wings self-inflate because the inflator they used to replace the one they recalled also doesn't work properly.

So far I'm not impressed with what I see coming from Halcyon. Perhaps that's why it takes a whole month to turn around a repair ... because they've got so much of it to deal with.

I can tell you that when this Helios 9 finally does get repaired, I'll take the loss and sell it ... and I can't see myself owning anything else this company sells. Not, at least, until they figure out that quality requires more than putting a blue H on your product.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[mer]

Halcyon was very fast with their turn-around time of my light. They had it maybe 5 business day, and one of those was for the ballast repair to cure, and one of those was for them to modify my cord length, as per my request. The whole megilla took about 3 weeks door-to-do, but that's b/c I live 5 ground-shipping days from FL. You like in Canada and I imagine that will only add a few days to transit time.

I imagine if I needed the light immediately I could have sent it second day, and the turn around would be have been in the range of a week.

Other than the first generation SS inflators, I've had no problems with my Halcyon gear (2 HIDs, 6 wings, 4 liftbags, 3 scouts, 2 knives, 2 sets spring heels, 4 spools, 2 masks, argon straps, stage kits, and reels). But your mileage may vary.