Sensors full of Bubbles, Plastic peels off.

sartoric

@ankletom
Hopefully (almost surely :D) it will be ok, as a new unit, since it’s not used but refurbished.

but then, only god knows

@sartoric said in Sensors full of Bubbles, Plastic peels off.:

since it’s not used but refurbished

Good to know, after all buying refurbished unit has its reasons

pierre545

Hi

I have the same issue on my Suunto Vertical.
I had contact the customer service last week.
They said that is a coating issue and I need to ship my watch in order to replace my watch case.

My SV is at suunto warehouse since today.
I will see in 20 working days.

fv4500

Hei there! My honeymoon with Suunto is probably over: my fantastic 9PP, bought September this year, is developing the same bubbles + coating peeling off. I won’t bother uploading a picture, it’s exactly the same as posted by others. Thanks for raising the issue by the way .
So, I’m not in the mood for letting go my watch for a month… What would happen if we just let the issue develop completely? I’m trying to leverage on one hand the (minimum) one month without the watch and on the other just live with the issue. Any thoughts? What sensors do we have there? How would readings be affected?
Just 2 more cents: like many others, my watch has not been in contact with anything except my skin and my sweat, has been taken care of after each activity with clean, clear water and, well, I can’t imagine any reasonable reason why this would be happening .
Cheers!

Elipsus

@fv4500 Yo, you should try to send it back, the bubbles will affect the HR reading once they start to be on the sensing area (the squares above and below the LEDS), also for me they irritated my skin because its scratchy

GiPFELKiND

@pierre545 how long you use your vertical since this bubbles make it Scratch?! How long time?

GiPFELKiND

@fv4500 how long you use your watch until this bubbles are coming?

fv4500

@GiPFELKiND I wear the watch basically 24/7 (except for charging 20min once a week). Aprox 5 activities per week (including running, hiking, treadmill…), 45min each since I got my 9PP this September. The rest of the watch looks “just unboxed”. Maybe my sweat is like Alien’s xenomorph’s blood…

fv4500

@Elipsus yeah… I know I should, but it’s hard for me to swallow that I’ll loose the watch for so long… I use the HR strap anyways so I just wanted to leverage the impact of just accepting this. Will see…

fv4500

@GiPFELKiND that’s in fact a much better question than I thought: what’s really the point of sending the watch, waiting for a month, hopefully getting it back repaired, only to find out that bubbles are coming up again after just a few weeks… We need to see if there is an actual change in the coating process during manufacturing that makes it more durable.

Elipsus

@fv4500 I can’t agree more, I had to sent back my watch for 3 weeks in August and it really caused me troubles on my trainings, and I will have to send it back soon.
Do you plan on doing a winter break maybe ? for me i’m going to send it back in January since i know i’m not going to run/train as hard

fv4500

@Elipsus Haven’t decided yet… first I would like to understand the impact on readings’ quality if I just keep the watch as it is, and then I would like to have a certain reassurance that there have been improvements in the manufacturing process such that sending the watch makes it worth it and no bubbles come up again. Maybe I’m hoping too high.

Tieutieu

@fv4500 said in Sensors full of Bubbles, Plastic peels off.:

@Elipsus Haven’t decided yet… first I would like to understand the impact on readings’ quality if I just keep the watch as it is, and then I would like to have a certain reassurance that there have been improvements in the manufacturing process such that sending the watch makes it worth it and no bubbles come up again. Maybe I’m hoping too high.

As it is a known and obvious hardware default, I would not hesitate to sent it for replacement, while your watch is still covered by warranty ; but I understand you don’t want to leave your watch.
Don’t know how long it really takes, but few years ago the barometric sensor replacement of my A3p was quit fast.
If you don’t have a spare watch (I still keep my S9b), you may perhaps exceptionnaly consider using SA to directly record your training ?

fv4500

@Tieutieu thanks for the suggestion! Yep, that’s something I consider: tracking the most relevant training sessions using the Suunto App + HR strap. Anyway I know I should be sending it for repair…

GiPFELKiND

@fv4500 since May this bubbles Problem is known and suunto had not given any official Statement because of this!? Really???

Tieutieu

@GiPFELKiND said in Sensors full of Bubbles, Plastic peels off.:

@fv4500 since May this bubbles Problem is known and suunto had not given any official Statement because of this!? Really???

@GiPFELKiND : it is not like a “security” problem…When talking about cars, health devices, climbing ropes or carabiners…off course an official statement and return campaign is needed…
It always concerns “specfic” models or series.

We are talking about something that is erratic, and problably concerns few models of few series (and certainly not all series). Unless I’m sure Suunto would have asked for complet series return for replacement.

Except some OHR issues, I don’t remember that anybody talked about unusable watches or ones that exploded !

So the “if you are concerned, contact SAV for replacement” seems quite enough, isn’t it ??

sartoric

@GiPFELKiND
what do you expect ?
I mean, it’s clearly a defective batch and you got it fixed if you contact support.
What should Suunto do more than that ?

fv4500

@sartoric said in Sensors full of Bubbles, Plastic peels off.:

I mean, it’s clearly a defective batch and you got it fixed if you contact support.

You made an important point here: do we get it actually fixed? Because, if you send it once and then it’s solved forever and ever, that’s worth the month of waiting, otherwise… Would be great to understand if we’re talking about a defective batch from a reliable coating process or, otherwise, it’s the process not actually reliable? Soooorry, I’m going too technical .

ChrisA

@fv4500 I may be completely wrong, but since there seem to be some people who (repeatedly?) had this peeling problem, while others had none -> may this have something to do with those useres skin/sweat in combination with a sensitive material used in Suunto’s coating? There seem to be people who have more corrosive sweat than others…

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/974027/

fv4500

@ChrisA yep, probably there’s part of this in the issue, but there has to be something clearly wrong in that only after 3 months of very light use of the watch the coating starts to peel off.
By the way: anybody knows if Suunto replaces just the back cover of the watch or the whole thing? Is water tightness (IP rating) guaranteed in full as a brand new watch would?
Thanks!