Rcbs do not....

Aya

Member
I have been very satiesfied with my Rcbs equipment and the service they offered, not so this time.
My Chargemaster failed, the keypad went mad, pushing the 1 and get an 2. The left column with 1-4-7 and the point, didnt work. The others worked as they should and loads not containing any of these, was delivered correctly. Okay, i sent an e- mail to Rcbs, my unit is more than five years old, so i did not expect any warranty, but asked for a possible repair or spareparts to buy. The reply was kind enough, but in short telling that, if my unit was more than one year old, there was no warranty(fair enough), and they offered no repair and no spareparts, since they did not make the unit themselves! Well, it is green and their brand name are on it, so I tought that it should be their problem, no matter where it is produced. We did not agree on that one, and the only advice from Rcbs, buy a new one. In my country , that would cost about 600 dollars.
I searched the internet to see if anyone had succeded repairing such a unit. What I found did make me wondering, the oldest post i read, was from 2006 and the newest , from 2014.I did not read them all , there was a lot. In all the posts I read, the only fault mentioned, was problems with the keypad ! So close to ten years and still struggling with the same problem. Thats not impressive, and I told them so! In 2006, they seemed to replace units no more than five years old, then there was asked for 40 dollars, then it seemed to be no older than two years, then the fee was raised to 200 dollars and today it is not older than one year and they do not offer any discount on a new one.
So, the good news! I could not find any post about repairing such a unit,but one poster reported problems with static electricity. That said, I have had some minor problems, with some flakepowders sticking to the powdertube and sometimes a couple would stick to the pan. I used a patch moistened with antistatic fluid, washed the whole unit, disconnected the scale, wich seemed to work properly, I broke the seal and opened the dispenser(Nothing to lose) I was careful not to disconnect the cables inside, just used the patch where i could reach. By the way, inside is a small motor and a card, should not be a big deal to bring up some spareparts! After reasembling the dispenser, connecting the scale, I started the unit, pushed the 1 button and..... got 1 !! Everything worked as it should, and has done so since. Tought you should know, this is an easy fix to try, if you get problems with keypad on your Chargemaster, and it does not make anything worse.
I sent an e-Mail to Rcbs about this, they did not bother to answer, I might be on their ignorelist !
PS. I know my english writing is not good, be patient!.
 
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Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Very interesting. I had big problems with my Chargemaster when new. No read out at all and a call to RCBS got me a shipping label. I got a new unit shipped to me but no joy, it didn't work either. By the fourth unit we were on a first name basis and no shipping label needed just send it back. The fourth one worked perfectly and still does, they said they would take this one out of the box and test it before shipping. I asked them if it was Chinese and with a long pause and big sigh he said yes. The Chargemaster was brand new on the market at the time and he said the early ones were giving them fits. Haven't heard anything negative about them since. There was never a question about them making things right and it was pretty obvious during many phone calls that they were more frustrated than I was.

Aya, your English is better than many Americans I know. :D
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
There is a reason I don't mess with electronics......

I have an RCBS digital scale and use it little. I just don't like the drift. I keep on using an old Lyman as it seems to show any variation.

As for English, like Rick said many Americans are far worse than you.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I get no drift with my RCBS digital. I also have the Dillon digital and check both with the other scale, the idea being that if there is a problem with one they would both have to have the same problem to read the same. It's rare they vary by 0.1 grain, mostly spot on same reading.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Never apologize for your English, it is VERY serviceable. Only a serious
grammar instructor would find a very few minor and quite unimportant points
to improve. As Brad and Ian both said quite correctly, this exceeds the
correctness of a lot of American's English efforts. I have worked with many
non-native English speakers and you are in the top 1/2% or so.

Good job on fixing the RCBS unit, I have one and will keep static in mind.
It is a bit disappointing that they provide no support at all, given their
normal spectacular product support.

I recently had the video camera in my laptop stop working - the SECOND TIME,
and last time I sent it back under warranty and was without it for 6 weeks.
This time, I spent time browsing the web, looking for others with similar
problems. Found a youtube video showing prying the screen surround off
and then with a tiny screwdriver - reseating the TINY (maybe 3 mm wide)
electrical plug to the camera/microphone PC card - about 3/8"x 3/4". It
works just fine now. So, at minimum, if the powder machine quits working, see
if there are plugs to pull and reseat or other obvious issues that might
be corrected by the end user. It can't hurt and you may solve the problem.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
No electronic scales. Use an old oil damped Redding and a double beam Ohaus 3100. Not to say I'll never get an electronic, but being more obsessive than I probably need to be about the accuracy of everything (wife would be laughing at that last comment), I weigh and/or trickle 95% of all my charges and also weigh all completed cartridges.
I was the machinist who couldn't let a part go unless it had a 4 micro finish, when the print only called for a 32 micro. I was the machinist that was handed the all of the parts that needed a dimensional tolerance of +.0001/-0000.

Regarding failures of electronics, despite being sadly lacking in electronics knowledge, many failures in electronics devices can be attributed to a broken solder connection (often a cold solder joint, made brittle from many heat cycles) or just a plug/socket connection that was not fully seated.

Your comment suggests that English is your second language. The fact that you care about the correctness of your English is most assuredly why you write so much better than many native English speakers.
Welcome! I look forward to reading more of your posts.
 

Aya

Member
Thanks for your kind words.
I have just finished the first serious testing of my new Mihec molds in .32 acp, .357 mag and .44 mag.
I will try to type something readable about that later. Good news for Mihec, not so for my trusted Lyman molds!
 
9

9.3X62AL

Guest
Aya--

Your English text is easily read and understood. No worries.

RCBS has been a little coy over the years about how they warrantee-cover electronic devices. I'm sure that dealing with the PRC and their malleble morality concerning dealings with American firms is a real Day At The Beach. This is the price we pay for NOT producing electronics domestically, and relying upon latently hostile countries to produce the devices we want. That is one of this nation's principle shortcomings, that we produce so little of what we need and use other than food. We really need to start making things again. This "service industry" economic basing is deeply flawed as a long-term strategy.

Enough of that. I do use electronic scales, I have two of them--a PACT and a China-made "Myweigh" jewelry scale. I check-weigh with a prehistoric single-beam Ohaus mechanical scale that dates from 1975, and it has remained reliable for 40 years of service as a reloading tool. I have complete trust in the little Ohaus, and once readings are verified by the Ohaus I now (in this more humid climate) will rely conditionally on the electronic critters. In the desert with its sub-5% humidities, I seldom took the electronics out of their boxes to use. Static electricity played hell with their accuracy more often than not.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Well, I need to try this. I have had fits with mine for years now. I just got used to hitting the one button 17 times to actually get a one. Thanks for the very informative post.
Walter
 

carpetman

Active Member
Smokeywolf--You want accuracy and weigh 95% of your charges. Try a Belding & Mull powder measure--slower than others but foolproof and accurate. This thread is about RCBS, my experience is they have gone way beyond what should be expected of them. No questions asked and they have replaced everything I had problem with. They even supplied free of charge the parts to convert my new style sizer/luber to a ratchet feed vs the toggle feed, merely because I didn't like the toggle feed which was working perfectly.
 

Dale53

Active Member
I have used an electronic scale for many years. In fact, after many years, mine finally died. It was an RCBS. When I called RCBS they told me the scale was out of warranty (no surprise there for it was YEARS old) and suggested I contact the manufacturer (Pact). I called Pact and sent it to them along with about $35.00 (as I remember) and in a few short weeks it came back good as new. In the meantime, I bought an inexpensive Lyman digital scale to use until the Pact was returned and have kept it as back up.

I have been extremely happy with my digital scales and don't miss my balance.

FWIW
Dale53
 

KHornet

Well-Known Member
The only electronics that I use is a little $25.00 Hornady digital and that only for weighing bullets.l Got the Lyman equivalent of the RCBS charger. Never did work right, sits in the corner gathering dust.