Returns & Handy Tips

We do get returns from time to time — and most returned items test perfect. Here are some hints to save us both some postage and exercise.

Important

First, you are responsible for testing any item you purchase before you use it in, on or with your equipment. Before you fly your plane, run your robot, race your car, fight your battlebot, fly your drone, etc., be certain that all equipment has been tested and found to be in good operating condition. All electronic current limits, polarity, and utmost safety must be observed. Radical RC will not be held liable or responsible for any improper installation, misuse, craft losses, injury or damage. You agree to hold Radical RC harmless, as you are responsible for your own equipment and actions.

Second, you are also responsible for all shipping costs to and from Radical RC, unless we’ve shipped something found to be defective or in error — in that case we’ll return your return-ship fee ($7.00 minimum that you have enclosed with your return). Be sure to include a note listing full details of the problem, your name, address, and the return shipping fee of $7.00 minimum, or permission to charge your credit card (nothing enclosed gives us permission to charge your credit card or hold your return). Please have mercy on us — don’t expect us to remember our conversation about your item or issue. While you may have only talked to one hobby supplier in the last 2 weeks and can remember everything, we talk to over 100 customers and suppliers per week. So please give us a refresher note. Because parts without notes don’t talk, we’ll have to hold them until the owner sends a note or calls to speak for them.

Missing Items or Order Mistakes

Darn it! Like you, we are human. We have no intention of making mistakes on your order, but sometimes we err. We are more than happy to correct our mistakes, and truly appreciate the opportunity to make your order right. We understand that you really wanted your goodies yesterday or last week, so we know it’s frustrating to have to deal with an order error. We’ll do our absolute best to fix it as fast as possible. Thank you for letting us fix it, and please let us serve you again — we will always try to do better!

Lost or Damaged Package

Ugh! Lost or damaged packages are a rarity. We recommend you add insurance to your order to protect your investment. We will not be held responsible for a shipper’s damage to your package if you did not purchase insurance at checkout, because you are choosing to take the risk. Also see our Shipping FAQ page.

It will then return to us at no charge to you or Radical RC. If you purchased insurance at checkout, we can file a claim with the carrier. If you open the package, it is at your own risk and we may not be able to file a claim or get reimbursement — which means you may not get a replacement or reimbursement, and that would hurt both of us.

As per our checkout page, you chose your shipping method, and you had the choice to have your order shipped insured (recommended) or uninsured. We will pack your order well. Sometimes humans at shipping companies mishandle packages (we know you’ve seen the awful videos). If you chose to ship your order uninsured and your package arrives damaged, you took your chances — don’t ask Radical RC to foot the bill.

Lost? Insured: no problem, we can file a claim. Uninsured: that’s a problem, we cannot file a claim. However, we will investigate to make sure where your package was shipped, and if we messed up, we’ll send another order. If you messed up your address, you are welcome to place a corrective order. If the lost package shows up, DO NOT OPEN IT — mark it "REFUSED" and drop it back in the mail. It will return to us at no charge, and we can issue a credit for the return providing it is not damaged.

Battery Packs

Almost every battery pack that is returned to us tests perfect when properly charged and properly discharged. Please review your handling procedures and notes, then email us in reply to your order confirmation for pre-approval for the return.

I’ve Got the Accucycle Blues

If you think you have a bad NiMH or NiCad pack (it is possible), please take time to test your cycler rig as instructed below. If you’re using an Accucycle, please be aware many of these have been shipped out of adjustment, and I don’t want the pack back until you’ve tested the calibration on all functions AND cycled it on a friend’s cycler. 99% of Accucycle-owner packs are returned in perfect condition, just as they were sent. I’ve spent enough on postage returning these packs, and hours writing letters of explanation — I could have bought a new top-of-the-line radio with the postage and finished 4 or 5 model projects with the time. If yours is poorly cycling a new battery, call Tower/Hobbico and have them help you figure out why: they made it and sold it, they should support and fix it.

THE ACCUCYCLE IS NOT BAD! Many were simply shipped out of calibration — calibration is the issue — and I’m told Hobbico/Hobby Services provide excellent service fixing out-of-adjustment units. Any cycler can also drift over time. Just because a device was once in calibration only means it was once in calibration. Test it before you send a project my way.

We use a finely calibrated Orbit Microlader to test returned packs. If you’re interested in a fine quality tool like this, contact us. Please note: I love to give good service, and I love to build model airplanes. The more you check out your gear (as explained below), the less time I spend cycling perfect packs and the more time I spend building.

Charge Check

Check the mAh while it is charging a pack, with your volt/ohm meter in line with one of the wires. Is it really charging at whatever it says it is?

It won’t cycle up to snuff if you only fill it 50%. Check the discharge with the same setup. Don’t be fooled by the switch setting or printing on the charger — is it 50 mAh, or really 40 mAh? If it’s really 40 and you base charge time on 50, your pack will later test at only 80% of what it should. Also be sure you are charging long enough on non-terminated chargers: charging an 1100 mAh pack at 50 mAh for 14 hours will only test about 500–600 mAh on your cycler. It takes 30.8 hours to fill an 1100 mAh gas tank with a 50 mAh spout. Remember there is a 40% loss when charging — you have to put in 140% to fill up a pack. Example: 100mah charge rate for 14 hours to fill a 1000mah pack.

Every NiCad/NiMH pack needs a break-in charge on a simple non-terminated charger (a wall charger, for example). NONE of these high-end (or low-end) fast chargers can handle a virgin pack properly every time. The voltage curve is not normal on the first charge. These chargers use the voltage curve to figure out when the pack is full. Once you’ve fully charged the pack one time on a slow charger, the curve becomes stable and your whiz-bang charger will work fine.

Yes, I’ve seen some that claim they can. But why give yourself a headache trying to force it, when a simple 10% rate overnight charge will get you off to a good start? Remember: capacity of the pack / 10 is the safe MAXIMUM overnight non-terminated charge rate. Lower rates are fine — you’ll just need more time. Radical RC is under no obligation to make sure another manufacturer’s charger can do what its instructions say. I learned my lesson long ago and quit trying to fast charge virgin packs.

Just because something worked once does not mean it is a good, reliable practice, or one I am willing to guarantee. If your non-NiMH-rated fast charger seemed to charge them fine previously and does not now — or used to peak-detect new packs without a break-in charge and won’t now — contact your charger manufacturer and take it up with them.

If you’ve read all of the above, you already know the answer. Capacity (2700) × 1.4 = 3780. 3780 / charger output (150 mAh) = 25.2 hours. You’re only charging the pack 55% as long as you need to fill it — I bet it’s cycling around 1500 mAh. The largest pack you can reliably charge from dead at 150 mAh in 14 hours is 1500 mAh. In 14 hours you can fill a pack that is 10× the charger output. Never charge any battery with a charger that fills the pack faster than 14 hours unless it has a peak-detection method rated for your kind of cells. Only buy chargers with NiMH ratings — everything else is a dinosaur!

Discharge Check

Put your volt/ohm/amp meter (set to measure amps) in line with one of the charge wires and set it to mAh. When it’s properly in line, the current must pass through the meter (like natural gas passes through a meter) to get from the battery to the discharger. It makes no difference which wire (red or black) you break with the meter. Be sure the mAh setting you’re using is higher than the expected discharge measurement. Your discharge current should be within 2 or 3 percent of what your cycler says. If the discharge current is supposed to be 250 mAh but really measures 296 mAh, your cycler will trick you into throwing away good battery packs — every hour it runs gives a false reading of −36 mAh. An 1100 mAh pack might test at only 929 mAh.

Do not presume that because your cycler tests your factory Futaba/Hitec/JR/Airtronics/Brand-X pack close to its label, your cycler is adjusted properly. I’ve seen many packs that say one thing but contain a higher-value cell inside. Maybe the manufacturer is trying to keep buyers from sending marginal packs back for warranty by labeling a 600 mAh cell at 500 mAh. Maybe they ran low on 600 mAh cells one week and built packs with 700’s or 1000’s. Not everything in print is true. You can’t test a battery charger/discharger for accuracy with a battery — it’s like checking a ruler for accuracy with the board you need to measure.

Very good question! I’ve never seen any cycler maker include this info in their instructions — what an oversight. Factory cell ratings for NiCad and NiMH are at a 5-hour discharge rate. If the purpose of testing a pack is to see if it meets the factory rating, you must cycle at capacity/5. For an 1100 mAh pack, that’s a 220 mAh discharge rate. Cycle faster and you get lower ratings; slower, higher ratings. Obviously no hobby cycler is intended to be this accurate, as most don’t discharge below 250 mAh. As pack size gets smaller the discrepancy grows; larger, and the cycler becomes more useful and accurate. It’s not uncommon for somebody to cycle a 350mah pack at 300 or 500 mAh, then write me: "the pack is bad, it only cycles 290 mAh." The pack should have been cycled at 70 mAh to test against the factory rating. It’s a good sign if you can cycle around capacity × 1 and it still comes out 80% or better (for a new pack). If you cycled a 350 pack at 300–500 mAh and it measures near or over 350mah, that indicates your cycler is NOT accurate, or the pack is mislabeled.

Harness Check

While your cycler is discharging, wiggle all the connections on your charge harness. Does it kick off and back into charge? An intermittent or poor connection can give you some mighty odd readings. How are the ports into which your harness plugs? Are your wires small or long? Try to be sure your leads are 22 gauge, and the shorter the better. There is a voltage drop across a long wire which will cause your cycler to stop the discharge early, giving a false low reading. Measure the pack’s voltage through another harness — does it match the suspect harness, or is it much lower?

Take a volt meter and check that in your charge lead the red is plus and black is negative. Test at the end of your charge harness — not at the charger port or banana ends — because that’s where your pack is being charged. Yes, I have gotten back several packs that would not cycle to expectations because they were being charged and cycled backwards. When I cut the jacket off and the wires are connected correctly, and the plug is wired correctly yet reads backwards, it becomes obvious the customer charged it backwards. Anything can be hooked up backwards if you try hard enough. Look your setup over closely — most of us use banana ends on our charge cords that could be switched backwards quite easily.

Yes sir — every pack is guaranteed to ship to you between empty and 3% charged. It’s silly how many packs get returned because the voltage was zero when the customer opened the package, and some wizard’s manual somewhere says this means the pack is bad. It is true that every shorted cell reads zero — but that does not mean every cell that reads zero is shorted. They come out of the factory with only a low % charge, and with daily self-discharge, many will test at or near zero by the time they reach you.

Receivers: GWS R4P / R6N & RD8

Make sure your GWS 4- or 6-channel RX matches your TX: a white sticker with an "F" works with Futaba and Hitec transmitters; a "J" works with Airtronics or JR. Make sure the black or brown wire in your battery, servo and ESC connector is plugged into the pin connected to the circuit board closest to the edge (they’re all soldered together; signal pins are never joined and sit closest to the middle). The end-edge pins are always the negative pins on any RX (excepting vintage old-style Airtronics). If you’ve plugged it in backwards, there is a smoked voltage regulator on the board and it is not returnable — I can’t put the smoke back in for you. They just don’t work once the smoke gets out. Both GWS and FMA RXs are not packed with burnt regulators (FMA RXs are warranted by FMA — don’t send them to me). GWS RXs that look or smell burnt will be returned to you. It is perfectly normal for a GWS RX not receiving a TX signal to wiggle and jiggle the servos.

If your GWS RD-8 isn’t working: flip the shift switch on the back (it sets the TX type — JR setting won’t work right with a Futaba TX, etc.). Make sure the xtal frequency matches your TX. If you use a PCM TX it must be set to PPM to work with a non-PCM FM RX. The pin soldered to the end of the circuit board is always NEGATIVE (only old-style Airtronics and Sanwa factory RXs excepted). Signal wire on the positive pin = won’t work, guaranteed. Every single one of these returned tests perfect and goes right back to the customer. Save us both some exercise by being sure before returning it.

Dymond, Hitec & Horizon Items

In the rare instance of a problem with one of these items, return it to the respective company for repair and warranty service. We are not an authorized warranty repair service for these companies — warranty service is part of what you’re paying for in their product’s price. Save yourself postage and needless delays by returning these items directly to the company that warrants them and has the knowledge to repair them. Sending it to me, so I can send it to them, so they can send it to me, so I can return it to you, is not nearly as quick as sending it straight to them yourself.

Dymond: 858-495-0092 · www.dymondusa.com
Hitec: service@HitecRCD.com
Horizon: Horizon Hobby Service

Yes! I stand behind MY products — Radical RC wiring, battery packs, kits we produce, etc. I am happy to let other companies provide service and warranty work on THEIR products; they clearly know best how to repair them. If you need assistance like a copy of a receipt or an address, contact us — we’re happy to help. We view every return as an opportunity to earn your business for life by giving you the good service you’d expect. Being sure an item is good or bad before it ships is what benefits us both most.

The detailed economics: if you return your 3-month-old X-brand charger to me, I replace it, send yours off to the X company for repair, and get it back — I now have a used charger. I’ve paid to ship it 3 times, collected $14 in shipping, spent $45, and have to discount the $110 charger about $30 to sell it used. It is the same effort for you to ship it to the X company as to me. So please, ship a faulty item to the company that warranties it.

Servo Problems

Servos are not shipped with stripped or missing gears — they are sold new. If they have stripped gears, it is because they have been dead-headed, crashed, jammed, dropped or abused. Any servo from any manufacturer can be tested to destruction: run it on your cycler under load until it overheats and burns out, and you’ve got a bad servo to add to your collection. Other problems can be taken care of or replaced. Faulty HES servos may be returned directly to us. Hitec and all other brands must go back to the factory, as they warranty them knowing I don’t have the expertise to repair them.

Turns Out I Don’t Need My "XYZ" Item

Please understand that a portion of what you pay covers postage, packing materials, time to take your order, paper, and labor. The price did not include paying us to "un-sell" the item. Be sure of your purchase — buy what you buy to keep. When you ask to return an item because you wrecked the airplane, got excited about another project, or a buddy gave you his old voltmeter, there are expenses we incur. Certainly there are times when you bought one thing and should have gotten another, and we are very happy to exchange your item with 100% credit. If you want a refund, there is a 15% restocking fee for returned items, plus the original actual shipping cost from us to you (regardless of how much shipping you paid), unless we are in error. Refunds are processed after inspection (7–10 business days after we receive it) to make sure the item is unused and in new condition.

If we’ve screwed up, we’ll fix it: not every order goes out the door perfectly, though we do our best. In any case we will resolve your purchase to your satisfaction.

Credit Card Claims

If you enter a credit card claim against us, it costs us a $25+ fine and a possible rate increase over the next 5 years — they don’t tell you that when you call the credit card company. When you make a chargeback claim, you’re telling us you don’t trust us to be fair and honest with you. We didn’t answer your email fast enough? Please call us — we get hundreds of emails daily and sometimes overlook important ones by accident. We feel strongly that you should only spend money with people you trust, and if we’re not those people, we do not want your money — not even a penny. Really, there aren’t many such troubles: 99.9% of all modelers are the very best sort of honest, friendly, helpful, kind and courteous people around.

Things Never to Return

Things We Accept If There Is a Problem

Email Sales@RadicalRC.com first — but always remember, anything you send must include a note and shipping fee, otherwise your item sits until we hear from you!

Related Pages

Shipping FAQ’sTerms and ConditionsCycler FAQ’sBattery FAQ’s