Sram AXS battery issue

mooby77

Active member
Jun 28, 2020
110
119
Snowdonia
I have a problem with two of my AXS batteries , both when charging I have a permanent red light on the charger , error , checked other friends batteries on my charger fine

Does anyone have the customer service contact for SRAM in the UK , Batteries are just over a year old , came with my new bike , 2023 Whyte E-160 rsmx , purchased from Leisure Lake Bikes , Newport , who I contacted , who have just fobbed me off , send it back , and we will then send of for evaluation , 7-10 days min , at my cost . could not give an eta on how long it will actually take to manage the warranty claim.
I explained to them today , without working batteries , I have no working bike , AXS derailleur and dropper , which was an upgrade at point of sale , Aug last year.
Should I contact Whyte , do you think I would get a better result, I heard contacting SRAM direct might be the best option.
Thanks
Paul
 

Ou812

Well-known member
Jun 26, 2022
778
532
Inverness
I have 16 AXS batteries, 2 of them do the same thing. I hold the lock tab down on the charger and seat/unseat the battery multiple times and they’ll eventually start charging. They work absolutely fine, just don’t like to charge for some reason.
 

Jokipea

Active member
Apr 4, 2023
8
28
Scotland
I think the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says your contract is with the shop/retailer so it's their responsibilty to sort out any problems. Not sure if by asking you to send the batteries back to them, Leisure Lakes, (just batteries or whole bike?), for them to send back to Sram they think they are fulfilling their responsibilty. I would think doing that seems fair though, how else are they supposed to do it? Maybe they could give you, if they have any, a couple of spare Sram batteries to keep you going till it's resolved.

The dirty contacts on batteries might be the problem as said above. Cleaning them, carefully, might fix it. If attempting cleaning the charger contacts is more problematic as they are on springs, easily damaged. But as your friends batteries work OK in your charger, it seems like it's OK.
 

RustyIron

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
Jun 5, 2021
1,856
2,910
La Habra, California
A quick and simple solution would be to just bag a couple replacements off of Amazon. The ones I have are MRX Solutions. Two batteries, a charger, and covers are $35. I can't tell the difference between these and OEM.
 

RustyIron

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
Jun 5, 2021
1,856
2,910
La Habra, California
dirty contacts........use contact cleaner.

That sounds reasonable, and more probable than two actual failures.
For contacts that require burnishing, Scotchbrite is my goto. On something small and inaccessible like the battery contacts, a fiberglass sanding pen is the bomb. They're used by automotive painters, but for delicate electrical work, they're great.
 

mooby77

Active member
Jun 28, 2020
110
119
Snowdonia
Thanks guys for all the advice , i will try some contact cleaner and a fibreglass pen on the battery contacts , i do look after the batts , and clean the contacts and also the pins on the charger , I use deoxit shield on the pins on the derailleur
I was not having a real dig at LLB , also , just seeing if there was a way to get a quicker result , than waiting weeks.
Cheers,
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,609
5,092
Weymouth
I dont know...but I suspect the battery is subject to higher voltage feed when in the mech than when being charged and that may explain why those batteries work in the mech but do not charge.....if the contacts are a little oxidised.
 

vds

New Member
Sep 17, 2024
25
26
greece
I have a problem with two of my AXS batteries , both when charging I have a permanent red light on the charger , error , checked other friends batteries on my charger fine

Does anyone have the customer service contact for SRAM in the UK , Batteries are just over a year old , came with my new bike , 2023 Whyte E-160 rsmx , purchased from Leisure Lake Bikes , Newport , who I contacted , who have just fobbed me off , send it back , and we will then send of for evaluation , 7-10 days min , at my cost . could not give an eta on how long it will actually take to manage the warranty claim.
I explained to them today , without working batteries , I have no working bike , AXS derailleur and dropper , which was an upgrade at point of sale , Aug last year.
Should I contact Whyte , do you think I would get a better result, I heard contacting SRAM direct might be the best option.
Thanks
Paul
I have problem with my remote it says full and then goes to red very quickly and it is brand new . Does anyone know if there are faulty axs remote pods out there?
 

mooby77

Active member
Jun 28, 2020
110
119
Snowdonia
I had the following from SRAM rider support
not tried that yet but will give it a go
If the charger displays a Red LED when the battery is installed, it can be a sign that the battery charge level has fallen below the "safety threshold" level. You may be able to recover this battery with a "jump-start" by following this process:

  1. Unplug the charger
  2. Install the battery into the charger
  3. Plug the USB cord into a computer (or other low-voltage outlet) for 3 seconds
  4. Unplug the charger for 3 seconds
  5. Repeat 15 times (or more)
  6. If the LED changes from red to amber/orange, let it charge until the LED turns green.
 

calvintys

Active member
Sep 12, 2023
261
258
Malaysia

Evelhornet

Member
Feb 13, 2023
30
25
Wales
Just use Aliexpress battery and if any problem, dump straight into the bin and replace another. I own few original and Aliexpress battery until now I can't different it.


I just found this on AliExpress:
MYR76.06 | New Battery 600mAh BigRock For SRAM force red axs etap Replacement Battery
Very environmentally friendly!🤔
 

irie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
May 2, 2022
2,731
2,788
Chichester, W.Sussex, UK
Very environmentally friendly!🤔
To put this into perspective - bear in mind that in 2023 China added about 50 gigawatts of coal fired power plants which is more than double the rest of the world combined, and it's 2024 target is about another 80 gigawatts.
 
Last edited:

mooby77

Active member
Jun 28, 2020
110
119
Snowdonia
tried the recommended reset , no good , cleaned the contacts , with contact cleaner and fibre pen also, so battery must be f***d :) , sent back to leisure lakes for warranty , I suspect little but you never know :)
bought new in " black fri " , so back out , yesterday at Afan , all good for now , :)
 

Stihldog

Handheld Power Tool
Subscriber
Jun 10, 2020
3,645
5,186
Coquitlam, BC
This is not about the battery, which could be faulty, but rather the pogo pins.

A bad internal connection could cause issues (broken wire). But the exposed pin itself may be dirty. Sometimes these pins have a very thin coating of gold. This gold contact surface can easily be removed by abrasion. Use a contact cleaner and/or a soft cloth on these contacts.

Corrosion could occur if the thin layer of gold is removed.
 

CraigR

Member
Aug 10, 2020
76
72
Livermore, Ca
A quick and simple solution would be to just bag a couple replacements off of Amazon. The ones I have are MRX Solutions. Two batteries, a charger, and covers are $35. I can't tell the difference between these and OEM.
I agree the batteries are so cheap just buy new ones and buy a few extra to have on hand. I always keep an fully charged extra battery in my backpack. I don't worry about checking the battery every single time I go out that way. I also keep an extra CR2032 battery too.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,609
5,092
Weymouth
A couple of thoughts...
1. I wonder how many people use the red protector plate in the AXS battery charger when it is not in use? Those Pogo pins are easilly damaged!
2. I wonder if it is beneficial to remove the AXS battery when the bike is not in use to allow the springs in the pogo pins to relax for a while? Assuming the bike is stored somewhere dry and reasonably warm leaving the battery compartment open for a while after a ride and clean up could allow damp/condensation in there to air. Just a thought. My bikes are stored indoors so that is what I do.
 

calvintys

Active member
Sep 12, 2023
261
258
Malaysia
Very environmentally friendly!🤔
Bro so far I have no failure on my battery and I bought it for backup initially until I mix up myself which is which, at the end I just use it as regular. Do you think it' is problematic I will recommend it? Rather then figuring your precious original battery solving problems. Cycle more and stop wasting time on battery issues. Anyway I have one extra on bike , on my car and another on my bike work area. So definitely no down time issues on battery. Previously my friend always laught at me when my axs run out of juice in the trial because I am only person using axs n they use mechanical shifter.
 

randycpu

Member
Nov 15, 2018
107
45
Silicon Valley, USA
I had the following from SRAM rider support
not tried that yet but will give it a go
If the charger displays a Red LED when the battery is installed, it can be a sign that the battery charge level has fallen below the "safety threshold" level. You may be able to recover this battery with a "jump-start" by following this process:

  1. Unplug the charger
  2. Install the battery into the charger
  3. Plug the USB cord into a computer (or other low-voltage outlet) for 3 seconds
  4. Unplug the charger for 3 seconds
  5. Repeat 15 times (or more)
  6. If the LED changes from red to amber/orange, let it charge until the LED turns green.
If this procedure works it means the battery charge level has gotten so low that the charger does not think it is chargeable.
What happens next is the charger attempts to charge and then the charger senses a problem, throws an error and shuts down.
In doing this procedure you have sent a small charge to the dead battery. You have to do this many times until the accumulated charge brings the battery to the point where the charger thinks it is OK. This is a common battery thing, called "jump starting".
The more common way to do this is to connect the battery to a dumb power supply set to constant current with a 1C current.
 

calvintys

Active member
Sep 12, 2023
261
258
Malaysia
If this procedure works it means the battery charge level has gotten so low that the charger does not think it is chargeable.
What happens next is the charger attempts to charge and then the charger senses a problem, throws an error and shuts down.
In doing this procedure you have sent a small charge to the dead battery. You have to do this many times until the accumulated charge brings the battery to the point where the charger thinks it is OK. This is a common battery thing, called "jump starting".
The more common way to do this is to connect the battery to a dumb power supply set to constant current with a 1C current.
If the battery has fallen below the min capacity, the capacity of the battery has been damage and it mostly like will not hold capacity 70% above even if u able to bring it back up.
 

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