Pure evoke flow owners, a question on the chargepak battery life.

[fido87456]

I bought one of these radios for my wife for christmas, with a chargepak. She is chuffed to bits with the radio, but the battery life of the chargepak seems a bit rubbish.
From full charge we are only getting between 4 and 5 hours before it needs recharging again. (This is listening to t'interweb radio, which I guess will make it use more power than FM or DAB).

I'm interested to know how much life other people are getting from the chargepak, so i can decide if its normal or if there is a problem.

One odd thing I've also noticed is that when I plug the radio in to charge (with the radio turned off), the battery charging symbol shows (ok thats not odd, but bear with me) and then after half an hour or so, it goes off, however if I then turn the radio on briefly the battery charge symbol appears again, and will stay there for another half an hour or so before disappearing again. I'm not sure if this is normal behaviour or if it could indicate a charging problem with the radio that could be responsible for the short battery life...

 

[professorhat]

I have one, though I have to say I only use it sporadically in the bathroom so it gets 10-15 minutes use on some days. Generally the battery lasts about 2 - 4 weeks depending on how much I have it on which probably equates to somewhere around 4 - 5 hours I guess. Is it supposed to last longer? 4 - 5 hours seems quite reasonable to me...

 

[Andy Clough]

DAB/internet radios do tend to be quite power hungry, so 4-5 hours may not be that unusual. Might be worth giving Pure a call on 01923 260511.

 

[fido87456]

Thanks for the replies, I'll badger Pure and see what they have to say.
Prof, the website says up to 15 hours per charge, otherwise I'd probably have agreed that 4 or 5 wasn't bad

 

[Clare Newsome]

I'm sure it'll run happily for up to 15 hours playing FM radio, but as Andy points out, DAB and internet radio are a lot more power hungry. Same also with battery life on mobile phones doing internet duties as opposed to phone ones; or iPods playing video rather than music.

My Pure Oasis features an integral ChargePak and that runs a good few hours of DAB over the course of a couple of weeks before needing to be recharged.

 

[Anonymous]

Clare Newsome:
I'm sure it'll run happily for up to 15 hours playing FM radio, but as Andy points out, DAB and internet radio are a lot more power hungry. Same also with battery life on mobile phones doing internet duties as opposed to phone ones; or iPods playing video rather than music.

My Pure Oasis features an integral ChargePak and that runs a good few hours of DAB over the course of a couple of weeks before needing to be recharged.

My Flow only lasts about 4 hours, but then I've only just bought it.

 

[professorhat]

Just as an update on this, have had cause to actually use the radio constantly for a while and have now had over 10 hours of DAB radio on one charge (well, a small break while I slept). It's still going but the battery symbol is almost empty now so probably not much time left.

How are you using yours? If you're using it sporadically, then don't forget the battery will discharge even when you're not using it (hence why I only tend to get 4 hours actual use or so over a few weeks). But if you're using it constantly, you should get much longer than that on the battery it would seem.

 

[fido87456]

Sorry Prof, only just noticed your question as I checked back to this thread to post an update myself. (wish there was an option to be emailed when people post on a thread) To answer your question, my test was for constant use from fully charged.

Since making this thread I have performed more tests and eventually returned the radio as faulty and received a replacement. I can report that the charge lasts significantly longer on the replacement radio, and unexpectedly it also has a much improved FM and DAB reception! (I was blaming the trees near our house, and didn't even consider it to be a fault!)

I haven't tested exactly how long the charge lasts, but I haven't had the 'damn, has that run out already?' thoughts that I had everytime with the first one. So I am very happy.

Incidentally, I'd like to mention Amazon for their fantastic customer service in dealing with this. As soon as I emailed them reporting the problem they sent a new radio out the next day, and gave me 30 days to return the faulty one using a free of charge returns label. Absolutely fantastic service!

Thanks to everyone that offered advice

 

[Anonymous]

Having just been given one of these by my family for my birthday, I was going to get the battert pack, but the price; £30 + postage, seems very high. Considering the problems reported with their reliability on other forums (eg Amazon). Does anyone on the forum have any trouble with them getting hot, failing etc etc? Or should you only connect to the mains to charge, and not leave the batteries in all the time?

I am tempted to try to make up a DIY battery pack if I can get the wiring information, in the way we used to make up such packs for my sons radio controlled model racing cars.

Advice would be welcomed.

Bloody good radio though...