Don’t ever replace the battery.

I’m so disappointed in TE’s stateside repair vendor. I had to swap out the UI PCB (wonky red knob), so I figured why not replace the battery? I’d had the unit 5 years, so I figured it was due anyway.

Big mistake.

For starters it took a month for the process, although the repair tech Don Hassler is in GA, and I, NY. Not exactly the other side of the world. I’m sure he has his workload, but my problem is that the communication was garbage. Forget actual contact info for the guy that’s holding your $1000 baby. It’s not available. He’s a ghost. In my line of work, if I’m holding a $1000 piece of a customer’s property, he damn well knows how to get a hold of me. That’s business.

When it was all over, I truly believe I got a shit battery in return. My old one didn’t even show sign of depletion for at least 4-5 hours. This one goes from 5 lights to one in that span. I haven’t burned it down to auto shutdown yet. I’m hoping that’ll show improvement on a fresh meter calibration. I’m not optimistic.

All told, an unpleasant and deflating experience. I wish TE’s service workflow mirrored that of their flagship keyboard; efficient, immediate and communicative.

I’m sorry to hear, mate… Keep us posted re: your battery performance?

How much did you pay ?
Calibration is a well known problem, I never trust the lights so I’m optimistic for you :wink:
I don’t understand how they run their business, they’re lucky so far we have no real alternative to the op1.

you do realize it probably has less to do with the guy doing the repair than the repair guy waiting for parts from te right? op1s are basically out of stock everywhere. seems like there’s probably some supply chain issues going on and they’ve got so many irons in so many fires with pos, opz, and ikea stuff (not to mention whatever else is going on that we don’t know about) that keeping repair parts on hand for a 6 year old synth they’re effectively not even selling anymore is pretty low priority.

i’d keep an eye on the battery stuff and if it does legitimately lose charge extra fast hitting te up on social media is usually the quickest way to get a response with companies like that.

@drybones said:
you do realize it probably has less to do with the guy doing the repair than the repair guy waiting for parts from te right? op1s are basically out of stock everywhere. seems like there’s probably some supply chain issues going on and they’ve got so many irons in so many fires with pos, opz, and ikea stuff (not to mention whatever else is going on that we don’t know about) that keeping repair parts on hand for a 6 year old synth they’re effectively not even selling anymore is pretty low priority.

i’d keep an eye on the battery stuff and if it does legitimately lose charge extra fast hitting te up on social media is usually the quickest way to get a response with companies like that.

I don’t think he got the battery from TE, though.

And they ARE still selling and making them. It’s their flagship product! Still in high demand. Why stop making them?

ive never found the leds to accurately show the battery life. still on the OG battery aswell.

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As a service provider myself I think a main factor in any business deal is communication. If I made a mistake in over-promising, the least I could do is talk to the client and explain the situation. You don’t have to be a PR expert to answer a phone or reply an email. The tech guy could do it. TE could do it. Even out-sourcing their customer service could do the trick.

Sorry you are in this situation, I hope I’ll never have to deal with something like this.

ya battery indicator mega wonky. i’ve had it on 1 led for like 5-6+ hours before.

i’d be a lil sketched out opening my op1 for the first time
but doesn’t seem too hard to replace the battery yourself
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Teenage+Engineering+OP-1+Battery+Replacement/65563

if someone knew the dimensions of the battery & the cavity,
u might be able to find a larger capacity one than 1800maH but similar size too.
looks like a standard 3.7v lipo battery.
not that it really needs more battery life, but hey if you’re already in there, why not?