Elecsol batteries...... what really happened?

[jenevers]

Years ago lots of people thought these batteries were the bee's knees. They did LOOK very attractive with their yellow tops! Then, whenever they rang the owner they got short shrift or abuse. Then the company disappeared. Anyone know what happened?

[GUMPY]

It was a similar scenario to Axiom propellors I believe.

All mouth and no trousers.

[Keeping Up]

When they first came out, they really were the bees knees. Good performance and long life. Then as far as I can tell the company was bought by another, they traded on the original reputation by keeping the advertising the same, saying carbon-fibre etc and with all the original customer testimonials, but actually changed the batteries for ordinary cheap standard batteries which they sold at the same price so made a good profit until the public realised. The new owners were indeed rude and unhelpful on the phone.

[Tracy D'arth]

The guy running the company lived in Neston on the Wirral. He was a 'difficult' guy to deal with particularly if you mentioned Guarantee.

 

The last battery they replaced for me was dumped out of a van onto the floor before he drove off without a word.

 

[Richard10002]

34 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

The last battery they replaced for me was dumped out of a van onto the floor before he drove off without a word.

 

How many times did they replace a battery for you?

 

I ask because it sounds like more than once and, no matter how grumpy they were when they delivered the replacement, it sounds like they honoured their guarantee.

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Richard10002 said:

How many times did they replace a battery for you?

 

I ask because it sounds like more than once and, no matter how grumpy they were when they delivered the replacement, it sounds like they honoured their guarantee.

Dozens, we used to fit them. Had boats with  4 or 6 and they had lots of fails within the guarantee period. There were stories of firms delivering van loads of duffers to boat shows where Elecsol had a stand because it was the only way to get replacements.

The last one was one of my own, it took the threat to fit it into his living room window before he condescended to replace it, months old, a dead duck.  Of course despite being one of the last, a gold topped special edition, it soon failed abysmally.

A sad episode, they had the Army contract for a while, I think that was got them off the ground initially.

[Richard10002]

3 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Dozens, we used to fit them.

Aha!

[tosher]

59 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

When they first came out, they really were the bees knees. Good performance and long life. Then as far as I can tell the company was bought by another, they traded on the original reputation by keeping the advertising the same, saying carbon-fibre etc and with all the original customer testimonials, but actually changed the batteries for ordinary cheap standard batterie which they sold at the same price so made a good profit until the public realised. The new owners were indeed rude and unhelpful on the phone.

Very interesting. I bought 3 x 270ah Elecsols in 2006 which must have been the earlier models as they remained in service till 20.19 without any problems at all. I took them to a scrap yard and got £80 for them.

[AndrewIC]

I had a pair of Elecsol 220s in the early noughties, from before they went over to sealed batteries. Got 12 years out of them, although realistically they were more than a bit ropey by the end and should have been about 9 or 10. Whether I would have managed the same wit a decent pair of unsealed generics is unknowable.