I'm on my third smart trainer ... and they all have worked just fine.

- Computrainer: I had for about 4 years and sold when stopped training so heavily.

- Original Kickr: I had it for about 6 months to train for a cycle trip and then sold.

- Kickr Core (current trainer): I've had since mid-November and so far no issues. I do plan to sell it though when the Neo 2 that I ordered finally arrives. There's nothing wrong with it but I've been wanting a Neo for awhile now so I took advantage of a Black Friday sale from Clever Training.

I feel your pain....My Cyclops Fluid 2 trainer is probably pushing 20 years old and only ever had to replace a broken tension screw. Recently bought a used Elite Direto and it's been plug and play so far with nada an issue.......but I'm still holding my breath a bit.

You should also add a trainer with a rocker board/plate.

Kurt has that now in a direct drive trainer, well, their 'rocknroll' thing, but not sure there are many/any out in the wild yet....

https://www.clevertraining.com/...-drive-smart-trainer

I agree with this - I have a Kickr Snap and the power accuracy is way off. Wahoo customer support was worthless and they completely didn't care or make any efforts to help with the problem. On the other hand my friends have a computrainer studio and those things just work. They look like they're a million years old and the software is very much 1990s but it's still much better than the Kickr Snap.

I've considered getting a different smart trainer but also in doubt what to get as it seems everyone is having issues one way or the other. I've had really great experiences with Powertap which means I'd put a Cycleops Hammer on my watch list. Kinetic seems to focus on building quality products too so I'd look at them as well (I have their Z-rollers which are awesome for recovery rides). But it seems everything is more of a risk compared to an oldschool computrainer.

FWIW - I've had a Cycleops Hammer for about 18 months and it's been bullet proof.

Zero issues, tracks +/- 2% with my Quarq, quiet enough, etc.

I'm sure others are good, but when I was shopping for a direct drive trainer I went with the brand based in the US that had been making trainers since forever.

Buy a used Computrainer. I don't know what I'll do when mine finally breaks, but it's going on 20 years old.

CycleOps Hammer for about a year without a problem. It will get squeaky occasionally, but lube maintenance is hardly something I'll complain about.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

Had a hammer for a few months and love it. Are you talking about drivetrain lube, or do you need lube for the hammer unit itself?

I find tremendous value in DCR's reviews. The disconnect is certainly in reports of reliability over the longer run, as DCR probably gets a fair amount of hours on each device *initially*, but then shifts to new devices, rarely racking up enough use to report on reliability over time. Heck, he sends it all back and has no opportunity for durability testing on most devices (except those he re-buys, I guess). So, I don't think that durability testing is a feasibly expectation from DCR (except, perhaps, in some incidental ways and for things that break just out of the box). But your point is important and increasingly so. When we were dropping a couple of 100 USD on dumb fluid trainers, a busted one was sometimes fixable with hardware store / bike shop parts. Now that we are dropping many 100s (or a 1000+) USD on devices that are complex enough not to be user serviceable - how do we know which ones last and which ones expire? How do we know which manufacturers make things right and which are already focused on selling you the next version? We need a 'Consumer Reports' style, user-based, data-rich assessment. As my own n=1...I have a Tacx Vortex Smart, three years old this month. Uncountably many miles/hours. Bulletproof.

x2. And erg mode on the Snap is a disaster. I thought it might just be my unit until I read the Sufferfest mention of the Snap "Black Hole". While in erg mode, particularly above ~200W, if you let your cadence dip for a few seconds, and the resistance ramps up, there's seemingly no way to recover. I've gone up to 500W (according to the Snap itself) for 30-40s hoping to get the resistance back down so I could resume 250W (or whatever) at my preferred cadence. No luck. It just drives the resistance up until you have to completely stop and eject it out of erg mode. It's extremely frustrating.

Been through several rounds with support.

Yeah I have had this happen to me too. And the problem is I do ALL my trainer rides in erg mode at specific target powers which I manually change with the Wahoo app. But I'm relying on a real powermeter (either my powertap or my Power2Max) to give me accurate power numbers. It's annoying because I need to set values on the app that are much higher than the true power (think somewhere 10 ~20%) and the variance is not always the same.

Got a Tacx Neo a year ago, did about 3000 miles and no issues whatsoever!

I realize there are owners of every trainer out there who have been lucky enough to not run into issues, but I don't know if that is the norm. Almost every person I know who owns a smart trainer has had some sort of issue. Most were eventually dealt with by the manufacturer or LBS, so thats good, but sucks that so many have these issues.

same here but make it ~2 years..

Kickr1 died 2 months in.. their credit they sent me another that worked fine for a year or so..then I bought the Neo.

True, seems to be a lot of variance in user experience. Someone mentioned their Tacx Vortex has been bulletproof for years. I have one and have also had zero issues for years (other than bad power readings). On the orher hand, my friend bought one per my suggestion and it bricked after a month.

I bought a new Kickr Core at the end of November that quit providing resistance after 4 rides. They replaced it pretty quickly with no hassle (good CS Wahoo!), but now the second one seems to be really high resistance at a given watt level. I still need to test it against my P2Max crank based PM. the first one I had was pretty spot on with my crank based one. I dont care if it is too far off as long as I know by how much, and as long as it stays consistent.

I had Core -very- briefly that I had to return to the shop I bought it from as my frame would not fit on it properly. Funny thing is, they messaged me to tell me they tested the trainer anyway when it arrived back, and found the resistance unit wasn't working properly (didn't elaborate) and were putting in a claim to Wahoo for it.....

Sound like an ST poll is needed on Trainer Reliability!

It not a new criticism of ray that his reviews are "optimistic" and very favorable to some brands - much more on GPS watches than trainers.
But to be fair to him, he gives his n=1 experience and it may be that his setup is better than others so he does not have signal drops, etc. Also, he frequently will add more color from the feedback he gets from his readers (which makes it much more valuable).

For what it's worth, my n=1: two tacx trainers (vortex, neo) with zero issues for years (although I got the Flux when it just came out and was DOA and went back for a full refund)

Ditto. I had the Cyclops Powerbeam Pro before I got the Hammer. That sucker would not die and I finally upgraded simply because I wanted direct drive and the latest generation.

Lol. Literally same scenario as me. Powerbeam Pro that was a tank and worked perfectly. But new gadgets are always fun.

This thread is great! Really helps calm the fires of wishing I had a smart trainer. My KK may not be very smart, but it keeps going. and going. and going.

This topic is a snapshot of smart trainer reviews on every site I’ve visited. Consistency seems to be an issue with every major brand. I quickly developed analysis paralysis when I was shopping for a new trainer.