DO NOT buy TACX (Garmin)

Triathlon Forum
1

So, here’s my story with Tacx/Garmin:

In April 2016, I bought a Tacx Vortex Smart, brand new. In October 2016, it was already broken :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1m_Uk1p5dQ

I opened a support ticket, and they’ve sent me a replacement part. Cool. No harm, no foul, shit happens.

Four months later, the problem started to come back again, so in March of 2017, I cave in and contacted Tacx again. A new replacement part would be shipped.

Frustrated that the issue would always be coming back, I asked Tacx in September 2017 if I could upgrade to a Flux, which they agreed (for €300/$368 usd + I had to ship the broken Tacx Vortex back (cost me €90/$110). Because of the ludicrous shipping costs, Tacx was kind enough to lower the upgrade to €250/$307 usd).

So far, so good. Tacx admitted to their problems, and took care of me.

But after 15 months of getting the Tacx Flux… Guess what…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWoL6FwTkw

So, Tacx asked me if my local dealer/where I had purchased the trainer, could ship it back to Tacx, so they could take a look at it, but… I didn’t had a proof of purchase, so I sent them the invoice for the Vortex to Flux upgrade. So back to Tacx my Flux went (this time they paid for shipping).

After the problem was fixed, I asked them if they could keep the trainer for 1 month, as I was moving countries (within Europe).

So in February of 2019, I receive (to my surprise, a Tacx Flux S). YAY. A free upgrade! But… You guessed it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJDQuvP2TUk

Not two years after having received it, noise comes back again (and mind you, that the noise has been there for some months, but I was getting frustrated by this point).

So now… Back to the same dance with Tacx. Sorry, Garmin.

I send the video, they start a return process, and as part of the process, they ask me for proof of purchase, which I… Don’t really have. So I’ve sent them the invoice on the Vortex to Flux upgrade, and tell them this whole story. You know what the answer was?

Dear Customer,

Unfortunately, without proof of purchase,
we can’t help you any further.

So, if you are considering getting a Tacx, or a Garmin product, please be wary that there are risks.

2

I’m not trying to place blame, just honest question.

In all that exchange with Tacx going from the Flux to Flux S… there are no emails confirming all this to show them?

3

I’m not trying to place blame, just honest question.

In all that exchange with Tacx going from the Flux to Flux S… there are no emails confirming all this to show them?

yeah, of course. What I did was send them the ticket ID, so they could track down the conversation on their end. I’ve sent them the ticket IDs for all of the interactions

4

:frowning: That’s very disappointing then.

I’ve never been a Garmin fan, but always thought their customer service was pretty good. I’m not sure if there is a rep on here still, but seems like something that could/should be addressed.

5

Sorry to heat this!
My triclub has a lot of members who have Tacx HT and none ever had any issue!
I have a Tacx Neo for the last three years, did 5,500 miles this year pn it thanks to confinement and it works perfectly well!

6

Firstly… I am absolutely not a Garmin Fanboi.

But - what many Co would say is that effectively your product that you bought is 4+ years old now. As the warranty clock does not reset to zero each time they send you a new one (and consumer legislation in Europe doesn’t include ‘endemic’ problems - just 2 years from original date of purchase.
(I work in an industry where we regularly DO put in the purchase contract that warranty failures DO restart the clock - though only on the broken part, not the whole multi-million-dollar product.)

I would agree however from my own experience that Garmin’s customer ‘service’ in the UK and Europe is very crap with sprinklings of shiite on top. It’s why I’ve moved away from Garmin watches etc (coupled with repeat product failures) - the opposite to what many on this forum say about the customer service they get in the USA.

7

Firstly… I am absolutely not a Garmin Fanboi.

But - what many Co would say is that effectively your product that you bought is 4+ years old now. As the warranty clock does not reset to zero each time they send you a new one (and consumer legislation in Europe doesn’t include ‘endemic’ problems - just 2 years from original date of purchase.
(I work in an industry where we regularly DO put in the purchase contract that warranty failures DO restart the clock - though only on the broken part, not the whole multi-million-dollar product.)

I would agree however from my own experience that Garmin’s customer ‘service’ in the UK and Europe is very crap with sprinklings of shiite on top. It’s why I’ve moved away from Garmin watches etc (coupled with repeat product failures) - the opposite to what many on this forum say about the customer service they get in the USA.

it does reset to zero in Europe, every time a warranty is activated/a product is replaced.

8

As an owner of the Flux which makes that noise you are doing the equivalent of blaming a bike manufacturer for a noisy lubed chain. A quick spray of DW-40 and the issues will go away. It will almost certainly come back when you start the trainer under very cold conditions in fact if you let if get really cold in say a garage at freezing it will wail like an absolute banshee when you first start it up and go away in a matter of minutes as the trainer warms up.

Ultimately I think two factors are at play. The first is that the difference in thermal expansion between the plastic case and the metal components allows the fly wheel to get a bit off balance and you get that sound I can hear in the video of the Flux. The second factor is I think moisture and then grit gets into the trainer via the vent ports with time and this needs to be cleared out. What I do is get the trainer warmed up and then give it a good spray of WD-40. I cover both the fly wheel where it is covered by the plastic case and the inside of the trainer via the ports. Its not a precision process and I try and avoid directly spraying the electronics as much as possible. It takes a bit of time for this to then work its way avoid the system but you will hear the trainer improving over the course of minutes. This doesn’t account for the issue with the Vortex Smart this is an issue with a simple user fix.

9

As an owner of the Flux which makes that noise you are doing the equivalent of blaming a bike manufacturer for a noisy lubed chain. A quick spray of DW-40 and the issues will go away. It will almost certainly come back when you start the trainer under very cold conditions in fact if you let if get really cold in say a garage at freezing it will wail like an absolute banshee when you first start it up and go away in a matter of minutes as the trainer warms up.

Ultimately I think two factors are at play. The first is that the difference in thermal expansion between the plastic case and the metal components allows the fly wheel to get a bit off balance and you get that sound I can hear in the video of the Flux. The second factor is I think moisture and then grit gets into the trainer via the vent ports with time and this needs to be cleared out. What I do is get the trainer warmed up and then give it a good spray of WD-40. I cover both the fly wheel where it is covered by the plastic case and the inside of the trainer via the ports. Its not a precision process and I try and avoid directly spraying the electronics as much as possible. It takes a bit of time for this to then work its way avoid the system but you will hear the trainer improving over the course of minutes. This doesn’t account for the issue with the Vortex Smart this is an issue with a simple user fix.

you can hear the noise when the chain is stopped (Tacx asked me for that specifically).

10

What is making noise is the fly wheel driver mechanism. It will most obvious when the flywheel is moving but the rest of the system is stationary which is what you hear in the video. The fly wheel is still moving but the rest of the system is not moving. When you accelerate really hard such that the fly wheel is moving much slower than the rest of the system I would expect the pitch of the noise to change to much more of a high pitch scream than a grinding sound. I have no doubt the noise is generated internally within the trainer and if you really wanted to sort it you would have to open the case and service the system but that would be a massive pain and definitely invalidate any help from Garmin. Just giving it a good spray with WD-40 has always corrected the issue for me.

As a bit more back story with the Flux was originally launched it suffered from catastrophic failures. The whole system would lock up and its was game over. Tacx rapidly redesigned the internals and I suspect it was this rapid redesign which led to to the issue you are facing. It is not an ideal solution but it isn’t as expensive as the design of the Neo and does self destruct like the original Flux, original Kickr Core, etc.

11

ahh I understand what you mean now. Thank you

12

an update!

After telling me that without proof of purchase, they could not helped me, I’ve insisted that I had provided them with all of the support tickets, with the communication with them, and insisted with a couple of emails, and they finally replied that the damage inflicted to my device, was not covered by the warranty, and pointed to the safety guide that comes with the product.

So I asked them which particular damage I’ve inflicted to the device, by not following which guidelines… To which they reply, that it is impossible for them to say, what caused the damage. uhm…

I replied that if they do not know what caused the damage, why are they claiming that it is not covered by the warranty?

And then they simply said that I was out of warranty. So (this is for Europe), you get 2 years for a brand new device, and then 6 months for replacement/exchanged devices.

So, they have now offered to replace my device (so, the 4th one I will be getting) for €329,04 (398 usd), which I guess is something I will have to take.

13

My experience with Tacx was never good, going all the way back to their I-magic VR trainers. Terrible products with no support, and forums full of complaints.
I have friends who have had the Flux trainers fail after 1-2 years of light use. Garbage.

I’ve had a Wahoo Kickr and a Saris H3, both work great and both companies known for having good support.

14

Tacx lower end stuff is not very good. Kicker is better

Tacx top of the line stuff is best in class. Way better than Kicker and others. It seems that Tacx started at the top, did quite well, and forgot how to do the lower stuff.

15

Tacx top of the line stuff is best in class. Way better than Kicker and others. It seems that Tacx started at the top, did quite well, and forgot how to do the lower stuff.

Tacx Neo has problems, just as wahoo does.

The Tacx Neo Facebook is, unfortunately, a growing list of people with Neo ‘paperweights’, and others on their 2nd, 3rd warranty exchange. It seems that the Neo 2 and 2T are particularly affected. Even if it’s a small percentage of overall users, it’s a lot more than what’s being reported on the kickr forums right now.

Wahoo had a disastrous run of kickrs (the 2018 production run). Apparently the’ve diligently worked out all the known engineering issues in the V5. Time will tell.

My only advice to my friends is to buy new, pay with a credit card that extends (usually doubles) warranty periods, and hold onto the receipt like you’ll actually need it!

I own a Neo OG and I’m just hopeful (knock on carbon) that it avoids the untimely demise that others have experienced.

16

My Neo 2 works. I feel like I should hold my breath. All I know is, I will never update firmware again.

17

My Neo 2 works. I feel like I should hold my breath. All I know is, I will never update firmware again.

Amen. I’m all for tech, but tacx firmware updates scare me. Thankfully, I don’t think the OG Neo will ever get new firmware updates.

Supposedly, and very anecdotally, ‘road feel’ on the Neo 2 and 2T may lead to problems (…this sounds more like a conspiracy theory than fact).

One thing that is known to kill these trainers (wahoo too) is ‘static’. Don’t put your trainer on carpet!