Skywatcher Rubbers Perishing

[jeremy1]

Hi Guys. Have any of you Skywatcher owners had trouble with the rubbers perishing and spliting on the focus wheels and the rubber feet of the EQ5 mount. My scope is less than a year old, what should I do? contact the seller for new bits?

[Kai]

It's a pretty widely reported problem , I just replaced the thumb wheel ones with strips of cycle inner tube.

[tbird]

One of the rubber covers on the 300p focus wheels has split in just under a year although my 150p is older and hasn't had a problem. The 'O' rings on the 300p's trusses are also perishing

[twotter]

Both of the rubbers on my focuser have split too.

[jeremy1]

Can you get replacement rubbers or is it a DIY fix up only ?

[russ.will]

Tap washer 'O' rings work well for FlexTube rubbers and are obviously less prone to perishing. They work as replacements for the 'O' ring on SW finders too. For the Tripod feet, I'd look at walking stick/frame feet.

I could see three or four well chosen O'rings working on focuser knobs too.

Russell

[John]

..... I just replaced the thumb wheel ones with strips of cycle inner tube.

That was what I did too. Works a treat

[SteveA]

Me too...

Just used some rubber bands...

[glowjet]

The neatest replacement idea I have seen on these threads in the past is a series of tight fitting rubber O rings. Chinese rubber is something of a mystery, but there is one thing for sure it does not last long

John.

[cotterless45]

I use glycerin or talc on rubber seals, I don't know if this works on Chinese rubber. Certainly does on french car rubber, avoids those leaks,

Nick.

[Carbon Brush]

Hi. If the scope is less than a year old, get back to the retailer and ask for some decent rubber for replacement.

If he can't come up with the parts, try asking for a new scope. Yes this is a serious recommendation.

The rubber should not be perishing in such a short time.

It is not a saleable product if it is not fit for purpose.

It is simply down to the wrong materials (cheapest?) being used.

The manufacturers need to get their act together.

The only way they will only do this if they start having to pay for warranty repairs.

How many years does the rubber on your car tyres last? That is exposed to sunlight.

How many years do tap washers last?

How many years do the dozens of rubber seals around your car last? Not just door seals, but all those exposed to nasty chemicals like hot oil and brake fluid.

Your scope is stored out of direct sunlight. Not exposed to nasty chemicals and not seriously temperature cycled.

The rubber parts should last for many years.

If the scope manufactuer is trying to save pennies on the cheapest (wrong) rubber, where else is he cutting corners?

Can you have confidence in a manufacturer who does not deal with defects?

Perished rubber and failing latitude screws made from soft metal are already well known.

What else is waiting to crawl out?

I have to say that if I had a new Skywatcher on my shopping list, I would be talkng to the dealer about a proper package.

That is one that included spare rubber bits and stainless latitude bolts at the very least.

[fredster]

I used a pack of cheap 'o' rings from B&Q, three rings per focuser wheel. Looks great and feels great. Only cost a few £.

[jeremy1]

Just an update on the Perishing rubbers. I've contacted 365 astronomy from whom I bought the scope and am awaiting thier response as the scope was only purchased March.

[TheThing]

Wow. Annoying; yes but one of those things. I wouldn't get all het up about it as it is not essential to using the scope (hence fit for purpose) and easily sorted.

When the rubber began to fall off my Soligor EP, I just glued it back on. Doesn't affect the EP at all and really not worth going back to the manufacturer or retailer over! Sometimes you just have to accept these little things and get on with it. Life's too short!

TheThing

[russ.will]

It is, I suppose, the price we pay for the quality of optics now available at the prices we pay - Some of the peripheral bits are the absolute minimum necessary. The problem is, that my recent experience has shown spares backup, to come under this banner too.

Russell

[Bizibilder]

I did the "O" ring mod as well - not worth the bother or cost of a return to the supplier. Yes, it is under warranty, but is it really worth the cost and hassle for a repair that costs a few pence and is certainly not essential?

[Andrew INT]

The rubber fell apart on my HEQ5 after a couple of years. I use three small bricks on my lawn as markes to aid alignment. Once the rubber feet fell apart, I super glued three 3/4" tap washers onto the bricks. Now, when I plonk the tripod onto them it is already very well aligned.

[tea drinker]

I did the "O" ring mod as well - not worth the bother or cost of a return to the supplier. Yes, it is under warranty, but is it really worth the cost and hassle for a repair that costs a few pence and is certainly not essential?

If it isn't essential why did you bother to repair it? Your right sending it back would be OTT but getting new parts under warranty is the least I would expect.

I'm kinda with DavidV here, if there's no pressure to improve the parts don't expect it to improve.

[TheThing]

People are allowed to replace what they like regardless if whether you think it is essential or not!

The flip side is that everyone complains about the rubber and SW push their prices up, which would be considerably more than the couple of quid for glue or O rings.

While we're at it, why don't we complain that scope go out if collimation and send them back?!?

TheThing

[Carbon Brush]

Sorry guys if seems an over the top response. Here is my take on it.

Skywatcher (and others) need to know who is buying and using their scopes.

Things falling apart after a few months might be OK for department store trash that is forgotten after the second time outside.

However, if you are making for the serious amateur market, the quality control has to be there.

If failing rubber is acceptable, then what else? My suspicions would be cost savings on coatings that might fail after a year or two exposed to the elements. The wrong grease that causes problems. The list goes on.

Every manufacturer gets things wrong sometimes. What separates the manufacturers who get repeat business from the 'one buy only' is how problems get dealt with.

A very expensive product recall is not needed here. A very good gesture would be for Skywatcher to get a crate of rubber parts made from the correct material and ship these to OVL (and their overseas counterparts). These could be passed to the retailers for distribution to complaining customers.

As a proportion of sales, the cost is minimal.

If I asked my retailer about grotty rubber and he said 'parts in the post tonight at no cost' I would be well pleased. That scope manufacturer and retailer would be definitely on the list for my next buy.

However, if the problem was largely ignored, as seems to be the case here, I would have a very different response. I would be looking very closely at whether I could trust the manufacturer and retailer on my next buy. I would very probably avoid both.

Of course, if my view is the minority, then Skywatcher have everything right. They can sell scopes with bits that fall off, and only a few people are gonig to fuss. You can imagine a project planning meeting for their next product. Let's stick with the lower cost rubber from the Wishy Washer Company. To further help next years profits, can we buy lenses from the Milky Bottom Glass company?

[TheThing]

Yeah, I think you're on your own here (or in a very small minority).

[jeremy1]

Well 365 astronomy got back to me pretty promptly and they are contacting the distributors. You never know I might just get some new rubbers in the post.

[jonathan]

Something that I've seen happen quite often is a retailer or intermediary supplier will take a part off a stock item and send that out to the customer as a 'spare part', then either continue to cannibalise that same stock item or send it back to the manufacturer as faulty.  This works quite well for the customer as it means they don't have the hassle of losing their product for a while or organising shipment of it, and their problem gets sorted out quite quickly (in the case of something that's easy to replace).

I think one could get a bit too hung up on the whole 'acceptability' thing... a lot of complex or expensive products will have some generic / cheaper parts on them, I'm not saying that's a good thing but it's just something that some industries do.  Take bikes for instance, it generally doesn't matter how expensive the bike is, you'll usually get a bog-standard set of cheapo pedals and a generic saddle, these are considered to be optional and the buyer is most likely to want to choose their own from their favourite brand.  Also computer monitors have an acceptable 'dead pixel' percentage (according to some big manufacturer's standards anyway), if you get one that has an annoyingly obvious dead pixel then people will just send it back, and keep doing so until they get a monitor that's acceptable... perhaps there is a dead pixel but it's black so they don't even notice there is one (as opposed to bright red etc).

I guess in the case of Skywatcher and Celestron telescopes we should expect some corners to be cut, think of them as the cheap pedals on a new bike - we could use them for a while or replace them straight away, just like we could replace the focuser wheels or the rubber on them, it's not hard to do and IMO we shouldn't kick up a big stink about it unless we want to go through the hassle of sending the scope back and twiddling our thumbs until a replacement or fixed one comes back (which carries the risk of it being knocked and potentially damaged in transit).

I'm only here because I have the same problem (Skywatcher focus wheel rubbers perishing) and am curious to find out if anyone has come up with a sensible solution.  I like the O ring idea, had thought about the rubber bands but doubt I could find one the correct size (wouldn't want to have to cross one over).  I might just give the innertube a try as I have some spare already.

Sorry, rambled on a bit on an old thread!

[niallk]

The rubbers perished on my 250px focusser... though it took probably 8 years.

Yes I was disappointed, but really no big deal really.

The 250px was the best astro purchase I've ever made: it has been excellent imho.  Thin flexible rubber can tend to perish, and it shouldn't within a year, don't get me wrong.  Ask for replacements.

But don't let it colour your enjoyment of the scope, it's easily replaced.  It was the only thing that went wrong with my scope, and the mirror coatings look as new 10+ yrs on.  No problems with the particle board mount whatsoever, nor wear on the bearings.

[dweller25]

I did the O ring upgrade on the focuser - better than the original 👍

Edited January 9, 2021 by dweller25