iOptron ZEQ25-GT

[StuartJPP]

This "review" also contains aspects of the supplier of this mount who shall remain anonymous. He may get his own review in another section.

Let me just say that these are my own findings of the specific mount I purchased and received. Other copies of the same mount are almost certainly different as there have been some great results achieved with this mount. But lately on some forums there have been a number of "love it" or "hate it" relationships with the "Z" (check out CN). These are probably due to poor QC from iOptron.

If you look on AstroBin (and some users on here), there are instances where this mount shines....

Anyway, a bit of history...I was after a mount that could take me further than my AstroTrac, a mount that has served me well, in fact much more than I could have ever anticipated. Like most, I want to go deeper, i.e. get longer subs, but with a twist, I still wanted to be fairly portable. I knew that I would have to guide to get longer subs, purely because the periodic error of the AstroTrac is very low and there aren't many mounts out there that will match it for unguided performance.

I was in frequent contact with a very enthusiastic supplier in Hampshire over a period of a few of months, it started in June last year. He is a huge proponent of iOptron mounts, especially the ZEQ25-GT. I kept on coming back to the ZEQ because it ticked quite a few boxes in my requirements. Mainly being lightweight/portable, or more so than an equivalent Skywatcher. I explained to him what my imaging equipment was and was assured that this will not be a problem. After much deliberation and based on his recommendation and a number of online reviews I purchased and received the mount very early in November. I chose to purchase from him and not from a local dealer due to his helpful nature, something I would later regret. To be fair to my local dealer he didn't deal in iOptron mounts when I first started investigating the ZEQ but he did start dealing with them before I purchased. I wanted to give the other supplier the sale due to his initial help...

Perhaps I was spoilt by the extreme attention to detail and precision engineering of the AstroTrac but my first impressions of the ZEQ25-GT after assembling it left me feeling like it was lacking. However I was interested in its performance as it has had some rave reviews not its looks so what followed was 3 months of intensive use. On clear nights I was out, regardless of the moon phase and on other nights I was indoors testing. Every opportunity I got I used to familiarise myself with this mount.

The ZEQ25-GT mount, along with many other iOptron mounts use a spring tension system to keep the gears meshed. This system has been proven to be the cause of some issues with longer scopes but since I use a fairly short tube/lens albeit quite heavy, I was assured that it won't be a problem. The tension system is a bit temperamental and adds a bit of randomness to each session. iOptron realised that people were tightening the tension too much and what followed were burnt out motors. So their solution was to change the design so that this could not happen. However in the process out the box my mount could not have enough tension placed on the RA worm without it slipping. So I had to adjust the RA tensioner to begin with.

Also from the onset it was clear that something wasn't quite right in the declination axis as there was a HUGE amount of backlash. I contacted the supplier within the first few days who told me to contact iOptron who were quick to respond but offered little actual help. I was sent an "internal use only" document on how to replace the RA worm/motor. What I eventually discovered was that the grub screw holding the pulley toothed wheel to the motor shaft was loose on the DEC axis. Something that had to have been like that from the factory.

All along my supplier said that "we will get this mount sorted", he really seemed to want to get this working, or so I thought. What I realised in the end was that it was only me that had to try to get this mount sorted. Ultimately after a few months I decided to cut my losses and send the mount back for him sell it it on 2nd hand. I didn't want to pass it on myself because I would have to be honest and that would involve me selling a mount totally unfit for purpose. He reassured me that he will personally test it out and replace any faulty parts, but within a couple of days he had sold it...so I doubt it got much testing. I lost some money in the process, less than if I had to have sold it myself though I was promised a £100 store credit which I still haven't seen...and never will. He claimed that the mount was functioning "perfectly" and that he won't be honouring the credit...something I expected to happen to be honest.

During my trials and tribulations I sent him PHD logs, sample subs etc. but never received much input in response. He claimed to have taken unguided images of 8 minutes in duration, at longer focal lengths, with perfectly round stars but never produced any evidence of them. Likewise other "members" of his local society were also boasting at their successes, not once did he send an image/link despite the promises.

Looking back I should have sent the mount back within the first 7 days of receipt. I really wanted to get this mount working and with the limited time we get to image in the UK, time passes by quickly. At first I thought it was me not being familiar enough with the mount.

On the last phone call to him before returning the mount, the supplier admitted and let it slip that 3 other users were having very similar problems with their mounts...yet on the other hand he was boasting that he had sold another two or three units over the festive season! I'm sorry but I just can't take this guy seriously any more.

Here's a list of other things I found regarding the mount itself:

The Polar scope and hence polar alignment is extremely sensitive to the mount being level since the polar scope rotates with the RA axis, I can deal with that but there are no flat surfaces. What happens is that if you want to check if PA is still correct, you have to return the mount to the "home" position. Since there is quite a lot of backlash, "home" isn't always quite "home". So you can be off by a little bit. The hand controller displays a graphic of where Polaris is meant to sit which is a decent feature but it doesn't compensate for the mount's current RA position.

The polar scope is also difficult to use since the tripod leg gets in the way. This can be made better by moving the azimuth peg to the southern hemisphere position so that the polar scope is between the legs.
The lower polar scope cap drops off too easily
The polar scope illuminator cord can't be plugged in when RA is in the "home" position.
The polar scope base kept on falling off fouling with RA so had to be glued on.
To zero to the "home" position you have to set it manually and then turn power off. Which loses GPS lock. Not a major issue but why not have a "Reset Home Position" menu item?
The bubble spirit level is way off and even if it wasn't it is practically useless as it is tiny. Why bother fitting one if it isn't right?
The azimuth adjustment knobs are tiny and fiddly.
There is huge backlash on the altitude adjustment knob.
During alignment, there are a small number of common named stars but a lot of them are stars with HIPxxxx numbers, so it will pair up Capella and HIPxxxxx, quite pointless. It doesn't even mention if they are in the west or east.
The GPS takes forever to lock. Even with no OTA attached and RA rotated out of the way it would still take 20 to 30 minutes to lock.
The supplied counterweight bar too short.
The 1.5" tripod is fairly unstable and the feet are moulded plastic. No threaded hole to use spikes, just a slippery hard plastic dome.
The ASCOM driver can only have 1 session connected at a time. So if you want to use CdC and PHD2 at the same time you can't. You have to disconnect each one every time.
The RS232 handset to PC cable was supplied faulty with the RJ11 connector hanging on by two wires.
The hand controller's buttons are very unresponsive and it feels cheap and tacky.
You can't image even slightly past meridian.
Imaging at zenith is practically impossible.
The supplied power cord fouls with the RA axis, a 90° right angled DC jack needs to be used.
I had to sand down the base as there were casting defects which caused azimuth adjustments to be jerky.

As for the retailer, although he is enthusiastic and appears genuine, he has totally lost my support.

In the time I had this mount I only managed to get a single guided sub of 5 minutes in length that I would consider "good", all the others had either trailing or some issues. This was testing with and without guiding. That is it. I will be sticking to my AstroTrac thank you very much.

I will re-iterate what I said above. These are the findings of the particular mount I was supplied. Yours may differ (and probably will) however I believe that iOptron have a serious QA issue. I don't expect mounts to work perfectly from the factory and that a certain amount of tweaking is necessary but this was just ridiculous.

One lesson learned...when a retailer claims "I am an astronomer first and a retailer second", take it with a pinch of salt.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a response to this post stating how wonderful the iOptron ZEQ25-GT is...perhaps it is but the one I was sold was a lemon.

[Fozzie]

I think you've produced a balanced review based on your personal experience, must have taken some thought and restraint not to let your obvious disappointment run away with a few removed words..

Sorry that you had to write it, hope you find the mount your looking for..

[davedownsouth]

Interesting review, I have had some issues with my ZEQ25, but not as bad as your .  Also without naming names, I absolutely agree with your comments over the dealer.  The issues I had with my mount took me ages to sort out, and it took almost 6 month of nagging to get anything done (replaced a mother board in the end).  The last straw for me was when I bought a Rigel focuser from him which he absolutely promised me would fit my scope (which I had also bought from him), only to find that it did not fit my scope (requires some bracket) and I messed up the focuser trying to fit it  .  I was too angry to go back to him with this problem as I know I would have just got a load a waffle so I sent the scope focuser back to the manufacturer to get it fixed.  Lets just say I will not be going anywhere near that supplier again.