Is EGO Power Tools deceiving consumers into breaking their own batteries?
I believe Chervon North America (EGO Power Tools) is engaged in a campaign designed to deceive customers into breaking and re-purchasing expensive batteries. The issue boils down to proper storage of EGO batteries, when they are not in use, for prolonged periods of time — like over winter. The correct method is to unplug them from charging station and leave them alone — for no more than six months. They will discharge to 30% after 30 days and should be relatively healthy for you to use once more when you are ready. While that information is available in their manuals, the context, conveyance, and continuity of that information is severely lacking.
A little bit of background.
Chervon North America is the US entity of Chervon Trading Co., Ltd (Chervon Group) based out of Nanjing, China. This is not the Chevron energy company you may think of first, but that may be irrelevant as you likely know them as EGO. The brand image, the colors, the product external design are far less like the we’ve come to expect from Chinese-only manufacturers, and far more like US-based companies manufacturing in China. Chervon North America, or EGO, has a campus at 1203 E Warrenville Rd, Naperville, IL, 60563.
Context: When do you use and discharge your EGO Power+ Batteries?
The EGO batteries release hydrogen gas when charging, so you likely charge them in a well ventilated area: the garage or your power tools shed. While I have a drawer for printed manuals, I do not have a computer readily available to view the operating manual for the batteries and I suspect most readers will share this setup. Meaning, it is unlikely that you, the consumer, will consult the correct Operator’s Manual (one link below) to “READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS!” and “..obtain the longest possible battery life…”
While reading manuals for equipment is something I support, there is one piece of information that would be valuable if it were placed on stickers placed on the batteries and charging station:
“Do not leave a battery on prolonged charge when not in use”
The stickers would help promote proper usage of EGO Power+ Batteries. EGO advertises smart-technology and health monitoring as part of the benefit. It is no stretch of the imagination to think that a $159.99 EGO Power+ CH5500 56 V Lithium-Ion Battery Charger would provide battery management. It does have a number of indicators for health of a battery, I do not think it is unreasonable to think it would handle the long-term maintenance of a battery as part of the system. It does not. In fact, I have little evidence to support that this device does anything more than your typical $10 charger.
Contextually, a sticker would serve as a bridge between the end-user, the charging/storage practices, and the information needed to do so properly. Failure to warn consumers may be a simple oversight, or a deliberate attempt at promoting misuse. I personally think it is the latter for reasons further explained below.
Conveyance: What happens when you consult the Operator’s Manual or EGO directly about long-term storage of batteries?
You will not find “do not leave a battery on prolonged charge when not in use” language in the North American/US version of the manual (at least not in the one at the time of this writing), because I found it in the Operator’s Manual for the New Zealand and Australia Market. Instead, North Americans are given recommendations.
To obtain the longest possible battery life, read and understand the operator’s manual. It is good practice to unplug the charger and remove the Lithium-Ion battery pack when not in use.
For Lithium-Ion battery pack storage longer than 30 days: Store the Lithium-Ion battery pack where the temperature is below 80°F (26°C) and free of moisture.
- Store Lithium-Ion battery packs in a 30%-50% charged condition.
- Every six months of storage, fully charge the Lithium-Ion battery pack.
- Exterior may be cleaned with a cloth or soft non-metallic brush.
There is a sharp difference between “Do Not” and the laissez-faire presentation of practices in the North American Operator’s Manual. Certainly, a warning would be taken far more seriously by all of us than this, especially when presented with additional maintenance tasks on top of storage practices. The information is obscured by other warnings and less-relevant information, and I think all of it plays into it being missed and ignored despite the repeated asks for reading and understanding all information.
What happens if you reach out?
I will fully admit that when faced with severely degraded batteries after only a year, and reviewing the information, I felt that EGO would most likely argue that “The batteries in this tool have been designed to provide maximum trouble-free life. Like all batteries, they will eventually wear out.” and I would be forced to drop another few hundred dollars on a new kit. The primary reason for this is that the batteries — despite their complete degradation — did not report failures. While I can only run my power equipment for about 3 minutes, they show as full charge and healthy on my charging station.
Faced with dead but “healthy” batteries, feelings I was duped and deceived by EGO, and general frustration with the information available I opted to go to the Better Business Bureau. I wrote a simple complaint citing the evidence included in this piece and received only this response:
We would like to request the customer to review page 16 of the owners manual which calls out best practice for handling and storage of batteries. The manual can be located on the product page using the below link.
For anyone willing to click that link, it goes to a sales page. While they cite page 16 the pertinent information on page 14. Page 16 is the “EGO WARRANTY POLICY”.
My complaint addressed consumer protection requirements more than my own circumstances, that response only furthered my resolve for a call for better consumer protections.
Conveyance, thus is effectively doublespeak by EGO. The manual is filled with language designed for Chervon to escape culpability and reinforces detrimental behaviors by consumers.
Continuity: is the pendulum swinging back to a buyer-beware existence?
Let’s be fair, with the availability of smart phones you may be more diligent and attempt to find appropriate battery winter-storage information. Which is something I attempted, and became so frustrated that I spent my Saturday morning writing this article. The outcome of the search was a plethora of results irrelevant to my main question: “how should I correctly store EGO batteries over winter?”. Much of the information readily available was limited to the advanced self-maintenance and the ability for the battery to retain 30% charge.
NOTICE: This battery pack has equipped with an advanced self-maintenance function. It can maintain 30% of its charge capacity automatically after it is stored over one month.
Now, we’re all to blame here. I found forums and posts of people asking similar questions and responses that failed to inform. Our inability to open an Operator’s Manual and do the work ourselves is likely a contributing factor to this problem, but I think our digital dementia is being exploited by EGO.
The continuity then is the propagation of bad practices. The consumer is not informed of proper procedure in the right context, is given misleading information when they attempt to source it from the manual, and is the incorrect conclusions likely drawn are further reinforced by a continuous steam of misinformation.
Reasonable Conclusions?
EGO Power Tools sell at a premium. For example, a Tiller (Cultivator) attachment for the multi-head system is $199. That is on top of the Multi-head itself ($149) and a proper battery ($259.99). That is a total price tag of $607.99 for a handheld cultivator that has the same capability as a corded GreenWorks device for $139. The only reason to buy it is because you distribute the costs of battery and core parts among multiple attachments, you believe in the quality of the product, and trust the advanced self-maintaining battery system.
I argue that last part — the trust — is broken. There should be no trust. The batteries are seemingly nothing more than a profit center for a company that knows most of us will continue to buy the replacement batteries due to sunk cost fallacy and then repeatedly destroy them until we wisen up enough to read the information and interpret it correctly. Sure, you could buy after-market batteries, but let’s face it — without transparency into the supply chain — you are likely buying them from Chervon.
Researching this story has lead me away from being a fan of EGO Power Tools to a victim of their exploitation effort of American consumers. A perception that easily could have ben mitigated by a clear warning, or, preferably, a proper design of a charging station does little to support the advanced self-maintenance claim EGO makes. Thanks to companies like Chervon, Buyer Beware is Back Baby.
