Posted: 6/21/2015 3:30:55 PM EDT
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The other day I was at the range, and there were a few city police officers performing their periodic training exercises. Anyways, I stopped by to see how well they were doing, and noticed only one officer was carrying a taser. I recall awhile back the department purchased several (5-10 years ago) and asked why more officers weren't carrying one? The officer replied that they break after awhile (didn't specify how they stopped working) and he had one of the few left that work.
Just curious, what kind of failures have been experienced in the field, and how long has it taken before they start to fail? I did some googling and couldn't get a solid number on how much repairs cost, however some have commented repairs can cost at least half the price of the taser itself. |
| In August of 2007 I ordered X26 Tasers to be issued to my patrol officers. Within the first year two went tits up and had to be repaired at our cost. By 2011 almost all had been replaced due to issues beyond our control. As of now I think I'm the only one that still has an X26, mainly because mine rides in the passenger seat most of the time. |
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The other day I was at the range, and there were a few city police officers performing their periodic training exercises. Anyways, I stopped by to see how well they were doing, and noticed only one officer was carrying a taser. I recall awhile back the department purchased several (5-10 years ago) and asked why more officers weren't carrying one? The officer replied that they break after awhile (didn't specify how they stopped working) and he had one of the few left that work. Just curious, what kind of failures have been experienced in the field, and how long has it taken before they start to fail? I did some googling and couldn't get a solid number on how much repairs cost, however some have commented repairs can cost at least half the price of the taser itself. So was it Barney that still had a taser or Andy? Sounds like a small town. |
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So was it Barney that still had a taser or Andy? Sounds like a small town. Quoted:
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The other day I was at the range, and there were a few city police officers performing their periodic training exercises. Anyways, I stopped by to see how well they were doing, and noticed only one officer was carrying a taser. I recall awhile back the department purchased several (5-10 years ago) and asked why more officers weren't carrying one? The officer replied that they break after awhile (didn't specify how they stopped working) and he had one of the few left that work. Just curious, what kind of failures have been experienced in the field, and how long has it taken before they start to fail? I did some googling and couldn't get a solid number on how much repairs cost, however some have commented repairs can cost at least half the price of the taser itself. So was it Barney that still had a taser or Andy? Sounds like a small town. Keep in mind you're not in GD... |
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Ours are around 7 years old and about a quarter of the units that were bought are now unserviceable. More are still being carried but are unreliable
We are scheduled to replace them this year My old part time place had two tasers and one of the two was almost always out of service Yes taser structures repair costs to encourage buying new ones |
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Thank you everyone for the info. Kind of sad they structure their repair prices to push newer units. I figure if repair costs weren't so lopsided, more departments would get theirs repaired or send them out for periodic maintenance.
Regarding the town size, it is small. About 4500 people in the city limits. Several years ago a non-profit organization I belong to helped purchase some of the tasers in the department. As you an guess, that is why I was interested in the whereabouts of these tasers, and why they weren't being used. |
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Regarding the town size, it is small. About 4500 people in the city limits. Several years ago a non-profit organization I belong to helped purchase some of the tasers in the department. As you an guess, that is why I was interested in the whereabouts of these tasers, and why they weren't being used. Tasers are not exactly a durable item. Especially if they are used daily they wont last particularly long. Its kind of like expecting your PDs laptops to last 15 years Not happening |
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Thank you everyone for the info. Kind of sad they structure their repair prices to push newer units. I figure if repair costs weren't so lopsided, more departments would get theirs repaired or send them out for periodic maintenance. Regarding the town size, it is small. About 4500 people in the city limits. Several years ago a non-profit organization I belong to helped purchase some of the tasers in the department. As you an guess, that is why I was interested in the whereabouts of these tasers, and why they weren't being used. I'm a fan of tasers but the company has moved to a more Apple approach of bleeding the customer out over little changes. Spark tests used to be for "1/19th of a second", and recently changed to a full 5 second test everyday. They say it's to keep the onboard stuff charged and ready but in my opinion it's to bleed the customer out on buying more stuff like batteries since you drain the shit out of them now. Their warranty programs are now structured to keep you paying fees constantly like phone carriers do with replacement phones every so often. I can see departments adopting a more limited use of tasers based on cost to field, whereas agencies like mine have always been proactive in getting them to anyone who wants one. That coupled with higher liability with dang near every case is making places gun shy so to speak with fielding them. When they work they work well, but ultimately risk vs cost. Dammed if you have them and if you don't anymore. |
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I'm a fan of tasers but the company has moved to a more Apple approach of bleeding the customer out over little changes. Spark tests used to be for "1/19th of a second", and recently changed to a full 5 second test everyday. They say it's to keep the onboard stuff charged and ready but in my opinion it's to bleed the customer out on buying more stuff like batteries since you drain the shit out of them now. Their warranty programs are now structured to keep you paying fees constantly like phone carriers do with replacement phones every so often. I can see departments adopting a more limited use of tasers based on cost to field, whereas agencies like mine have always been proactive in getting them to anyone who wants one. That coupled with higher liability with dang near every case is making places gun shy so to speak with fielding them. When they work they work well, but ultimately risk vs cost. Dammed if you have them and if you don't anymore. Quoted:
Quoted:
Thank you everyone for the info. Kind of sad they structure their repair prices to push newer units. I figure if repair costs weren't so lopsided, more departments would get theirs repaired or send them out for periodic maintenance. Regarding the town size, it is small. About 4500 people in the city limits. Several years ago a non-profit organization I belong to helped purchase some of the tasers in the department. As you an guess, that is why I was interested in the whereabouts of these tasers, and why they weren't being used. I'm a fan of tasers but the company has moved to a more Apple approach of bleeding the customer out over little changes. Spark tests used to be for "1/19th of a second", and recently changed to a full 5 second test everyday. They say it's to keep the onboard stuff charged and ready but in my opinion it's to bleed the customer out on buying more stuff like batteries since you drain the shit out of them now. Their warranty programs are now structured to keep you paying fees constantly like phone carriers do with replacement phones every so often. I can see departments adopting a more limited use of tasers based on cost to field, whereas agencies like mine have always been proactive in getting them to anyone who wants one. That coupled with higher liability with dang near every case is making places gun shy so to speak with fielding them. When they work they work well, but ultimately risk vs cost. Dammed if you have them and if you don't anymore. I thought the move to the 5 second spark test was to keep from developing muscle memory. |
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Taser has the market cornered for sure. Quoted:
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Damn things break if you use harsh language. . it would help if they were not made out of recycled milk jugs. OP, somewhere in you local dept there is a drawer full of Tasers waiting to be repaired.  Taser has the market cornered for sure. There is a competitor out there, I've seen the ads in police magazines. Cheaper, one piece unit, takes rechargeable batteries. Taser will probably sue them into oblivion. 
ETA, found it. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10281468.htm |
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If you've been a cop for awhile, you know that Taser was the most horrendous torture device out there for a long time. Now, there are people saying things like "Why did the cops have to shoot him? Why didn't they just tase him?"
The pendulum has swung the other direction. The Taser is a great device but they don't last a long time. I have an X26 for work but it's starting to have issues. Only issue right now is the LCD display is starting to fail. Still works but it's days are numbered. We have the new X2s but I don't like how big it is. |
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The most common issue I've seen on the X26 is it not turning on when you flip the safety. You have to cycle it a couple times.
I think it was said in a post already but the x26 is not serviced/repaired anymore so you have to buy the new version out of pocket if your x26 takes a dump. |
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The DPM at the base of the handle inevitable works loose and starts to lose contact/short out, causing the screen to flicker through the test pattern of dashes, numbers, letters, etc.
The department guy then "fixes" it and it goes back into rotation, only to do the same thing over again. |
| Between the 2 small departments I've worked for, I can only recall one of my x26's failing. That's because it got wet in a creek during a foot pursuit. Other than that one, I can't recall any fellow officers' failing. Though, they could have that I'm unaware of. |
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Interestingly enough, on Monday, my Taser shit the bed. I took the cartridge out to spark test, and got 1 arc before it shut off. Not 1 second, 1 single spark. Turned it off and back on to try again, same thing. Took the battery out and re-seated it, shocked the hell out of my finger that was on top of the unit, about 2 inches from the front. Felt like it came through the plastic.
Needless to say, it was taken immediately out of service and I was given a spare. Our last spare. Gonna have to order new ones if the others start similar probs. |
| The X26P is more robust and will take more abuse, as is the X2. As for the Phazzer, I went to their website awhile back and had to send them an email about the word "Conductive," being misspelled. I only know of one U.S. PD that uses them, and they bought them because they were cheap. Small department and no one has used the device yet. If you think the X26 looks and feels cheap, your opinion of the Phazzer would not be favorable. |
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The X26P is more robust and will take more abuse, as is the X2. As for the Phazzer, I went to their website awhile back and had to send them an email about the word "Conductive," being misspelled. I only know of one U.S. PD that uses them, and they bought them because they were cheap. Small department and no one has used the device yet. If you think the X26 looks and feels cheap, your opinion of the Phazzer would not be favorable. If I'm not mistaken, Phazzer is a redesign and rebrand of Karbon Arms, which was a rebrand and redesign of another one. All are shitty in comparison and have issues of their own. |
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S I thought the move to the 5 second spark test was to keep from developing muscle memory. Quoted:
S Quoted:
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Thank you everyone for the info. Kind of sad they structure their repair prices to push newer units. I figure if repair costs weren't so lopsided, more departments would get theirs repaired or send them out for periodic maintenance. Regarding the town size, it is small. About 4500 people in the city limits. Several years ago a non-profit organization I belong to helped purchase some of the tasers in the department. As you an guess, that is why I was interested in the whereabouts of these tasers, and why they weren't being used. I'm a fan of tasers but the company has moved to a more Apple approach of bleeding the customer out over little changes. Spark tests used to be for "1/19th of a second", and recently changed to a full 5 second test everyday. They say it's to keep the onboard stuff charged and ready but in my opinion it's to bleed the customer out on buying more stuff like batteries since you drain the shit out of them now. Their warranty programs are now structured to keep you paying fees constantly like phone carriers do with replacement phones every so often. I can see departments adopting a more limited use of tasers based on cost to field, whereas agencies like mine have always been proactive in getting them to anyone who wants one. That coupled with higher liability with dang near every case is making places gun shy so to speak with fielding them. When they work they work well, but ultimately risk vs cost. Dammed if you have them and if you don't anymore. I thought the move to the 5 second spark test was to keep from developing muscle memory. It was once upon a time, taser has gone back a forth over the years. Now they are saying its needed to keep the circuitry "charged" on the newer systems. If the taser hasn't been energized in a while we have found issues with hang firing as the system went online so to speak. That was a rare case though when the taser hadn't been spark tested or energized in like 6 months when officer slacker didn't take care of their stuff. For a while we had to go to 5 seconds anyway as we found there was a training scar with that. Officers would fire then turn it off. |
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There is a competitor out there, I've seen the ads in police magazines. Cheaper, one piece unit, takes rechargeable batteries. Taser will probably sue them into oblivion.
ETA, found it. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10281468.htm Quoted:
Quoted:
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Damn things break if you use harsh language. . it would help if they were not made out of recycled milk jugs. OP, somewhere in you local dept there is a drawer full of Tasers waiting to be repaired. Taser has the market cornered for sure. There is a competitor out there, I've seen the ads in police magazines. Cheaper, one piece unit, takes rechargeable batteries. Taser will probably sue them into oblivion.
ETA, found it. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10281468.htm I may be wrong but I think that's the newest version of the same company. They take money and generate hype, then go bankrupt. Then come back as a new company. With this company I may be wrong but I'm willing to bet its the same core group again. |
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The DPM at the base of the handle inevitable works loose and starts to lose contact/short out, causing the screen to flicker through the test pattern of dashes, numbers, letters, etc. The department guy then "fixes" it and it goes back into rotation, only to do the same thing over again. Needs the gasket upgrade if it doesn't have it already. |