Soundcore Liberty Air battery dead after 15 minutes

#1

I have just bough a new Soundcore Liberty Air and have to say quite disappointed due to battery issues. Let me make a few things clear:

  1. Yes, I have removed the plastic around the earbuds, so the connection to charge is good
  2. They are brand new, so no need to clean
  3. I have charged them for a few hours connected with wire until they were ready. I connected with phone (which was another hurdle and finally managed) and it says 80%
  4. No matter how much I charge them, they only go to 80%
  5. I start using them, after a few minutes, they go down to 50%! Another few minutes, 40, 30 until they die after around 15 mins!
  6. I charge them again (yes, I tried both in holder alone and also wired) and they go up to 100% in a few minutes! I made sure the connection is good, and all seems well
  7. Once they stop charging (I would say 10 mins or so), they are 100%, on phone they register 80%, I use them and die in 15 mins.

This is my first Soundcore product, and I have to admint Im very very disappointed. Anyone had such issues. Whats the next step? Ship them to Soundcore for replacement?

Thank you!

#2

First step is to contact the soundcore support.
They will tell you what the next steps are.
Due to weekend the answer could take a little bit longer.

#3

Email service@soundcore.com.

Can email but will most likely not get a response til Monday.

Unsure on the shipment but they will most likely send you a replacement.

#4

This isn’t normally for Soundcore products. But it is a manufactured product and every one in a while someone will get DOA or product that has defect issues. They can’t check every item that comes off the assembly line.

I’ve worked with Soundcore/Anker support several times over the years and they have one of the better support staffs in the Tech industry. As the others mentioned, contact support and they should get back to in a few days.

I found it helpful to provide them in your first email contact with them what exactly is wrong with your product, what troubleshooting steps you’ve tried (what were the results), where you purchased them, order #, and date of purchase. At some point they may ask you all these questions and giving them this extra bit info will speed up the process for you.

3 Likes
#5

Thank you guys, will email support :slight_smile:

#6

I wonder if a reset would help the software on Air fix the issue. Could just be a defective battery though but try resetting by the time you receive a reply back

#7

I have actually already tried that a couple of times, thanks for the tip though :slight_smile:

1 Like
#8

Stefan,
you are not the only one with such experiences. I have exactly the same problem on a the Liberty Air earbuds, and it’s even a bit worse :frowning:

2 slight differences:

  • In my case, I can run them for only less than 5 min, before they disconnect at 10% SOC
  • In my case, they were stored away for ~ 2years, before I unpacked and tried to use them the 1st time (I got them as a promo-add-on, not as a regular purchase)

All the other things are exactly the same as you described above. The charge case seem’s to be ok - it ran a charge process for ~ 2 hours, and it’s constantly showing 3 LEDs now. But: The earbuds just don’t really accept the charge. After inserting the buds, the white LED just flickers a bit - but they won’t turn on constantly for the 2 hours which the manual is saying the charging process takes. Charging stops very early, indicating 80% SOC when reconnecting a USB host - and again, they will run down and die very quickly.

I also can say that - since they are almost unused - all the contacts are clean. And they seem to be golden, so I’m sure the contacts are fine.

I can’t really believe that there is a defect from manufacturing, because both earbuds have the same problem. The right one might be a bit worse than the left one, but basically, they are the same.

There is a statement in the manual that the earbuds should receive a full charge once every 45 days. Obviously, this did not happen in my case, because they were on store without charge for ~ 2 years. So, maybe, I might have have killed them by myself just because I didn’t follow the manual to charge them regularly.

Since there is already a successor for this product, you might have purchased a piece which was on store for several months after manufacturing, causing the same problem as for me.

Finally, I have to say: Yes : It was my fault not to follow the manual and not do do the charge every 45 days. But on the other hand, I have never before seen that a Li-Ion battery get’s completely damaged in such a way, just by extended storage.

I wonder if the batteries are damaged chemically, or if it’s just a logic problem of charge control. In the second case, could we expect a response from the support team, proposing a recovery process to overcome this problem … ?

#9

Yes lithium ion batteries need to be charged even without use, otherwise the over discharge and the battery is ruined.

I had this happen with my monster isports.

On the bright side, with mine being ruined, I was able to replace with some LInerty 2 pros and have enjoyed the community since.

Perhaps yours have over discharged and as it’s past 2 years, you’ll need to splurge for new ones.

#10

Hi there,

Wanted to give a quick update. On 12th Dec, the same day I had written this post, I had contacted support by email and explained everything and after they investigated I was super impressed to recieve a new pair a few days later which are now working perfectly and very happy with them :smile:

Cheers

1 Like
#11

Thanks to Snarky for your response - perhaps you are right when you say the battery is ruined. Looks like I have to face the truth: I have killed them by myself, before I tried to use them for the first time :frowning:

What you call the “Bright side”, however, does not shine that bright to me: A 100 EUR gadget has been manufactured, just to be converted straightaway to another piece of electronic trash. Without ever being in use. Another increment to the global pollution! As far as I know, recycling rates for Li-batteries are quiete poor so far. In my eyes, this is a dark shine for our planet.

They are definitely out-of-warranty now. And I think I should better not buy a replacement, leaving the available pieces for such users who know better than me how to take adequate care for such a sensitive electronic device. Since I’m no longer an owner of a soundcore device, I think I will also clean up and leave the community here after just 2 posts.

I’m still asking myself why the dealer gave the device to me (almost) for free, as a goodie add-on. And since it’s 2 years ago, I will never know if the damage was already present when I got the device from dealership.

But I can clearly say: If it’s true that these batteries are so sensitive to chargeless storage, then there is definitely a bright warning sign missing on the box (!), instructing the new owner to open the box, read the manual, and charge the batteries immediately …

Frustrated greetings.

#12

This was a mistake.
This way you were killing the batteries.
Doing so you would have killed all batteries

There is so much written about take care of batteries, but …

#13

Chiquinho,
yes, it was a mistake - thanks for pointing this out again :wink:

Yes, of course you are right: Over-discharging a Li-Ion battery damages it, and it can become even dangerous when trying to recharge an overdischarged Li-battery: This might grow spikes on the electrodes which peek the separator, leading to thermal events. All of us have seen the news about “phones-on-fire” which were broadcasted during the past years …

Because of the danger which is involved when trying to re-charge an over-discharged Li-battery, controllers normally would fuse-off the battery permanently when detecting the over-discharge. However, in my case, the batteries are still avaible, they are not disabled permanently!

And, when looking at other Li-batteries in my old non-smart mobile phone, or in old digicams or similar: Some of them have been stored for 5 years, and none of them became damaged in such a way, and also the self-discharge rate typically is low enough so that the battery can survive much more than just 45 days …

#14

I learned the hard way with my previously mentioned isport earbuds. Now as I am aware I’m aware that is an issue with lithium batteries, I am more conscious of this occurrence.

I have now, read more about this happening and am sure to read through the manuals of newly acquired items to make sure there is no issue on long term storage.

The information is often there, but may it be in forefront, in the manuals.

But then again, how often does one read through the manual…

Sad to see you leave the community, but I understand.

#15

You know, I had thought about keeping those p2 i won for later but now I think I will not

#16

At the very least, charge them regularly. Anything with a Li-ion battery in it is effectively on a clock, use it or not. So batteries, TWS headphones, etc - 5 years later battery performance will be degraded even if you took perfect care of them in the meantime.