Is the 20s waterproof?
I've just purchased the dual 20s but can't see anywhere if it says it's waterproof, please confirm.
-
...or may not.....I ride a KTM Adventure with a big screen and I have problems with my 20S now.
My colleague rides a sports bike without a screen and his unit works fine.We did the trip together, so had the same weather conditions over 3 days.
0 -
That's a shame Christian. I've returned my Sena as in my opinion it isn't fit for purpose on a motorbike in Northern Europe.
0 -
o.k. I let the system dry out at home and now it's working properly.
But anyhow.....this will not be the solution for an outdoor device.....let's see how it behaves in the future......I'm living in South Germany so it sometimes rains even there ;)
0 -
Is it the unit or the mount that is having trouble with moisture?
At one time, I thought that maybe it was the connections (unit to mount). I wonder if just drying those out would fix the problem. It would be a good experiment to take a hair dryer to the mount with the unit disconnected; just to see which is causing the problem.
0 -
Hi Ken,
in my case I can say that it was the helmet unit (or connectors) that caused the problem.
The main unit was working (as far I was able to check it without speakers) properly as long as not connected to the docking base.
A hair dryer ....... hard to use on the bike ;) ...... would also dry the inner parts of the unit not just the pins ...... anyhow, the device has a problem with rain and or fog.I can't tell you if it was just the connector or the whole helmet unit. Sorry.
0 -
That's really good to know, Christian. At least (in your case) water isn't getting into the unit itself. Although I've never experienced the issue with rain goofing up my 20S, I've toyed with the idea of silicon grease on the spring pin connectors, just to keep them dry. I've ridden miles and miles in rain with no issues; so experimenting has been a low priority with me.
0 -
OK, we are just back from European trip and the Sena 20s is clearly NOT waterproof! My wifes unit failed after being hit by rainstorm and this would have left us with no coms at all had we not had our own 2 way radio set up that i use whilst instructing. Upon return to the Uk yesterday we hit heavy rain on ride from Harwich to home and my unit has also failed now! £382 for the duel pack is a lot of money and this is our second set as first one also failed.. Luckily Amazon have been fantastic and replaced without issue, this being said i have read that i will need to ask for the replacement model with a different closure as the rubber closure is clearly a problem! Am i correct in thinking that the new model serial number begins with 1501? Not happy for the money we spent, crackling is bearable but we should not have to endure this with that heavy price tag!
0 -
Same issues here. First bit of rain and my unit went into Group Intercom mode, then kept asking for Voice Commands. Dried out, and now it randomly freezes up, has to be rebooted to work again for no telling how long. Did a fault reset as well as a factory reset. I went round and round with support. The thing that gets me the most is that they know exactly what this issue is, yet they still made me jump through hoops to send the unit back. My second unit just started to show issues of lockup with humming noise. I was a diehard believer in my SMH10 units. They withstood the worst weather possible. One little bit of rain and my 20S goes on the fritz. The new 10S looks to be designed an a similar cradle as the 20S, which is a huge mistake.
The thing that makes me the maddest is that I love staying on intercomm while listening to music, a feature that my SMH10's do not have or I would just switch back to the 10's. If my replacement unit goes bezerk, I am afraid that I will have to switch to the Cardio Packtalk.
0 -
I have same issue. Does have any sloution can resolve this issue?
0 -
Sena 20s - Excellent functionality, very poor build quality - get rid while you can still get a refund!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My bike is my primary form of transport and used everyday to around the west midlands. I wanted the same flexibility as a driver; Radio, Music via iphone and phone facility. I purchased my first 20s in February, I'm now on my 3rd unit and can also confirm that the unit is far from waterproof as Doug has described. What's more, successive drying out will only work for so long. With the unit taking on water which effects the electronics, those surfaces will eventually be corroded through oxidisation. The unit is effectively going to be obsolete in a very short while for all those that use it on anything other than a dry ride. I am very disappointed in this realisation and and will be returning this unit for a full refund this weekend as I cannot imagine that Sena or a retailer will accept a corroded unit as fair wear and tear! I will then consider the best waterproof unit that is proven on the market, probably back to wires - ie, back to the drawing board.
0 -
Having found and read Doug Holt's comments on another forum, I was motivated further to find an alternative to this Korean device and discovered that Schuberth offer a very tailor-made solution. It is just coincidental that I am in the market for a new helmet also and so the C3 pro with a SRC-S collar looks pretty good; it isn''t bt4 but it appears to work and I care about function over form and feature.
0 -
See Not rain proof! ???? - see my concluding note.
0 -
The units are clearly not water resistant...you can blow through them easily. If you cover jog dial with your mouth and blow you will see that air easily enters the unit around the jog dial and escapes from multiple points of the unit. However if you read the warranty information in the manual supplied with your unit you will notice the operating the unit in wet weather is not excluded in the warranty. However on page 61 of the manual it states "Keep the product dry and away from water. It may damage the product. The Sena 20S headset is only intended for indoor riding in countries where it may rain.
0 -
@Liam: We're gonna need a picture of you testing the unit... :D
0 -
Thought I'd add to this: here is part of my conversation with Sena earlier today:
Agent 13
Sena Technologies Help Desk-
Hi James,
Thank you for contacting SENA Tech Support!
Sena 20s is not a waterproof/water resistent .
Please let me know if you have any additional questions and concerns.
Best Regards,
SENA Tech Support
June 16, 2016, 8:03 AM
James Avery-
Hi,
I am very surprised that the 20s is not water resistant, especially as it is designed to be worn on the outside of a motorcycle helmet! I was under the impression that it had a safety mechanism inside it which would turn off the intercom if water got inside - is this not true?
Thanks,
James
June 16, 2016, 8:06 AMAgent 13
Sena Technologies Help Desk-
Hi James,
Let me take that back. The SENA 20S is water resistant but not water proof. It is not
recommended to use during heavy rain.
Best Regards,
SENA Tech Support
June 16, 2016, 8:17 AMIt seems to me that even Sena don't know whether their products work in the rain or not!
0 -
-
Sigh... yet again Sena demonstrates their **ss poor customer communications (sic).
FWIW, I spent a day on the Interstates at 60+ in rain varying from annoying to almost time to pull over. The 20S remained dry.YMMV
My guess is, though, that over time the seals will start to dry out and loosen up.
0 -
Sena is communicating just fine. These units are NOT waterproof. This has been widely reported by many people and proven by more who have had water intrusion issues and opened the unit to show the water.
Sena 20S is a very poorly designed piece of gadgetry.
0 -
See my comment above. That wasn't the first ride in the wet with the 20S, just the wettest. Ditto for the SMH10. All of that said, given the Sena disclaimers, choosing to use this gear in the wet is a personal choice.
Regarding Sena corporate communications, see the deafening silence from Sena in many topic threads. 'Nuff said.
0 -
1st week in july '16 i went to Germany black forrest. Had heavy rain and my sena 20s was doing very weird! Group intercom on/off, talking rubbish and a lot of beeps etc! Also a lot the ambient mode so a lot of noise from the outside! Can't put it off on that moment... the buttons stop working! I have send mails before to sena to make a raincap or dummy for heavy rains like that but the think its not necessary. I have no thrust in the dual pack sena 20s i have but what can i do??? I have them almost 2years. Sena, please give me a satisfying solution!
Richard Jenniskens from Holland.0 -
Sorry 1 week of June of course! 0 -
Here's a solution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSTxKkqHTY
and no I have no relationship with the company.
0 -
If you're not using earphones, I suggest covering the socket and cover with tape. The jack shouldn't have been put out front, to act as a water scope.
0 -
It's not the jacks that cause the problem, it's the connector to the base unit that causes the strange behavior when getting wet due to rain.
0 -
NTL, the earphone jack strikes me as water intrusion looking for a place to happen. The flap over the jacket may or may not seal effectively.
As to the contacts, wipe the bottom with dielectric grease. That should reduce the chances of things happening from shorts or unwanted paths.
All of that said, as I said earlier, I spent a day in pouring rain at speeds at 60 MPH (100 km/hr) and above with no problems (other than finding out what parts of my leaked). I'm headed to Europe next week for a week's tour in the Alps. If the current forecasts for a lot of rain verify, we'll see how well the 20S does in the wet.
0 -
Seems Sena have just acknowledged they have a waterproofing issue. I just got this email from them. I am returning my unit to them under warranty for damage that I believe was caused due to light rain.
I had suggested some ways in which they could improve their waterproofing and got this response.
HJ Jeon, Jun 23, 11:23 PM PDT:Dear Liam,
Thank you for your update.
Water resistant feature was one of our top priority in designing of 20S since the device will be exposed to harsh environment.
So, we are monitoring the water damage issues and we will try to improve it.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions and concerns.
Thank you.
HJ Jeon
Sena Technologies, Inc.
Technical Support Engineer0 -
Er, Sena didn't say that they have a waterproofing issue, per se. They do acknowledge some units had problems. They also say water resistance was a "top priority" (would be nice to know exactly what that means - there very specific ratings for water resistance up to outright waterproof up to xxx meters deep). In mass production there will always be some failures which are more easily fixed by replacement. Only Sena knows what the failure rate is. However, bear in mind that happy customers don't, as a rule complain about being happy, while a (smaller) number of unhappy customers can be quite vocal, skewing the perception the issue.
0 -
No skewing of perception here. Every 20s client that i have spoken to all have the same problem. The local importer believes its the water that runs over the side of the unit causes the sensor inside to believe the user is trying to start a group comm........ i haven't tested it yet.
My SHM-10 was bullet proof in rain but this 20s..... eish, not so good. I also have a problem with radio reception. Radio reception could be improved.
0 -
Well, you do know of one exception... :-)
Again, I'll recommend put a bit of dielectric grease on the contacts on the base and the 20S. It shouldn't be a lot, just a visible coating. Additionally, try sliding a bit of grease in behind the jog wheel. Try sliding or packing it with something thin, such as a credit card - not paper, maybe cardboard. And tape over the earphone jack if you're not using it.
I'm headed to Austria for a week of riding in the Alps. There's a good chance that there'll be rain. I'll report what happens.
0 -
LOL, I guess I do now but I meant locally where I live.
I'll give the grease a try.
0 -
B.T.W. we want pictures of your Alps trip. I love Austria.
0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
86 comments