Chroma Propeller Ejection Issue - Horizon Denial

[NoContext]

A warning to anyone thinking of buying a drone.
Do not buy a Chroma drone from Horizon Hobby / Blade. It is a defective product and Horizon Hobby refuses to support their customers.
The drone has an issue where it will sometimes eject a propeller when the motors spin down. This is a problem that was identified by other drone companies and rectified by adding a clip system to the props to ensure they cannot fall off. Horizon Hobby is instead claiming that this problem does not exist and is not supporting customers who encounter the issue.
In my case, instead of repairing my drone under warranty as they should, they offered to sell me a replacement at half price. So their $500 drone destroyed itself and my $500 GoPro due to a design defect, and their answer was to offer me a new drone for $200.
Naturally I told them that their offer was pathetic, that I had been a long time customer, and that I would no longer be dealing with them as well as spreading the word about their pathetic customer support and their unwillingness to support their products.
This drone is dangerous and could fall out of the sky at any moment, potentially injuring bystanders or property. The drone falls at an extreme angle when losing a prop which could present a dangerous situation even if not being flown directly over people or property.
Do not buy this drone! I suggest not buying anything from Horizon Hobby at all.

 

[Old Man]

In rebuttal, I've been a Chroma owner since last November and flown the livin' daylight out of mine. The instructions for mounting the propellers clearly mention installing them hand tight. They use a small O-ring under the propeller to function similar to a compression washer and once tightened down fairly tight they do not loosen up. I've had the same set of props on mine since January and not once have I had to re-tighten them. There's a thread dedicated to the Chroma at another location that has a few thousand posts from a great many contributors and tossed props is not a common problem, and once new users that have had problems with loose props give them an little extra on the tightening turn they never have another problem. Others prefer to remove and re-install their propellers periodically for a better sense of safety but none of those people toss props. In general, people that perform a pre-flight safety check don't experience propeller issues.

With the exception of brief GPS failures from time to time, which typically is nothing so significant that manually directing the aircraft for a few seconds won't overcome, issues are relatively few. Some have experienced problems after hitting the RTH switch during a GPS loss and had a fly away but the fly away events are pretty much self induced by hitting RTH with no GPS. Like, where's home? True and unexplained fly away's are relatively few considering the number of Chroma's flying around out there.

As for Horizon, those that have had legitimate issues, and quite a few that didn't, have seen Horizon provide them with a new aircraft for free or at a greatly discounted price. Perhaps what actually happened and where the fault lie had something to do with free or discounted. Horizon Hobby has maintained one of the best warranty return and repair policies in the RC industry for almost two decades. Although some of the phone techs might lack sophisticated product knowledge the repair people know what they are about. I've sent many a worn out servo back to Horizon for repair at my expense only to see a new servo returned at no cost. At over $100.00/servo it's feels pretty good when the 8 or 10 you sent in for fixin' comes back new or repaired, and no charge.

For someone to say that Horizon provides terrible customer service or won't back a warrant y claim is pretty hard to digest. Far too many with a history in dealing with them know better, and suspect there's more to the story of dissatisfaction than is being told. Perhaps having a new conversation with Horizon in a different tone might provide better results. For what is paid for it the Chroma is a pretty good little ship. Lots of fun and shoots pretty good video. It's not a pro rig and never will be but it fits the design purpose almost perfectly, which is to provide a low cost, fun fly camera rig to new flyers having little or no experience that's so easy to operate an 8-10 year old could handle it with only a little verbal direction, allowing them to develop their skills and grow into more capable aircraft.

I notice the OP is in Oregon. Should he obtain another Chroma or other multirotor and lives reasonably close I offer my aid in set up and a little flight instruction. My preference is to see people succeed, and sometimes a little assistance is all it takes for that to happen.

 

[QC102]

As a neutral - I only comment that some bright spark once stated - "if it can go wrong - it will go wrong! to which I reiterate the Old Mans comment - pre-flight checks - Do them!

Not long ago DJI were the "Bad Guys" and the Phantom P3 was a "flyaway" waiting to happen - then the motor arm were cracking. basically most flyaways could be traced to inexperience, not checking pre-flight and ditto post flight to check for damage, wear etc,. The motor arms seemed only to happen to those who had a number of batteries and flew "long distance" came back changed batteries and set off again - not giving the motors and supports any time to cool down. Warm plastic can stretch - but I digress...

The big sellers KNOW that those who get claims rejected - for valid - post sales warrant - will hit just about every forum they can find to tell their story. So its really not sensible for them to create ill feeling unless they are sure of their ground.

A lost GoPro to take into account?? What is the warranty covering add -on's?
My guess is none and at the owners discretion and responsibility. I recall my dear old grandmother telling me a story of her friend buying a box of matches (back in the days when there were very few cars on the roads... of electric in homes...) and a few days later returned to the shop complaining that they did not work. Inspection showed they had been used.... but the old lady having never used a match in her life...expected them to continue working time after time. OK - its corny and Mark Twainian. But these days even more so - we all expect after sales to send out another whotsit - or give a full refund without question.

NoContext - Can others with the same issue be found to form a pattern??
Other than that - at the moment you have a crashed Chroma that seems to be terminal so whatever you replace it with will cost more than the $200 or whatever the offered deal was. I would take the deal and at least you are out there again flying.... this time use a lower priced camera and check things out.

I wish the Old Man lived near me... sounds just the kind of calm, experienced, knowledgeable guy I would like to have as a friend.

 

[Old Man]

I like to teach. Lecturing sucks but teaching is fun. Others taught me and in the process enabled me to branch out and learn more. No reason others need to repeat the same mistakes.