Durability Question on Inlays

johnjacob

So I have a question, because I'm not sure if my issues are something I'm doing wrong, or if it's just inherent in the product.

I bought a stealth bomber about a year ago, and one of the inlays failed in short order, and the other a couple of months later. The support team was great, and I mailed it in and got my replacement quickly (an alpha, the bomber was no longer available).

The problem is that now, a month and a half later, the inside inlay has already failed**.

The way I see it there are a few possibilities :

Not being the 'standard style', both the stealth bomber and alpha runs had initial QC issues, I was unlucky, and a new ring would work great.
I'm incredibly hard on my rings. I don't think this is true: I work in an office setting and don't wear the ring when I'm working with the soldering iron or anything 'dangerous', but maybe?
The failure rate is high, or the inlays aren't really cut out for day to day use, and the guys at support are just churning rings like crazy

The reason I'm asking here for feedback is that if 1 is true, then I'll just send this ring back in and get a replacement, but if it's 2 or 3 then I'll just keep using the working inlay on my ring until it (inevitably) fails and then go back to unlocking my phone/house like a prole. Getting a new ring every 6 months (even if free) just doesn't sound appealing.

Any thoughts?

** Yes, it's really failed. It used to read just fine on my laptop, phone, and door lock and now it won't read on any of those three. I've been a regular ring user for about a year and it is 100% not a 'sweet spot', 'expectation', or incompatibility issue.

johnyma22

The same happened to another KS backer.

It's probable, those rings had old inlays in.
We think it's IC detachment from vibrations, we have tried isolating the frequency but had no luck.
The alphas don't usually fail. We do have a slight failure rate but it's really low < 1% now.. Initially it was like 10% afaik.

Send the ring back in, we will swap it out no problems :) http://nfcring.com/returns

Each time we get a fail read ring in we bisect it to see what failed and why.

It is frustrating but when the failure rates are so low and it's so difficult to isolate the failure cause we are basically looking for a needle in a haystack.. Look we do.

Lokki

Just to add to the discussion, KS backers have an extended warranty on the ring. Actual failures being exchanged is a good thing and analysis of the failures helps John and the guys build a better ring!

The section from the returns page concerning kickstarter backers most is here:

"A ring supplied by McLear Ltd has developed a fault within a 12 month period and there are no signs of foul play. Kickstarter backers will get a 2 year warranty, however we can only provide one "like for like" replacement, provided we have one in stock. Any ‘like for like’ replacements that we do not have in stock will be from our available range from our store."