Kickr Climb Reliability

How reliable is the Kickr Climb, actually?

is there anyone out there that have used the climb for the past 3/5 years 5/6 days a week in sim-mode and the Kickr Climb is still working??? I know I put +25k miles to a Kickr v4 before having issues…

Note: I did find reports of people having issues at a point or another, and I just tested a 2nd hand Climb that only worked for 10 minutes; however, I have no data of how many climbs are out there actually working day in/day out with no issues… Btw, reviews from DC Rainmaker and such are of no use. They feel more like sales pitch with no discussion of actually reliability… moving parts/belts/motors [friction] do break…

I’ve used a Climb since fall 2019 and am currently on my third unit. First one I had for about two years, and all of the sudden it started slipping (like, the belt started to slip). After reading some scary stories about belts failing, I got pretty worried, and my husband tried to take it apart to verify if there was, indeed, some issue with the belt. Long story short, Climbs aren’t built to be taken apart by consumers, and we basically ended up breaking the thing - whoops! So, I bought a new one, which ended up having a lot of connectivity issues - contacted Wahoo and they replaced it quickly (this was in fall 2021); the one they sent me has been working perfectly, ever since.

Husband also uses a Climb; he’s had his since spring/summer 2020. The only issue he’s had is that the power brick recently crapped out - contacted Wahoo and they replaced it quickly.

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I have used a singular Climb for years, pretty frequently per week, and it has been reliable. Sometimes it lags behind what is happening in-game, especially in Titans Grove. But other than that and other personality quirks (sometimes the power supply cord had to be replaced), it’s something I would have a hard time doing without.
Still works great!
(jinxes himself :boom: :smiley: )

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Thanks @illyanadmc, @Hans_Whipple! Evidently, this isn’t one of those product to buy in the secondary market without warranty…
I can see why people stick to it because for my short testing, the change of pressure point in the saddle and power stroke angle are the real game changers of one of these devices…

I have used Climb since begining of December 2020,it was on dicount then.

I use it all time, no issues so far.
It works good, depends also how good the tracks is made. It’s nice to have upphill, since it’s more stabel than a front wheel is.
One of the best tracks with climb is sand and sequitas! :slight_smile:

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Agreed - I would not buy one on the secondary market, without a warranty.

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First Climb had a crash, while chasing for the 1200w badge. Belt slipped over. Wahoo support great!

Second climb has an offset failure by 2cm. Fixed it with a wooden board below.

I would possibly change to elite rizer, if someone could tell me that it is better than climb.

I don’t like not to have climb in workouts. This device is motivating me most.

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Wahoo customer support is outstanding -just worry on what will happen once the warranty is over if I am unlucky. I don’t like that the one I tested failed on the first ride, but I LOVED IT while it worked!
Right now, I thinking on buying a Rizer via Amazon with the 30 days free-return, and test it myself. There isn’t real data on how well the Rizer performs with the Kickr. If the Rizer is a no-go, I’ll get a Climb via Wahoo…

My climb broke, while standing in Box hill some weeks ago. But manage to finish the climb, it was in the last 600 meters. The climb was bought late in November 2020, been using for about 6300 km. Yesterday i got a new climb from wahoo. :slight_smile:

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I’ve had my Kickr Climb since May 2020. Been using it on average 5 days a week since. It just started to have issues coinciding with the 1.39 update. It now goes up and down on it’s own when the gradient is 0%. Almost seems like the climb is just going up and down at random every few seconds, really annoying and makes it difficult to focus on the ride so I’ve had to ride with it in the “lock position”.

Reached out to Wahoo customer service, they opened a ticket. Asked for my shipping address, original sales receipt and a picture of the serial number of my kickr. I submitted all of the documentation only for them to tell me the climb is “out of warranty”. They said they DO NOT do repairs on kick climbs and would not send a replacement due to out of warranty. The only thing they offered me was a 20% off code to purchase a new climb from their website.

I won’t be purchasing another one even though I liked it. Simply too expensive of a product to fail and then cannot be serviced. Once they break, it seems they become a $700 brick. Disappointed as many people said wahoo customer service is excellent.

Have you tried it with other apps Tom to rule out it’s not a potential Zwift issue?

As for Wahoo i guess if it’s out of warranty then it’s out of warranty. Decent of them to offer a discount to be honest.

Consumer electronics are pretty much disposable items these days aren’t they.

Keep us posted on diagnosing the issue.

Stuart, don’t forget the purpose of this discussion is “Kickr Climb Reliability” -no one is hammering on wahoo, actually, I am long term Kickr user; however, the Kickr climb do have some design pitfalls… and long-term, it isn’t reliable.

Tom is actually describing my concerns: one spends $700 (almost the value of a trainer) with a probable likelihood of failure, It took 3 years and more than 26,000 miles for my Kickr18 to die (which Wahoo replaced free of charge for a v5)…

I’m certainly not berating Wahoo but like i say they have to draw a line in the sand and if something is out of warranty then they’re not obliged to do anything.

You’ve done well to get a new trainer out of them given the age and use of your Kickr.

I thought that a law has been passed whereby electronic goods manufacturers had to make spare parts available for so many years post production?
We need to stop this throw it in the bin culture is something can be repaired.

I know the Climb has had issues with belts snapping but in the main seem to be quite reliable.

I’m not convinced that Toms column is actually broken.

I wouldn’t think it’s a brick just yet. I have a Wahoo Kickr Bike and I’ve went through periods of riding where the climb feature didn’t seem to work during Zwift events, only to find out that with a later Zwift (or Wahoo) update it started working again. If you’ve not already done so, try updating both your Swift and Wahoo apps in sync with your climbing device.

Hi All,

Well, I’m hoping its not completely broken either. I am disappointed that wahoo doesn’t offer repairs for it. I was willing to pay to have it shipped and fixed but that doesn’t even seem to be an option for them.

As for my climb, I rode with it Tuesday and it seemed to be somewhat in sync but still not right. I’ve powered both my kickr 18 and climb down, paired/unpaired, deleted reinstalled zwift but still that funky issue with it going up and down randomly. Nothing worse than being on a -5% decent and having the climb going randomly up to 8% and then back and forth until it feels like settling in on a gradient for a few seconds only to have it happen again.

Functionally, it seems the belt and mechanical parts are working fine since it is going up and down. That’s why I’m hoping it was perhaps something to do with a zwift update, but I’m sure we would have heard if others are having issues with their climb too by now.

Since Wahoo customer service knew what I was describing apparently, and said there is nothing they else can do to help, I’m thinking this isn’t an isolated issue with the climb.

If you guys have any other thoughts or solutions I could try, I’m willing to give them a shot because I’m running out of ideas to get it back to functioning normal.

Thanks again for all the input!

Tom

PS-
Forgot to mention that I downloaded and tried it out on Rouvy and it was doing the same thing but not as much as on zwift… Not sure if that eliminates zwift as the issue since it’s happening on two different platforms. I’m leaning towards it being a climb issue or the kickr somehow giving the climb incorrect gradient data? This is the part where I get lost in trying to diagnose the issue.

I’m not familiar with the Climb and how it functions, can you unlink it from your trainer and pair it again?

Is there a factory reset option?

Yes, I tried all the simple things like unpairing the climb from the kickr and repairing. None of that helped.
“Factory resetting” the climb, none of improved the problem.

I can post some data from the zwift files if someone tells me how to get it. Not sure if that will be helpful in telling what’s going on or not.

@Tom_Heaton you don’t happen to have two KICKRs set up where you Zwift, by any chance (e.g., you and your partner each have one)? A few years ago, somehow my Climb got paired to my partner’s KICKR instead of mine and I experienced the same weird behavior you’re experiencing! It’s a longshot, but I figured I’d mention this, just in case it might be the issue.

Hey, Thanks for the suggestion but nope, only one kickr 18 and one kickr climb. I downloaded the zwiftalizer program that looks at the log files. There is a section that has dropouts for the gradient changes and it says I am averaging 6 dropouts per minute, it says that the ant+ just picks it up again the next time it gets a signal from zwift which I’m assuming is often. It doesn’t tell me if this is good or bad, in fact, it says it is really impossible to tell. I’m wondering if that has anything to do with the climb issue. All of the other dropout rates are within the normal range of 8-10%. For reference, it says anything under 15% is “normal” in terms of ant+ dropping out.

I’m wondering if purchasing a new ant+ connector is worth a shot? The one I’m using is a few years old now but everything seems to connect just fine.