PX-777 almost burned down my house

[aakelley]

I received my shipment of 3 PX-777 radios from murs-radio.com this week.  I got one of them out of the box, installed the battery and went about getting it programs for MURS frequencies (still working on getting my HAM license).  After about 30 minutes of fiddling I figured it out and it was working great with my existing Dakota equipment.  The next day I got the other two out and started to repeat what I had done on the first one.  When I installed the battery on the second one, unlike the first it was showing as drained (no bars on the battery indicator).  So I got a charger out and let it sit.  Next day, same thing - close to a dead battery.  I then figured out that I had put it in the charger wrong: I was sitting it in there like a wireless phone cradle, when you have to slide it in the cradle vertically to get two grooves to catch on either side.  That learning in hand, I let it sit in the charger a while longer.  I came downstairs a few hours when my smoke detector went off and found this:







I have sent an email to the mur-radio.com guys and am looking for a way I can return all three units.  I think I will be going with either more Dakota Alert handhelds or another brand 2M portables.  Just a warning to anyone that has the PX-777 or is thinking of getting them: keep a close watch when they are charging and if the battery is dead when you get it, be extra careful.

[aakelley]

Just an update.  Rob totally took care of the issue with no questions and no hassle.  Would definitely do business with him again - just not sure for these Chinese radios 

[BerserkerPrime]

Thanks for the heads up!  I was pretty close to getting these. 

[mxitman]

wow, I had a similar problem with a streamlight flashlight charger. I've had one for years and bought a newer double charging station and the 2nd day I had it it caught fire and melted into a mess onto my wood floors...luckily the circuit shorted itself out...but I always worry now about anything plugged in that uses power all the time, So I constanlty check new items for over heating with a fluke temp meter

[calicojack]

op, what software did you use to set up the murs freqs? do you have a link? i'm picking up a pair this week i think.


 i think you might have gotten a bad batch, cause these radios have gotten really high marks on e-hams.net

[rob_ma]

Just an update on this issue...

I sent the damaged unit back to the manufacturer for analysis and they confirmed my suspicion. The battery had an internal short that caused it to overheat. Although many other consumer electronic products have had this same issue (Sony laptops, Apple products, etc.) it is the battery manufacturer (which is not the same as the equipment manufacturer) that is at fault. The manufacturer had no other reports of this happening so it thankfully appears that this was a rare event. I have sold quite a lot of these radios (and use them myself) and have had nothing but excellent feedback from customers.

- Rob

[Roknrandy]

Thanks for the update Rob