Bose S1 Pro battery draining issue

[sam.spoons]

Long story short. I have a Bose S1 Pro and when left switched off for a period of time it drains it battery. This is my second, the first one lost all charge within a week or so leaving me unable to play an informal off grid gig I was planning. My dealer replaced it and the new one held most of it's charge for a couple of weeks but drained increasingly quickly falling to <40% in three weeks. I sent it in for 'repair' and it came back worse than it was beforehand falling to <90% in 5 days. A second repair has improved matters to a point where I am happy it is usable (retaining >80% charge after 30 days) but I have spent countless hours trying to resolve this issue over the 6 months since I bought my first S1 Pro. Due to all the time testing to see if they had fixed it I have probably only used it half a dozen times. If there was another similar speaker I would have returned it and bought from a different manufacturer.

My dealer and Bose customer service in the UK have been very helpful but be warned that the admins on the Bose forum will not allow a proper discussion of this problem and are censoring posts.

This is an expensive bit of kit (and, TBH, apart from a slightly wayward bass it is very good) and should not have faults like this. I wondered if anybody else has experienced similar (note you will only know if your S1 has the issue if you can leave it unused for a couple of weeks after charging)?

[RockerDuck]

My S1pro stays charged for a week. But, I charge it after every gig. I don't see the need to just leave it unplugged weeks until I need it.

[Methos1979]

I leave both my S1's plugged in always until they are needed for a gig so I really can't comment. I can see where people that need them to hold a charge for longer periods of time due to being 'off the grid' might take issue - and rightly so - but I would think that would be a minimum of circumstances.

Here's a thought though: Batteries ALWAYS discharge when not in use. At least to some degree. I also wonder how the other offerings now hitting the market fare with this issue. Anyone with the Fishman Loud Box Mini Charge or the other new S1 type amp (who's brand escapes me a the moment) know how those do with holding a charge?

I'm still holding out hope that a Bose S2 is in the works with a third full XLR input and more signal processing, phone app control, and more power but is the same small and lightweight package (or even lighter!) PLUS the battery issue fixed so that it can sit unplugged for six months and still have a 95% charge!

What do you think? Too much? You laugh but the manufacturer that actually pulls it off (and someone will) will sell a TON of those!!

[SpruceTop]

I just turned on my pair of JBL EON ONE Compacts, and running off battery power only, and after being unplugged, as in completely unplugged from any power strip, for the last three weeks since their last usage, both speakers still retain a full-charge per their battery indicator displays. Looks like JBL has the battery-charge retention thing pretty much under control.

[jonfields45]

There must be something in the Bose design that runs when it is powered off. It could even be the electronics in the battery pack itself.

This retired EE recommends you just leave it plugged-in.

BTW, I am usually hesitant to send things back that are not hard broken for repair. It is too easy for the tech to assume pilot error on the part of the owner and often they just swap some referb for your purchase. Who knows how the previous owner of the referb treated it.

[Marty C]

I agree with Jon. I would also be afraid that the shipping might incur some damage.

My S1 could have 100% charge on Monday and be dead by Friday. Since the last update, the charge has stayed for two weeks even through a few hours of use. I haven’t checked the percentage left, but I will tonight.

[Peter Z]

I have 2 S1 pros and both suffered from the battery drain issue. I updated them with the latest firmware and they kept their charge for more than one month now. They have not been sent to Bose for repair. Just the update solved the issue.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Peter Z

I have 2 S1 pros and both suffered from the battery drain issue. I updated them with the latest firmware and they kept their charge for more than one month now. They have not been sent to Bose for repair. Just the update solved the issue.

This is interesting and good to know. I have yet to update either although I did connect one of them to the Bose app early on.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

I just turned on my pair of JBL EON ONE Compacts, and running off battery power only, and after being unplugged, as in completely unplugged from any power strip, for the last three weeks since their last usage, both speakers still retain a full-charge per their battery indicator displays. Looks like JBL has the battery-charge retention thing pretty much under control.

This is also good to know as the JBL EON ONE (which was the one I couldn't remember the brand) is a great little unit from what I've heard reported here and it also ticks a lot of those boxes I have for a Bose S2! For those that need a battery that holds its charge this is a serious contender.

[RogerPease]

As the OP mentions there is a thread over on the BosePro forum (https://www.bosepro.community/g/portable) titled: “S1 Pro battery draining when not in use”
But be warned, the thread runs to 18 pages! ;-P

It has to be admitted that Bose probably hasn't done the smoothest job handling the problem, but they have constantly reassured us that all units with problems would be handled. They definitely haven't handled it quickly. It's been well over a year. And it sure looks like they botched the setup of of the repair teams to the extent that some units apparently got sent back not repaired, especially outside of North America. Also, they didn’t have the field repair teams update the firmware on the repaired units, so returned units were not “ready to go” when customers got them back. They haven't been extremely forthcoming with details either. As a result of all this a lot of people justifiably got frustrated.

But I'm not here to bash Bose, not at all, just calling it like I see it. The main thing is they have stood by their product. Before I retired my job involved, among other things, rolling out field repairs for consumer products. It’s very hard to do well without ticking off a lot of your customers. Not that that excuses Bose, mind you.

I bought one of the S1’s early on when you had to pay extra for the battery. Later Bose did give me a battery. When I put that battery in it would lose ~10% charge every couple days. Bose announced a free replacement program which I took advantage of and got a brand new unit. That unit still would not completely hold a charge but it was a noticeablly better, losing ~5 - 10% of charge per week.

Note: There’s always been 2 things you can do to avoid the problem: #1 keep your S1 plugged in all the time or #2 store the battery outside the main unit.

Recently Bose released a firmware update (7.1.5) that included “battery management improvements”. We were all strongly advised to install this update. I did, and low and behold my unit now takes ~30 days to lose 10% of it’s charge. Given that the battery will put itself into a sleep state after 30 days unused I consider that well within adequate performance.

Bose claims all new units are fixed and if you do get a leaky one they will fix or replace it.

Some people on the BosePro forum that had their units repaired got back a list of parts replaced. If I remember correctly, it was a single transistor and a few resistors. Sounds to me like some of those transistors leaked and they found a new part with better, tighter specs and/or tolerances.

Bose stated that only like 10% of the units actually had a problem. That ticked off a lot of people on the Bose forum (me included) since a *lot* of people were noticing the problem.

Here’s a speculative theory: There are actually two problems — the really fast drain problem (like in my first unit) that requires a hardware change and a slower drain that is repairable via the firmware update.

(Still speculating.) When Bose said only 10% had the problem they were only talking about the problem that required the hardware fix. Which, if true, was a communication faux pas on their part. Unhappy customers will not be made more happy by being told they do not have a problem.

Conclusion: I hope this background info is helpful. Bose is being upstanding and getting problems taken care of but they have bungled the job of getting fixes in place in a timely manner and communicating the best information to their customer base. I hope a “lessons learned” process is being run inside Bose Corp for this. The S1 is still a product I am happy with, especially now it’s fixed. I would buy another if I needed it.

Cheers, _Roger

[The Bard Rocks]

Mine is always dead when I go to use it, which has not been much of a problem as there is always an outlet nearby. If I bought it to use as a battery-operated unit, I'd be narked.

OK, how in world does one update a speaker to the internet? I can't imagine how that would physically work.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by sam.spoons

Long story short. I have a Bose S1 Pro and when left switched off for a period of time it drains it battery. This is my second, the first one lost all charge within a week or so leaving me unable to play an informal off grid gig I was planning. My dealer replaced it and the new one held most of it's charge for a couple of weeks but drained increasingly quickly falling to <40% in three weeks. I sent it in for 'repair' and it came back worse than it was beforehand falling to <90% in 5 days. A second repair has improved matters to a point where I am happy it is usable (retaining >80% charge after 30 days) but I have spent countless hours trying to resolve this issue over the 6 months since I bought my first S1 Pro. Due to all the time testing to see if they had fixed it I have probably only used it half a dozen times. If there was another similar speaker I would have returned it and bought from a different manufacturer.

My dealer and Bose customer service in the UK have been very helpful but be warned that the admins on the Bose forum will not allow a proper discussion of this problem and are censoring posts.

This is an expensive bit of kit (and, TBH, apart from a slightly wayward bass it is very good) and should not have faults like this. I wondered if anybody else has experienced similar (note you will only know if your S1 has the issue if you can leave it unused for a couple of weeks after charging)?

People are reporting huge improvements with only the new firmware update. Over a month and still at 100% charge per the Bose app.

I didn’t get so lucky. I’m waiting to hear back from Bose because a repair and firmware update gave me 100% for 14 days. The other will be replaced with a new, tested, unit.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

I leave both my S1's plugged in always until they are needed for a gig so I really can't comment. I can see where people that need them to hold a charge for longer periods of time due to being 'off the grid' might take issue - and rightly so - but I would think that would be a minimum of circumstances.



Here's a thought though: Batteries ALWAYS discharge when not in use. At least to some degree. I also wonder how the other offerings now hitting the market fare with this issue. Anyone with the Fishman Loud Box Mini Charge or the other new S1 type amp (who's brand escapes me a the moment) know how those do with holding a charge?



I'm still holding out hope that a Bose S2 is in the works with a third full XLR input and more signal processing, phone app control, and more power but is the same small and lightweight package (or even lighter!) PLUS the battery issue fixed so that it can sit unplugged for six months and still have a 95% charge!



What do you think? Too much? You laugh but the manufacturer that actually pulls it off (and someone will) will sell a TON of those!!

No draining issues at all with my JBL Eon Compact. But the Bose sounds way better.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

Mine is always dead when I go to use it, which has not been much of a problem as there is always an outlet nearby. If I bought it to use as a battery-operated unit, I'd be narked.



OK, how in world does one update a speaker to the internet? I can't imagine how that would physically work.

There are two ways. Through the Bose app over Bluetooth, but that takes about 45 minutes. Or plug it in to your computer via usb and update through the Bose website. That’s fast.

[Peter Z]

This is a great summary, thank you, Roger!
I quoted it so people don't miss it. I never thought, there could be 2 problems but it might be true.

Nevertheless, I recommend to make the update as soon as possible as I don't think it's good for the battery if it runs low every time the speaker is not in use.
And, as I said, the update solved the battery drain issue for both of my S1 completely. If you do via USB cable it's quicker than writing a post here.
Good luck to every S1 pro owner with the issue! It's nice piece of gear if it works correctly.

Originally Posted by RogerPease

As the OP mentions there is a thread over on the BosePro forum (https://www.bosepro.community/g/portable) titled: “S1 Pro battery draining when not in use”
But be warned, the thread runs to 18 pages! ;-P

It has to be admitted that Bose probably hasn't done the smoothest job handling the problem, but they have constantly reassured us that all units with problems would be handled. They definitely haven't handled it quickly. It's been well over a year. And it sure looks like they botched the setup of of the repair teams to the extent that some units apparently got sent back not repaired, especially outside of North America. Also, they didn’t have the field repair teams update the firmware on the repaired units, so returned units were not “ready to go” when customers got them back. They haven't been extremely forthcoming with details either. As a result of all this a lot of people justifiably got frustrated.

But I'm not here to bash Bose, not at all, just calling it like I see it. The main thing is they have stood by their product. Before I retired my job involved, among other things, rolling out field repairs for consumer products. It’s very hard to do well without ticking off a lot of your customers. Not that that excuses Bose, mind you.

I bought one of the S1’s early on when you had to pay extra for the battery. Later Bose did give me a battery. When I put that battery in it would lose ~10% charge every couple days. Bose announced a free replacement program which I took advantage of and got a brand new unit. That unit still would not completely hold a charge but it was a noticeablly better, losing ~5 - 10% of charge per week.

Note: There’s always been 2 things you can do to avoid the problem: #1 keep your S1 plugged in all the time or #2 store the battery outside the main unit.

Recently Bose released a firmware update (7.1.5) that included “battery management improvements”. We were all strongly advised to install this update. I did, and low and behold my unit now takes ~30 days to lose 10% of it’s charge. Given that the battery will put itself into a sleep state after 30 days unused I consider that well within adequate performance.

Bose claims all new units are fixed and if you do get a leaky one they will fix or replace it.

Some people on the BosePro forum that had their units repaired got back a list of parts replaced. If I remember correctly, it was a single transistor and a few resistors. Sounds to me like some of those transistors leaked and they found a new part with better, tighter specs and/or tolerances.

Bose stated that only like 10% of the units actually had a problem. That ticked off a lot of people on the Bose forum (me included) since a *lot* of people were noticing the problem.

Here’s a speculative theory: There are actually two problems — the really fast drain problem (like in my first unit) that requires a hardware change and a slower drain that is repairable via the firmware update.

(Still speculating.) When Bose said only 10% had the problem they were only talking about the problem that required the hardware fix. Which, if true, was a communication faux pas on their part. Unhappy customers will not be made more happy by being told they do not have a problem.

Conclusion: I hope this background info is helpful. Bose is being upstanding and getting problems taken care of but they have bungled the job of getting fixes in place in a timely manner and communicating the best information to their customer base. I hope a “lessons learned” process is being run inside Bose Corp for this. The S1 is still a product I am happy with, especially now it’s fixed. I would buy another if I needed it.

Cheers, _Roger