Aura H2O 2nd H2O returned after only 14 days

mcp000 · 05-30-2016, 03:49 AM

i wonder, if there is any kind of quality-decrease in kobo-products...

i had several aura HDs and was always pretty in love with them. then the
aura H2O showed up, and ofc i wanted it. waterproofness was the one thing
i always missed about my reader.

in november i sold my HD and got me the H2O. i saw that kobo is somehow
mingled now with rakuten... which i didnt really mind in the beginning. but
nowadays i start to wonder, if that maybe kinda influences the quality...

my H2O worked pretty solid for 6 months... dayly in water... and everything
fine. then those freezes appeared and grew more and more intense and
annoying. i updated, resetted and did everything possible and mentioned here in the forums, but after one week of being a pain in my a$$ he said goodbye
and froze himself into no-turning-back :/

so two weeks ago i got me a new one and after 14 days, during my second time with it in the pool it started to crash again and whatnot...
only this time it felt different and way more radical. i had a feeling in my guts
and i checked the sealing-flap... ofc it was wet inside.
i tried to shake water out of it and to my shock there really flew drops of water out of the waterproof kobo !!! wtf?!?!

i returned it again and will get my third one in a few days, but somehow it doesnt feel good anymore... somehow my trust seems broken. and so i wonder:

how waterproof are your H2Os ?
was this a single event or do you guys have problems with the quality of the kobo/rakuten area as well?
is it even possible that rakuten has anything to do with this?
how long do your kobos "live" generally in average?

doubleshuffle · 05-30-2016, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

how long do your kobos "live" generally in average?

Can't say anything about the H2O (because I have never had one) so I can only reply to your last question: My Aura HD is three years old now and is still working perfectly fine. I am sure I will use it as long it works.

meeera · 05-30-2016, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

was this a single event or do you guys have problems with the quality of the kobo/rakuten area as well?
is it even possible that rakuten has anything to do with this?
how long do your kobos "live" generally in average?

No problem here, though I don't routinely take my H2O into water (I don't have a waterproof cover). AFAIK my ancient Kobo Touch is still working (I gave it away), and we have working Kobo Glo, Kobo Aura and H2O devices in the house, all bought shortly after first release.

mathil · 05-30-2016, 05:34 AM

I bought my H2O when it first came out and have been using it almost daily since then, it's still working perfectly fine, no problem whatsoever. My family is still using two 3-year-old Glos and one 2-year-old Aura, again, never a problem, same with all of my friends who own and use them regularly. As far as my experience goes, I'd say Kobo's problems are definitely not in the quality control of their products.

JSWolf · 05-30-2016, 06:07 AM

My H2O is about 1.5 years old. I don't have random freezes. I don't take it into the water.

Thing is, if you don't have the port cover on properly when you do go into the water, it will not be waterproof. You have to make sure that port cover is on properly.

ottdmk · 05-30-2016, 11:19 AM

I've had mine for a little over a year. Still works perfectly, barring the occasional crash of the touchscreen driver. (Annoying, that.) I've only gotten it wet a couple of times though.

dmacmart · 05-30-2016, 11:58 AM

I got the H2O October 2014, use it almost daily, works fine. I use library books, Kobo kepubs, and DRM-free epubs. I do have a problem with occasional freeze and needing to power cycle. It seems to happen shortly upon wake from sleep (using sleep cover), usually trying to adjust brightness. I now try to remember to page forward and then back as soon as I wake it; it has never frozen when I do that. Power cycling has always fixed the issue.

eenk · 05-30-2016, 01:37 PM

Keeping the port seals intact can be tricky, you'll need to check them before each dive, erm, each bathtub trip. Make sure that there is absolutely no debris, and in particular, no hairs. As the H2O doesn't have any O ring for proper sealing I would never bet my device on being really waterproof. Also, the port seal, from its looks, is sensitive to rapid water pressure buildup.

Note that the H2O's IP rating is for static water pressure only. There are good reasons my dive equipment has O rings and is rated for 10s of bars even though I can't dive that deep. As far as I remember the H2O has been advertised as having some chance of surviving an accidental submerge, but never that it would survive any longer submerging or water directed at its ports. You can easily create large water pressure when submerging a device and simple IP rating doesn't cover this.

The H2O is no diving equipment.

DNSB · 05-30-2016, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

how waterproof are your H2Os ?
was this a single event or do you guys have problems with the quality of the kobo/rakuten area as well?
is it even possible that rakuten has anything to do with this?
how long do your kobos "live" generally in average?

Hmmm... I've only tested the waterproofness of my H2O twice and didn't see any issues. I do know one person who didn't close the cover over the USB port/reset button properly and her H2O died horribly in the hot tub.

I purchased my H2O when it was first released more for the Carta screen than the waterproofing.

As for how long Kobo's ereaders last? Over this weekend, I was checking and my original Kobo (bluetooth only) on to the Aura HD all booted up and allowed me to read -- basically, I'm missing a Mini and a Glo HD from a complete collection. I'm planning on getting rid of some of them due to spousal demands.

Rakuten purchased Kobo back in the fall of the 2011 while the Aura HD was released in 2013 so I doubt any quality issues with the H2O are related to Rakuten.

frostschutz · 05-30-2016, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

how waterproof are your H2Os ?

Not at all.

I cut a hole in the back of my H2O

so no way it could be waterproof.

My mother's H2O is not waterproof either. I bought a cheap fintie case for it and when I clipped it in, the front bezel got stuck on top of the clip in one of the corners, the bezel got lifted/raised in that corner by several mm, so most certainly the glue in that corner broke.

Glue is all that makes this device waterproof and water can enter through the smallest gaps (invisible to the naked eye) so the water seal can't possibly be intact anymore.

You have to be extremely careful about the H2O's port cover. It's very flexible; it might look closed properly from the front but if it's slightly bent in the middle it might after all not be closed properly. Once you have water in your device it's history.

There is a german ebook forum / review site, they put the H2O into the freezer (submerged in water -> frozen in a block of ice), the H2O survived this treatment but 6 months later it stopped working. The battery was dead and some contacts were corroded. So either water got in after all or air moisture condensed from the inside.

Electronics and water just don't go together, I wouldn't trust any device to be waterproof. If you want to enjoy your H2O in your pool, I'd also give it additional protection, like a ziploc bag.

filmo · 05-30-2016, 09:06 PM

I was USN underwater cameraman. Even the best underwater cameras would sometimes flood due to operator error, or lack of maintenance. O-rings get flat spots, a grain of sand on a o-ring to leaving a port open can cause a leak . My TIMEX watch is water resistant to 50 meters and cheap enough I ware it in shower and bath tub. It is easily available at many local stores. I would not depend on this watch for a 30 ft dive. Kobo H2O I would do my best to keep it out of water, showers and rain. It is nice that it has low water resistant rating like my cheap first water resistant watch that flooded when I washed my hands or walked in a heavy rain. I can't buy a replacement Kobo reader locally and it cost too much to be disposable like a cheap paper diaper.

mcp000 · 05-31-2016, 04:51 AM

hmmmm well then thats sad news...

so i think after what you guys shared here, that it was the lucky exception that my first H2O was so very waterproof. i really had it dayly in the tub with me and washed it afterwards and what not and it never showed any problems with that treatment.
in the beginning i always use some very very !slight! greasing on the rubbery inside of the flap with special cleanroom-finegrease for plastics which i get from work.
it always felt very save this way and he stood the tub like a pro for almost 6 months...
maybe its really better to keep him a little more out of the water then

even if it feels wrong to pay more for the waterproofness compared to the HD and then not taking full advantage of it... but... well... maybe its wiser this way.

thanks for answers anyway

mcp000 · 05-31-2016, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Not at all.

I cut a hole in the back of my H2O

so no way it could be waterproof.

My mother's H2O is not waterproof either. I bought a cheap fintie case for it and when I clipped it in, the front bezel got stuck on top of the clip in one of the corners, the bezel got lifted/raised in that corner by several mm, so most certainly the glue in that corner broke.

btw THIS !

i think that is something very important to keep in mind. i have such a cover as well and sometimes it gets bitchy letting my kobo go and something similar might have happened....

meeera · 05-31-2016, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

btw THIS !

i think that is something very important to keep in mind. i have such a cover as well and sometimes it gets bitchy letting my kobo go and something similar might have happened....

I don't routinely use mine near water because water = hard tiled surfaces. That plus taking the cover off to read in water means it's a "no way" for me, even without the potential risks to the waterproofing.

The waterproofing is fabulous to have, however, in case I spill coffee or a glass of water, or just so that I can wash it down now and then and have it sparkling clean.

booklover6 · 05-31-2016, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcp000

even if it feels wrong to pay more for the waterproofness compared to the HD and then not taking full advantage of it...

There are more differences between the Kobo Aura HD and the Kobo H2O than just that one is water proof and one isn't. They have different screens altogether.

05-30-2016, 03:49 AM	#1
mcp000 Member Posts: 22 Karma: 14480 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: kobo	2nd H2O returned after only 14 days i wonder, if there is any kind of quality-decrease in kobo-products... i had several aura HDs and was always pretty in love with them. then the aura H2O showed up, and ofc i wanted it. waterproofness was the one thing i always missed about my reader. in november i sold my HD and got me the H2O. i saw that kobo is somehow mingled now with rakuten... which i didnt really mind in the beginning. but nowadays i start to wonder, if that maybe kinda influences the quality... my H2O worked pretty solid for 6 months... dayly in water... and everything fine. then those freezes appeared and grew more and more intense and annoying. i updated, resetted and did everything possible and mentioned here in the forums, but after one week of being a pain in my a$$ he said goodbye and froze himself into no-turning-back :/ so two weeks ago i got me a new one and after 14 days, during my second time with it in the pool it started to crash again and whatnot... only this time it felt different and way more radical. i had a feeling in my guts and i checked the sealing-flap... ofc it was wet inside. i tried to shake water out of it and to my shock there really flew drops of water out of the waterproof kobo !!! wtf?!?! i returned it again and will get my third one in a few days, but somehow it doesnt feel good anymore... somehow my trust seems broken. and so i wonder: how waterproof are your H2Os ? was this a single event or do you guys have problems with the quality of the kobo/rakuten area as well? is it even possible that rakuten has anything to do with this? how long do your kobos "live" generally in average?

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05-30-2016, 05:34 AM	#4
mathil Evangelist Posts: 445 Karma: 287725 Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Europe Device: Kobo Aura H2O/Glo HD/Libra 2, Kindle PW3/PW5/PW11, Boox Palma	I bought my H2O when it first came out and have been using it almost daily since then, it's still working perfectly fine, no problem whatsoever. My family is still using two 3-year-old Glos and one 2-year-old Aura, again, never a problem, same with all of my friends who own and use them regularly. As far as my experience goes, I'd say Kobo's problems are definitely not in the quality control of their products.

05-30-2016, 06:07 AM	#5
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,680 Karma: 145864619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	My H2O is about 1.5 years old. I don't have random freezes. I don't take it into the water. Thing is, if you don't have the port cover on properly when you do go into the water, it will not be waterproof. You have to make sure that port cover is on properly.

05-30-2016, 11:19 AM	#6
ottdmk Wizard Posts: 1,220 Karma: 3804496 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Libra 2, Lenovo Tab M10 FHD Plus, Lenovo Tab M9	I've had mine for a little over a year. Still works perfectly, barring the occasional crash of the touchscreen driver. (Annoying, that.) I've only gotten it wet a couple of times though.

05-30-2016, 11:58 AM	#7
dmacmart Fanatic Posts: 534 Karma: 696908 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Kobo Mini, Glo, Arc, H2O, iPhone, iPad 2, (husband)Touch	I got the H2O October 2014, use it almost daily, works fine. I use library books, Kobo kepubs, and DRM-free epubs. I do have a problem with occasional freeze and needing to power cycle. It seems to happen shortly upon wake from sleep (using sleep cover), usually trying to adjust brightness. I now try to remember to page forward and then back as soon as I wake it; it has never frozen when I do that. Power cycling has always fixed the issue.

05-30-2016, 01:37 PM	#8
eenk carrier lost Posts: 62 Karma: 14000 Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: 2001:db8:e:b00c::f00d Device: Kobo Forma, H2O v1, Aura HD	Keeping the port seals intact can be tricky, you'll need to check them before each dive, erm, each bathtub trip. Make sure that there is absolutely no debris, and in particular, no hairs. As the H2O doesn't have any O ring for proper sealing I would never bet my device on being really waterproof. Also, the port seal, from its looks, is sensitive to rapid water pressure buildup. Note that the H2O's IP rating is for static water pressure only. There are good reasons my dive equipment has O rings and is rated for 10s of bars even though I can't dive that deep. As far as I remember the H2O has been advertised as having some chance of surviving an accidental submerge, but never that it would survive any longer submerging or water directed at its ports. You can easily create large water pressure when submerging a device and simple IP rating doesn't cover this. The H2O is no diving equipment.

05-30-2016, 09:06 PM	#11
filmo Wizard Posts: 1,326 Karma: 1077205 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kobo Touch, Sony T1, Kobo Mini	I was USN underwater cameraman. Even the best underwater cameras would sometimes flood due to operator error, or lack of maintenance. O-rings get flat spots, a grain of sand on a o-ring to leaving a port open can cause a leak . My TIMEX watch is water resistant to 50 meters and cheap enough I ware it in shower and bath tub. It is easily available at many local stores. I would not depend on this watch for a 30 ft dive. Kobo H2O I would do my best to keep it out of water, showers and rain. It is nice that it has low water resistant rating like my cheap first water resistant watch that flooded when I washed my hands or walked in a heavy rain. I can't buy a replacement Kobo reader locally and it cost too much to be disposable like a cheap paper diaper.

05-31-2016, 04:51 AM	#12
mcp000 Member Posts: 22 Karma: 14480 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: kobo	hmmmm well then thats sad news... so i think after what you guys shared here, that it was the lucky exception that my first H2O was so very waterproof. i really had it dayly in the tub with me and washed it afterwards and what not and it never showed any problems with that treatment. in the beginning i always use some very very !slight! greasing on the rubbery inside of the flap with special cleanroom-finegrease for plastics which i get from work. it always felt very save this way and he stood the tub like a pro for almost 6 months... maybe its really better to keep him a little more out of the water then even if it feels wrong to pay more for the waterproofness compared to the HD and then not taking full advantage of it... but... well... maybe its wiser this way. thanks for answers anyway

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