ProFormer recell review

[Jess Haas SOC]

I recently had John Ritter recell some of my ProFormers. I was originally a little concerned about the fact that he uses a generic import cell instead of the name brand Sanyo cell used by Anton Bauer but considering the price of the Sanyo cells paying someone to recell a ProFormer with them doesn't end up making much sense. The Sanyo cells alone run almost $50 per battery and he quoted me $55 including return shipping to recell a battery so I figured I would give it a try. He also claims to have been using these cells himself for two years now with no problems and I have heard nothing but good things about his service and the quality of his recells.

 

I sent him two batteries as a test. USPS flat rate shipping makes this cheap and easy ($10.50) His turn around time was extremely quick even though the shipping method isn't the fastest.

 

My initial impression was that he definitely pays attention to detail. He included an instruction sheet on the proper care of the recelled batteries and each battery has a sticker on it with the recell date and his contact info.

 

The batteries were immediately recognized by my Anton Bauer chargers and they charged up with no problem. I decided to pop one of the batteries open to see the quality of his work. I recently had opened up one of the original dead batteries and they look almost identical. I didn't pull it apart too much because I didn't want to mess with my newly recelled battery but the quality of his work is definitely top notch.

(the one on the left is the origional, the right is the recell)

 

I have had the recelled batteries for a couple of months now and they have been performing flawlessly. I haven't had a chance to scientifically test their capacity but they have lasted just as long as I would expect a new ProFormer to last. I was curious so I weighed the new batteries and the origional batteries. The origional weighed 1lb 14.6oz and the recelled are 1lb 10oz. It appears that the new cells are slightly lighter so one might want to keep this in mind when mixing recelled and non recelled batteries. This isn't really a concern for me as all of my ProFormers will be recelled ones. I personally like the slightly lighter weight as I needed something light to use with light cameras when I want to keep the sled super light.

 

Heres his info:

John Ritter

Phone 954-557-9765 Email: siebold35@hotmail.com

 

He also sells on ebay and can recell all sorts of batteries:

http://myworld.ebay.com/ritter9

 

~Jess