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RCBS Chargemaster Quality

NHAtHeart

NHAtHeart

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Has anyone had issues with their RCBS Chargemaster? I've read it's the best of the best for auto powder measures but a lot of the reviews posted in the past 6-12 months have been negative. Quite a few people saying at 13-20 months they were having failures that rendered it useless. RCBS was saying "after 12 months tough luck".

If I'm going to be spending $350ish I want to make sure it's not going to be garbage after a year and change.
 
NHAtHeart said:
Cool, pretty sure I'm getting one this week. I was getting nervous after some of the bad reviews but it seems like it's still the best choice.
Click to expand...
Adjusting the speed and using the McDonald's straw trick are both very helpful, at least in my experience.
 
Put in the order today, $309 shipped and it was in-stock so I should have it in a few days. Looking forward to getting back to reloading I've been out of it for a bit.
 
I have one of the first ones ever made (at least 10 years) and never had any problems (not even needed a McD straw--and it wouldn't fit any way)--except forgetting to close the powder drain "valve" ONCE.
It sure is better than the old PACT I had.
No one can tell if you'll have a problem. If RCBS was smart, they would sell extended warranties.
 
Had mine for a bout 6 months. Threw prob 500 charges with it. It always ran perfect and never had an issue. I ended up selling it just because I didn't have a ton of use for it anymore and realestate is valuable in my room. It was a good accurate machine.
 
noylj said:
I have one of the first ones ever made (at least 10 years) and never had any problems (not even needed a McD straw--and it wouldn't fit any way)--except forgetting to close the powder drain "valve" ONCE.
It sure is better than the old PACT I had.
No one can tell if you'll have a problem. If RCBS was smart, they would sell extended warranties.
Click to expand...

Yeah, for an extra $10-$20 I'd definitely buy a 5 year extended or something. It's an expensive piece of equipment to have die after a year and a half or so. Hopefully it holds up well, mine will be here today.
 
Scale just arrived, finishing out working from home then I'll go test it out. I turned it on and ran the calibration and it seemed to calibrate perfectly on the kitchen counter. Going to try to do some loads for my .270 tonight with it.
 
Mine runs fine.

I discovered a significant flaw in its software. See post 12 in this thread along with some things people mentioned to try to address this:

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vb...w-400-rounds-of-308-done/page2?highlight=rcbs

It doesn't change the fact that the number you see displayed after the beep is NOT the actual drop, but the set weight. You need to wait roughly 6 seconds after the beep to see the actual drop.

I have not yet called RCBS yet re this, mainly because I made about 1000 rounds of .308 last summer and have not yet exhausted my supply.

Don
 
Like anything with a scale it needs to be level and sitting solid to work properly.
Mine works well and I have checked it against another scale and it seems very accurate.
 
as someone mentioned, it seems to be by design so the entire system stabilizes after dumping the powder and shows you the actual weight. There's still going to be movement (imperceptible by eye) as soon as the last grain hits the pan so it needs to wait for that to dampen to give an accurate reading. Not a bug IMO but something they should tell you in the directions in big red letters.
 
jpm said:
as someone mentioned, it seems to be by design so the entire system stabilizes after dumping the powder and shows you the actual weight. There's still going to be movement (imperceptible by eye) as soon as the last grain hits the pan so it needs to wait for that to dampen to give an accurate reading. Not a bug IMO but something they should tell you in the directions in big red letters.
Click to expand...

You are thinking of this the wrong way. If it takes 6 seconds to stabilize, so be it.

But thats not the case. The scale drives the powder augur. Think of it this way, it needs to know the mass to drive the augur. If it needed 6 seconds to drive the augur, it would trickle, then have to wait to confirm that it neede more powder.

So I strongly disagree with the idea that it needs this time to settle down. But even if I grant you the fact that it needs 6 seconds to confirm a throw, then the bug is that the first number it shows when it beeps and says finished is the set charge weight. I read the instructions and for the first couple of times I used it I thought it was showing the actual throw.

I've managed UX design on mobile apps. I know this stuff. It is simply WRONG to do it this way. They could present any other data in the 6 seconds, like charge number, or whatever while it settles down.

I bet if you asked 20 Chargemaster owners about that first number, 75% would say it represents the charge thrown.

Don
 
dcmdon said:
You are thinking of this the wrong way. If it takes 6 seconds to stabilize, so be it.

But thats not the case. The scale drives the powder augur. Think of it this way, it needs to know the mass to drive the augur. If it needed 6 seconds to drive the augur, it would trickle, then have to wait to confirm that it neede more powder.

So I strongly disagree with the idea that it needs this time to settle down. But even if I grant you the fact that it needs 6 seconds to confirm a throw, then the bug is that the first number it shows when it beeps and says finished is the set charge weight. I read the instructions and for the first couple of times I used it I thought it was showing the actual throw.

I've managed UX design on mobile apps. I know this stuff. It is simply WRONG to do it this way. They could present any other data in the 6 seconds, like charge number, or whatever while it settles down.

I bet if you asked 20 Chargemaster owners about that first number, 75% would say it represents the charge thrown.

Don
Click to expand...

You can change all the timing settings. YouTube it, there's plenty of videos. I've tweaked mine and it throws accurate charges in about half the time it did when I got it. I also use the McD's straw. Invaluable for stick powders.
 
dcmdon said:
You are thinking of this the wrong way. If it takes 6 seconds to stabilize, so be it.

But thats not the case. The scale drives the powder augur. Think of it this way, it needs to know the mass to drive the augur. If it needed 6 seconds to drive the augur, it would trickle, then have to wait to confirm that it neede more powder.
Click to expand...

I'm saying it takes the time for it to stabilize to give you an exact reading. Think of the charge weight as the threshold it is trying to reach by driving the augur. Once the weight is equal to or greater than the threshold, it will stop driving the auger to drop powder. It doesn't know yet if it hit the exact number, only that it got at least as much as was called for.

I too thought that the number it showed when it beeps was the weight and was surprised when it changed after a few seconds. I think they should have it say something like 'DONE' before displaying the actual weight in the pan. And even then it should show you the called for weight and actual, or better yet the actual and the delta so you can decide if its close enough.
 
jpm said:
I'm saying it takes the time for it to stabilize to give you an exact reading. Think of the charge weight as the threshold it is trying to reach by driving the augur. Once the weight is equal to or greater than the threshold, it will stop driving the auger to drop powder. It doesn't know yet if it hit the exact number, only that it got at least as much as was called for.

I too thought that the number it showed when it beeps was the weight and was surprised when it changed after a few seconds. I think they should have it say something like 'DONE' before displaying the actual weight in the pan. And even then it should show you the called for weight and actual, or better yet the actual and the delta so you can decide if its close enough.
Click to expand...

Exactly. My point is that the problem is in the way the scale operates. The problem is in what it displays.
 
Not so much discoloration but ive seen the aluminum spinning droptube corrosion, it was WC680
 
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