Sig Kilo 2000 - Dead?

Bcamos

Bcamos

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Minuteman
Aug 30, 2012
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Texas
#1
Already reached out to Sig and they're not interested in looking at it or working on it. I've tested with various new batteries and all provide the same experience.

When using the range button, I can tell that it's sending out the laser because I can see the purple light with my phone's camera. The internal display however, shows absolutely nothing. No matter what I do, I get nothing from the display. You guys have any ideas before I toss this thing?
 
#2
I had the same issue. Thought I had lost the display. swapped batteries, etc with no luck. Turns out I had to go into settings and turn up the display brightness back onto auto sensing. somehow I had turned it from auto light sensing to manual and all the way down to the lowest setting. Maybe bouncing around in my range bag? Check your manual to see how to adjust the brightness setting back to auto.

The bad news is about 2 months later it full on died. It doesn't even send out a laser anymore and because it was just past the 5 year warranty Sig told me too bad, have a coupon if you want to buy another one of our products. I can hear it whirring, but no laser. I may just crack it open to see what part failed, but I'll just stick with a vortex rangefinder from now on.
 
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#3
bigdaddydmd said:
I had the same issue. Thought I had lost the display. swapped batteries, etc with no luck. Turns out I had to go into settings and turn up the display brightness back onto auto sensing. somehow I had turned it from auto light sensing to manual and all the way down to the lowest setting. Maybe bouncing around in my range bag? Check you manual to see how to adjust the brightness setting back to auto.

The bad news is about 2 months later it full on died. It doesn't even send out a laser anymore and because it was just past the 5 year warranty Sig told me too bad, have a coupon if you want to buy another one of our products.
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Yeah that was the offer I received as well. Any chance you remember the procedure to set it back to auto? I don't have my manual anymore. Hopefully that's all it is! I can likely find a copy of the manual online somewhere. I don't see myself replacing this with another Sig. I'll likely go Vortex for that sweet sweet warranty.
 
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#4
I have my manual at home in my range bag. I'll dig it out when I get home and Post a pic of the procedure. I don't remember how to do it off the top of my head. It was some convoluted process of hold this button for 5 seconds and then push this button 3 times while standing on your head and rubbing your stomach or some stupid shit.
 
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#8
Looks like it’s not a display brightness thing unfortunately. Has anyone ever taken one of these apart and poked around? I wonder if it’s just a simple connection issue somewhere.
 
#9
Remove rubber cover on top. There is a 1.6mm Phillips under the cover. A second 1.6mm Phillips is hiding under the yellow laser tag on the bottom. I just punched thru the tag with the screwdriver. Pull the body out from the case, but not too far. The power lines are soldered on both the battery and circuit board. Have at it and good luck.
 

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#10
bigdaddydmd said:
Remove rubber cover on top. There is a 1.6mm Phillips under the cover. A second 1.6mm Phillips is hiding under the yellow laser tag on the bottom. I just punched thru the tag with the screwdriver. Pull the body out from the case, but not too far. The power lines are soldered on both the battery and circuit board. Have at it and good luck.
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Hell yeah you’re awesome, thanks!
 
#13
bigdaddydmd said:
Hope it works for you. They are decent little rangefinders when they work. Once they go kaput its time to get a new one. They seem to have a planned obsolesce at 5 years and 1 day.
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It's in fact 5 years from date of manufacture not date of actual purchase so if they've been sitting in a warehouse for a while and you're buying new old stock on sale, their warranty may already be close to expiring. The electronics warranty is the same for Trijicon scopes with electronics which is also from date of manufacture not date of actual purchase but I don't know their out of warranty policy on their willingness to fix them if customers offer to pay or if it's the same as SIGs no intention to fix past their short term electronics warranty. Doesn't seem fair to the end consumer but it is what it is but at least you already knew about their short term warranty when you decided to purchase it. Vortex, Burris, Athlon, Maven and GPO are the only lifetime warranty companies that I currently know of for their electronics and Leupold only for their scopes with electronics and red dots anything that physically mounts to the guns. Vortex is King of the no questions asked lifetime warranty though.
 
#17
Bcamos said:
Cool, thanks 👍
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Am I wrong? What good is a product's warranty if the company doesn't GAF about their customers and won't honor the warranty when it needs to be used? At that point it's time to let capitalism takeover and let them fall, and move on to a company that does GAF about their customers and will honor their own warranty that they put in place. I'm not advocating for any brand, just saying this logic should be applied to ALL future purchases after getting burned by a company.
 
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#18
FuhQ said:
Am I wrong? What good is a product's warranty if the company doesn't GAF about their customers and won't honor the warranty when it needs to be used? At that point it's time to let capitalism takeover and let them fall, and move on to a company that does GAF about their customers and will honor their own warranty that they put in place. I'm not advocating for any brand, just saying this logic should be applied to ALL future purchases after getting burned by a company.
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Ah fuck. No, you’re not wrong at all. I guess I was just in my feels and didn’t want to hear it. I have 3 Sig guns and this paperweight. I know owning a Sig comes with a couple of caveats (“don’t buy the first iteration” is one of them) but overall I feel like they make good products. Buying better is almost always the right answer, but not necessarily dependent on cost. I could have bought a Vortex for the same price and got a much better warranty. Maybe or maybe not a better product, but certainly a better warranty.
 
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#19
Bcamos said:
Ah fuck. No, you’re not wrong at all. I guess I was just in my feels and didn’t want to hear it. I have 3 Sig guns and this paperweight. I know owning a Sig comes with a couple of caveats (“don’t buy the first iteration” is one of them) but overall I feel like they make good products. Buying better is almost always the right answer, but not necessarily dependent on cost. I could have bought a Vortex for the same price and got a much better warranty. Maybe or maybe not a better product, but certainly a better warranty.
Click to expand...
Believe me, I've been screwed my share of times by companies... That's why I have the attitude about this type of stuff that I do. If a company is going to put a warranty in place, they need to honor that warranty, or else, they're not worth pissing on if they're on fire. Learned that lesson the hard way, so now I research pretty much everything and every company (if I'm not familiar with them) to a ridiculous point before purchasing. Google searches, scour the web looking for good/bad reviews, etc... There are very few companies that i'm very brand-loyal to...And that's because they make quality products, stand behind those products, and go above and beyond when their customers have an issue with their products.
 
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#20
FuhQ said:
Believe me, I've been screwed my share of times by companies... That's why I have the attitude about this type of stuff that I do. If a company is going to put a warranty in place, they need to honor that warranty, or else, they're not worth pissing on if they're on fire. Learned that lesson the hard way, so now I research pretty much everything and every company (if I'm not familiar with them) to a ridiculous point before purchasing. Google searches, scour the web looking for good/bad reviews, etc... There are very few companies that i'm very brand-loyal to...And that's because they make quality products, stand behind those products, and go above and beyond when their customers have an issue with their products.
Click to expand...
Bushnell has THE absolute worst customer reviews/feedback/complaints when searching the internet regarding not honoring their own warranty and customer service or the lack thereof over at least the past decade and seems to be still ongoing.

I think they're much like SIG who had already planned to just take customers money then later not honor most of their warranties. Employees in their sales and marketing department along with their Influencers and promoters shilling for the brand can only do so much damage control since the problems are with their warranty and customer service departments following orders from upstairs to keep their corporate profits their highest by not honoring most of their customer warranty claims and make up bogus excuses to deny their warranties. It really blows when there's many many many customers who got their broken defective Bushnell products sent back to them unrepaired and would have better off just throwing them I to the dumpster instead of wasting money and time and grief to pay to ship them to Bushnell only to be denied warranty. There's even been instances where Bushnell charged their customers to return their defective items.

Wait until the 5 year warranty exoures on their Match Pro ED and Match pro with illuminated reticles. I bet mostly everyone who bought them don't even know their electronic's warranty aren't lifetime. They will find this fact the hard way in several short years time. Just like SIG owners who thought they were buying products with a real lifetime warranty.
I was totally unaware of these extremely shady practices while buying a lot of Bushnell brand products over the years.

I'm genuinely worried about their warranty whether they are going to honor their warranty promise if and when needed since most of my scopes and spotters are in fact Japan and Philippines made Bushnell brand optics. I've even hunted down certain Bushnell scopes to buy in the past due to their excellent quality knowing some of their new replacement models were CHINESE MADE assuming the older ones had a hassle free lifetime warranty. Had I known they would have so many customer complaints regarding warranty, I would have bought all Vortex instead or Athlon had I known they were better quality than Bushnell and Vortex back then.

Riton is another brand to avoid due to them recently not honoring their free exchange for brand new models lifetime warranty. Another fact is IF you're lucky and actually managed to get a replacement under warranty the replacement is likely to have the exact same defects or permanently shift out of focus after little use.

At least with Arken's very poor QC you can keep on sending back the defective ones until you eventually get a good one and Arken even pays your shipping just like Vortex so you aren't out of pocket for shipping and insurance whenever you need to send anything in for their lifetime warranty.
 
#21
Bcamos said:
Ah fuck. No, you’re not wrong at all. I guess I was just in my feels and didn’t want to hear it. I have 3 Sig guns and this paperweight. I know owning a Sig comes with a couple of caveats (“don’t buy the first iteration” is one of them) but overall I feel like they make good products. Buying better is almost always the right answer, but not necessarily dependent on cost. I could have bought a Vortex for the same price and got a much better warranty. Maybe or maybe not a better product, but certainly a better warranty.
Click to expand...
The good news about buying Vortex and Burris with electronics are their bumper to bumper type hassle free lifetime warranty including their electronics and they will never become obsolete since they eventually upgrade you to their latest and greatest models at no charge when you need to send them in for warranty and all electronics will and do fail. Athlon and Maven are other brands with a real lifetime warranty on their products including their electronics.

I await for Maven's rangefinder binoculars that will probably have the best glass with a hassle free lifetime warranty including their electronics.

Their RF.1 standalone $450 rangefinder seems to have the clearest glass among it's peers sold by other brands and this Maven rangefinder is NOT made in CHINA.
 
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#22
Bcamos said:
Already reached out to Sig and they're not interested in looking at it or working on it. I've tested with various new batteries and all provide the same experience.

When using the range button, I can tell that it's sending out the laser because I can see the purple light with my phone's camera. The internal display however, shows absolutely nothing. No matter what I do, I get nothing from the display. You guys have any ideas before I toss this thing?
Click to expand...
Look on the bright side, at least it wasn't a more expensive $1099.99 or $1299.99 or $1499.99 or $2499.99 model SIG electronics rangefinder or rangefinder binoculars paperweight that others will surely be finding out the hard way after the fact who actually thought they had a real lifetime warranty but certainly not where it matters the most, their electronics. The biggest bummer is SIG won't even agree to even fix them past their expired warranty even if their customers offer to pay out of pocket.

This is when researching brands that have a real hassle free no questions asked lifetime warranty including their electronics is a wise thing to do or at least try to actually bear my constantly parroting about this fact about certain brands to buy and what brands to avoid if warranty matters in your decision to buy anything. I personally prefer a hassle free no questions asked lifetime warranty including their electronics but that's just me since I really don't like buying throw away items nor but anything that the own company aren't even willing or able to actually fix past their short term warranty.

Get in touch with the Vortex social dude on this forum, he might agree to take a look at your dead SIG rangefinder. You never know, I've read about his generous offers to look at other competing brands of products and try to repair them at no charge.
 
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#23
Another one - my Kilo 2000 is dead. Sig Customer Service wouldn't even blink at a repair. - said 20% off current product was all they could do. The Kilo is in the trash, and I am done with Sig Optics forever. done. Don't buy their crap.

I've attached the warranty pages from the Kilo 2000 manual about warranty - The first page of which was the lead marketing content at the time of purchase. The manual Warranty headline literally says: "Electro-Optics Infinite Guarantee". Cads. Everyone here has covered the rest of the story.
1701973986512.png

I stored the Sig where I keep all of my useless crap.
1701974050945.png
 
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#24
mrk99ii said:
Another one - my Kilo 2000 is dead. Sig Customer Service wouldn't even blink at a repair. - said 20% off current product was all they could do. The Kilo is in the trash, and I am done with Sig Optics forever. done. Don't buy their crap.

I've attached the warranty pages from the Kilo 2000 manual about warranty - The first page of which was the lead marketing content at the time of purchase. Everyone here has covered the rest of the story.
View attachment 8290667
I stored the Sig where I keep all of my useless crap.
View attachment 8290668
Click to expand...
I took mine apart and realized there's likely nothing I can do to fix it. Everything looks connected, nothing looks burned up or broken. Oh well.
 
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#25
FWIW: Here is the game Bushnell is playing. I guess it is Vortex (or Leica) for me.

"Products manufactured on or after June 2020 are covered by the Bushnell Lifetime Ironclad Warranty. The Ironclad Warranty is a full lifetime warranty that covers the lifetime of this Product. Each Product has a defined lifetime; lifetimes can range from 1 to 30 years. This Product’s lifetime can be found at the website listed below and/or on the Bushnell webpage specific to this Product."

Warranty Page says "Lifetime" is defined as 5 years for Bushnell Electro Optics. While we should all avoid Bushnell, someone should hammer them for deceptive intent in advertising. You kind-of have to dig to find the truth. It is certainly not readily available in plain language.
 
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#26
The thing about electronic-cutouts of “infinite” warranties is that, at least with some items, the base function of the thing is still useful.

Like if the LRF part of an Sig bino cuts out, well, at least you have an ok-ish bino for your kid.

But it gets unfunnier when the electronics cut out on a little 6x-8x monocular LRF, as you're left with crap. Who tf uses a monocular? Opera attendees? Almost like if your cell phone fries…useless.

I think you should start a parody YT channel on all of the uses of what’s left of fried Sig products.

case in point
Uses for dead past-warranty Sig LRF monocular
  1. burning ants in the sun
  2. better than dirt upon which to slice cheese
  3. blinding one eye during an eclipse of the sun
  4. beat it instead of girlfriend
  5. useful to illustrate point when ranting about warranties on SH (@Scopeye)
 
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#27
I had a sig kilo display crap out a few years ago, one segment died entirely while another segment went really dim; a known issue on those models.

Called and was told the same thing; sorry, it's out of warranty as electro optical items don't have a lifetime warranty, and that model is now discontinued, but we can sell you the new model at a discount.

The discounted price SIG offered on the new model was higher than a couple of hide vendors... wtf, seriously?

I can understand not wanting to offer a lifetime warranty on electronic items, but trying to charge me more for the replacement than I can buy the same thing from a couple of your vendors for less just isn't a good look.

Last thing I ever bought from SIG, and I plan to keep it that way.

Also, that new bushnell "lifetime warranty" where the "lifetime" of a product is defined and limited is a rather slick piece of marketing and liability doublespeak.

I'm pretty sure the Vortex service model has given all of us unreasonable expectations of the level of service we think we should be receiving from other companies...
 
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#28
I went through the same issue with a RCBS Chargemaster. Prior experience with computers let me know that electrical connections can corrode but look fine. Whether it was removing chips or electrical connectors and then reconnecting them, the majority of times things would work again. I did that with my Chargemaster, opened it up and disconnected all connections and then put it back together. It's been working fine ever since. It might be possible the same will happen if you give it a try. If it doesn't then it means one of the components has failed and it's a candidate for the recycler.
 
#29
B y r o n said:
I went through the same issue with a RCBS Chargemaster. Prior experience with computers let me know that electrical connections can corrode but look fine. Whether it was removing chips or electrical connectors and then reconnecting them, the majority of times things would work again. I did that with my Chargemaster, opened it up and disconnected all connections and then put it back together. It's been working fine ever since. It might be possible the same will happen if you give it a try. If it doesn't then it means one of the components has failed and it's a candidate for the recycler.
Click to expand...
Everything internally is soldered, no removable connections.
 
#30
Bcamos said:
Everything internally is soldered, no removable connections.
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Last gasp, spray the circuit board down with some electronic cleaner like one of DeoxIT’s cleaners (they have a few…I’m no expert). Remove the battery first and seal off the laser and optic.

Or if you live in an area that has “maker’s reuse” events, bring it there and some electronic geek might be able to resolder something.

Finally, perhaps it would be a decent replacement clay pigeon? Do film it for YT, my good man.
 
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#31
So they have an unlimited warranty on optical parts but not electronics. What if the optics broke? Wouldn’t they replace it with a new unit?
 
#32
wpeach1912 said:
So they have an unlimited warranty on optical parts but not electronics. What if the optics broke? Wouldn’t they replace it with a new unit?
Click to expand...
zactly. aaaand..can't say the thought didn't cross my mind, but... I would rather just move on. Heck, I'm not even going to take it to the range and shoot holes in it. It just went away. No fanfare.
 
#33
Yikes, I've had good experiences with Sig on a few scope warranty claims, but those were mechanical in nature. I knew the 5 year electronics warranty applied to the scopes, but it really never occurred to me what that would mean for Sig's rangefinders. So far my Kilo 2000 still works flawlessly, but I've been thinking about picking up a new rangefinder. I think I'll try Vortex this time.
 
#35
Experienced the dead screen on my Kilo 2000 as well. I did purchase a Kilo 5K afterwards but that will be my last Sig electro-optic. If their devices can't last longer than 5-6 years, I'll seek elsewhere. I don't use the device but a few times/yr. Competition is good and it looks like Sig has their work cut out for them on warranty policy.
 
#36
Older thread, but.... the screen on my Kilo 2k half puked this weekend I can see the first number, half of the second, and not the last. I haven't played with the settings, but based on this thread it's likely toast. Tried new batteries to no avail.

I might have to look at a vortex, as the Revic only has 2yr warranty on electronics.

Who has the best warranty on rangefinders, Vortex? I'm looking for something to range to a mile, maybe a little more , with most of it's use from 0-1400 yards on a fairly regular basis 6-8 months out of the year.

Maybe a Vortex HD 4000? Thoughts?
 
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