Have I been dead unlucky?

Got a Hilo with my new frame. After 5 or 6 rides noticed the black anodising around the seal wearing and a bit of vertical play, which corresponded to the wear I was seeing.
Took it back to shop who agreed there was something wrong and sent it off for repair.
It took over a week to come back, and because of work and the shops opening times, it took me proberbly 5 more days to get back to collect the post
I’m presented with my warranty repaired post in the shop.. The same stantion is on it, it still has the wear marks on it but better than that there’s a Massive dent in it, just by the seat clamp.
Obviously I don’t accept this and it gets sent back. It takes at least another week for upgrade to make a decision about what I can do.
I get an x fusion sl as a replacement. Seemingly a better post. I collect, take home and install, which is really straight forward. However when I sit on it and actually use it the compression is really slow, as is the return apart from the last cm or so which pops up.
This clearly isn’t right so I take out the post, turn it upside down to look at the valve and discover its wet with a red fluid. So I take off the valve cap and red fluid pours out. It’s packed back up and returned to the shop…
Because of another cock up by the importer they had actually sent 2 posts to the shop. So I asked for the other one, but I wanted it testing first… Same problem and result, red fluid ended up seeping out the valve.
The shop have been quite helpful, but as it was bought with a frame will only offer me part of the cost of buying a new one. So I’m going to keep trying and maybe get lucky.

Long story but anyone else had similar problems?
I’m really not impressed with x fusion but I think I’m a bit stuck now…

No, I don’t think you’re unlucky. I sent mine back for a service and it now loses all its air. From day one it’s been a right old faff to keep maintained. I’ve never been able to run the cable remote well enough for it to function properly and it always drops a couple of cms when I sit on it. To remedy this I have to drop it slightly and return it very slowly to get a fully pumped post.

LBS mentioned their distributor is pretty shoddy to deal with too.

Currently building an Inbred 29er and would really like to try their Slide fork, but this post has made me question whether they can play well enough with the big RS or F.

I have two hilos, both work a treat.

I increased the air pressure in one as it was a bit slow to come up, Which did not make much difference.
But after a couple of rides it was fine.

Also while topping up with air make sure you keep it upside down as if not when unscrewing the pump you get a blast of oil.

I have used one with remote for best part of a year and the other with the under seat lever.
I actually renewed the cable on the first one last night with the unused cable from the second as it was too short due to moving remote after going 1×10.

I have two and both are fine. One is two and a half years old and the other about six months old. Importers Upgrade are just down the but haven’t had to bother them. Never serviced them but do keep them clean and wipe fork oil on the stanchion periodically. Had a problem with one not returning but read the manual and changed air pressure and all good since. Not all bad but you have had a grim experience and would have put me off.

Not had any issues with my hilo so far……

My Hilo is all good. The seal is tighter than a ducks arse which i think causes the wear. Doesn’t leak oil everywhere like my old joplin did.

If it fits, the reverb is miles better though.

Also while topping up with air make sure you keep it upside down as if not when unscrewing the pump you get a blast of oil.

It was upside down when the bike shop checked the pressure in the 3rd seat post, and oil still spurted out the valve

Upgrade, the importers seem pretty useless in turning things round. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the upgrade to the sl but ice ages move faster. The shop is ringing them on Tuesday. I’d like to think I have another post by Wednesday.
I’m not holding my breath…

I was sold on the x fusion because the shop said they’d never had one back, they’d had plenty of reverbs but not a Hilo.

The saga continues…

Shop sorted out one of the SL posts, got a call to say they had mended it after a call to upgrade. It took me a while to get there to pick it up but when I did the shop explained what had gone wrong, and what they had done to fix it.

I put it on the bike and it does at least go down, and back up. However after a few cycles up and down some vertical play is noticeable in the post again. The fix is to compress it and let it return really slowly. This does something to the air in the chamber, and it does stop the vertical play, until it’s been cycled a couple of times and the play is back.

There is a noticeable squelch at the top of the travel. Doing some research suggests the post needs to be brimmed with oil. My guess is after the leak the oil was never topped up.
I’m taking the whole lot back there tomorrow to show them what’s going on. It is however getting to the stage where I’m just going to try to sort it myself.. I can’t make it much worse.

I’m really unimpressed with both x fusion, and upgrade cycles. The shop have been helpful, but I’m getting the impression they don’t really know the product.

Mine went back a few weeks ago, the top seal where the lever goes in had failed, letting air/oil out. It’s lasted nearly a year and I would be happy with that if I was able to get replacement seals and sort it myself, but no it’s has to go back to upgrade which is annoying. Up until that point I was very happy with it.

The seals on the lever end are just two orings from what I’ve seen when I took one apart. Should be able to pick them up handy enough. As for the sponginess, definitely a lack of oil. I found it tricky enough to get it topped up. There’s a guide online somewhere which was handy

Damn, wish I hadn’t sent it back now. Didn’t want to pull it too far apart in case I needed or broke a part that was dealer only.