Yeah. I hear ya man. Drilled my wheels just to find out cores are still having issues 
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Recap:
So reading beween the lines, it looks like @rafaelinmissouri had done a number of isopropyl alcohol cleanings prior to several photoshoots under the microscope. @BluPenguin alerted @rafaelinmissouri not to do that and pointed to an article that indicated Isopropal alcohol caused surface crazing and propegation of cracks on a variety of plastics. @rafaelinmissouri then stopped the alcohol wipes and switched to water… Four days later @rafaelinmissouri posted a picture of a cracked wheel core.
@rafaelinmissouri is the above recap accurate?
If it is accurate then it raises a few questions:
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@rafaelinmissouri How many alcohol wipes were the wheels subjected to?
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@rafaelinmissouri Do you think the early crazing visible under the microscope was might have been due to the alcohol? Did you get any microscope shots prior to the first alcohol wipes?
When hide sends you a new set, perhaps take a microscope shot fresh out of the box. It would be interesting to compare with/without microscope shots. -
@Hide. Maybe your wheels should ship with printed instructions to only wash with water and to never wash with any type of alcohol or solvent. Those instructions could also be added to the web sites that sell the wheels.
Also,
@Hide. Good detective work spotting the reference to cleaning with alcohol.
@BluPenguin. You too, Good catch!
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Two times I poured 70% isopropyl alcohol on the wheels.
Probably an ounce on each hub.
This was to clear the dust off to take pictures.
Is polycarbonate so susseptible to alcohol that it will break???
I don’t think so…
Some one needs to educate me further.
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I would not have forseen alcohol degrading the plastic either. But @BluPenguin did provide a link to relevant research. I think it is great that this happened. If indeed the Alcohol is the variable that caused your wheels to crack then this does point to the need for a chemical/solvent warning added to the cloudwheels packaging. Presumably you are the only one who performed alcohol cleanings and yours was the only wheel that cracked. So the different outcomes for you and @BluPenguin do support @Hide 's assertion that we are looking at an “alcohol induced breakdown”.
Do you really think this is relatable???
Here the polycarbonate was exposed to alcohol for 72 hours…
I poured some on the wheels and it evaporated almost immediately.
I don’t think this is relevant information.
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I agree that it seems unlikely that a brief wipedown with 70% iso could have caused this amount of structural weakening. Ill just say it, this seems like a classic case of victim blaming from the customer support team of a shady company selling a shitty product.
Even if those two breif exposures were enough to cause the crack, do we really want to be trusting our lives at 30+ mph to wheels that can be compromised so easily?
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Well. First it was that I tightened the wheels too hard…
Then it was that I used pulleys…
Then it was the toothpaste…
And finally the alcohol…
These wheels never stood a chance in my hands…
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Reminds me of the Flipsky “customer service” horror stories I have heard. They will never admit they are selling an unsafe product, because then they would have to fix it. Rather just pump out unsafe crap to folks who dont know better, and deny that there is a systemic problem with the product.
It seems pretty clear to me that iWonder has had many opportunities to show themselves as a company with morals and ethics, and time and time again they put a bandaid on the problem so they can resume production rather than admiting fault and solving it. Not a company i want to give money to again.
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If they admit they have to replace. Easier is to just ignore and pump out a new product. Which is what I suspect they will do.
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More than likely they’ll deny it has a problem and move forward. Im still skeptical. Alcohol… maybe. Maybe not. I doubt a quick douse would have been the straw that broke the camels back here.
What is the actual material they are using though? @Hide is the only one with this special “dupont” formulation knowledge. (Or have i missed it? I remember some speculation on what it was, but not actual material)
Without knowing the family of materials they used, we will never know what we can or can’t expose them to. Or if anything they try to blame on our “mishandling” is true.
With all that being said, @rafaelinmissouri is still the only one with cracks so far… but there could be others and they don’t or haven’t spoken up.
Here, at present, I only knew that there are three people who have Discovery version of cloudwheel, one is @rafaelinmissouri , one is @BluPenguin , and one is @BillGordon .
The wheels of the @rafaelinmissouri cracked, and the @BluPenguin did not crack. They ride about the same km.
Then I should ask @BillGordon , what is the current state of his set
@hide has offered you a new set and he’s confident that they won’t crack if you don’t pour alcohol on them. It seems like a reasonable theory and a reasonable offer.
My first reaction to the toothpaste theory was that it did not make a lot of sense. But i’ve changed my mind about that. Some toothpastes do contain alcohol, peroxides, dioxides, chlorides, sulfates hydroxides and acids.
For example, Colgate toothpaste:
Active Ingredient: Sodium Fluoride 0.243% (0.15% W/V Fluoride Ion)
Inactive Ingredients: Sorbitol, Water, Hydrated Silica, Disodium Pyrophosphate, Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Hydroxide, Alcohol (0.7%), Xanthan Gum, Sodium Saccharin, Glycerin, Carbomer, Poloxamer 407, Polysorbate 80, Sodium Benzoate, Cetylpyridinium Chloride, Benzoic Acid, Titanium Dioxide, Blue 1, Yellow 5
Your toothpaste was arm and hammer bright and strong. It might not contain alcohol but it does contain a much longer ingredient list than just Baking soda. Notice that it includes solvents, peroxide, and dioxide. It is a caustic paste.
If I dribble toothpaste on my blue jeans then the toothpaste burns holes right through them – not instantly – but the area turns white within a few hours and the material falls appart in the next wash cycle.
So the idea that toothpaste residue sitting on your plastic wheel cores for a few days could do some damage to the plastic – that’s not an unreasonable theory.
I agree it seemed like a streatch when I first heard it – but if you think it through, it really is not a streatch.
Remember that your crack had a pretty thick layer of toothpaste caked on and the toothpaste had sat there for a few days.
One more possibility is that the buffing with the dremel polishing wheel could have created some uneven heat and expansion. A polishing wheel can generate a substantial amount of heat. It looks like ther are four polishing divots imediately to the right of the crack.
So given Alcohol pours, days of caustic paste and uneven heating – That’s quite a cocktail.
The alcohol was not my idea but the toothpaste and dremel were my ideas – so I feel two thirds responsible.
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I just passed the 50km mark last night, so I’ll remove and check when I get home this evening.
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Thank you very much ~ @BillGordon
But I hope you can wait until 150km to check it, there is no need to take it down in the middle, because according to normal usage, no one will check the wheel once at 50km
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150km is fine with me. If the rain continues to settle down, I can get more kms in.
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@Hide I also have them but don’t have the pulleys to ride them. I haven’t given them a good inspection yet but I’ll try to do that soon.
In the meantime I won’t brush my teeth with them or do shots out of them.
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