[flyboy1800]

I bought the Sena20S Evo several months ago and read where it said it had about 12 hrs of use per charge.
I use it about 2 hrs a day, Mon - Friday, so I thought every Friday night I would charge it.
If I use it on the weekends for day rides, then I would charge it again on Sunday night so it will last me all week.
Since it has been hot out, I haven't been riding so much and may have about 6 hours or so of use on this charge.
When I got home from work last night about 4:30pm I forgot to turn the headset off.
I went out at 8am this morning to go for a ride and noticed it flashing blue.
I didn't have time to charge it, so I planned on using it until I heard the Sena say that the battery was low.
I rode the bike for 2 hours and it still was working great.
I am impressed that leaving it on overnight for 16 hours did not run the battery dead.

 

[jtdunc]

They are great bluetooth comm headsets. Fireware updates every six months. Great telephone support if you're trying to figure out a function.

Just want a little better integration with Android phones as Bixby is not integrated with Sena's voice controls - most work but not the "music" command.

Otherwise, my wife and I have enjoyed the reliability of our EVO 20S for almost two 2-up riding seasons.

But we certainly charge them overnight for leaving for a trip.

My Seattle area MC dealers have gone with Sena almost across the board.

 

[DadsWing]

I use mine every day to listen to music riding to and from work, I put it on the charge about every 3 weeks. Even then I’ve never had the flashing light to warn me of a low battery so I bet I could go even long before charging.

I have the free wire but haven’t figured it out yet lol.

 

[beckhardt]

I agree with you Mr. Fly. I think when idle, the sena’s batteries don’t discharge. Just my opinion of course.

 

[LEBoyd]

We love our set. Being able to have our own music (we both use iphones) and talk to each other is great. Never had battery issues. Today we rode about 450 miles, no problems.

 

[networkguy3]

Freewire

I use mine every day to listen to music riding to and from work, I put it on the charge about every 3 weeks. Even then I’ve never had the flashing light to warn me of a low battery so I bet I could go even long before charging.

I have the free wire but haven’t figured it out yet lol.

Pair the Freewire as your first phone and that will allow you to hear the audio from your bike. It will also allow you to talk on your CB from your Sena headset.

 

[networkguy3]

Impressed with Sena

I’m certainly not impressed with Sena. I have been using their stuff for over 3 years but do not like it. I have several issues with them.

1. The units don’t do what they promise and they don’t fix them. Take the intercom distance on either the 20S or the 30K. They don’t even come close to what they promise.

2. Support is terrible. All they know how to do is say “Reset to factory and re-pair your devices.” If you press them, they will replace your headset under warranty, but that is about it. They don’t know about the long standing Freewire / 30K issues, or how to pair it with a GPS, or even when their firmware releases will be available. They also don’t know what those firmware releases are designed to fix. They do not know how the phone 1 / phone 2 preemption works. They also have never heard of the long-standing problem with popcorn noise on the 20S and the 20S EVO. That is in spite of the fact that it has been reported both via phone call and on their support forums. These people are not technically competent.

3. They release products late and they tend not to work even reasonably for a year after they are released. I would point to both the 20S and the 30K for those problems. They replaced a very large number of the 20S units originally because of the poor performance of the FM radio. They had even worse problems with the release of the 30K. Bottom line here is they charge a premium price for products that do not do what they claim and they deny all knowledge of problems.

4. Sena’s noise cancelling is TERRIBLE in comparison to the Packtalk. There are YouTube videos that show very clearly.

The battery life is good on the 20S and 20S EVO, but mine is starting to die after 2.5 years of use. I also understand that for some plain vanilla configurations they do work OK, but when you start to actually utilize a significant number of their features, many times the equipment does not work as expected.

 

[PilotAlan]

I do wish my 20S Evo had an 'auto off' feature. The thing has a mic listening to noise, for the auto-volume function.

No noise and no button presses for a period of time? Auto off. Nothing bluetooth connected for a period of time? Auto off. Maybe a couple of voice prompts over the course of an hour, then auto off. It suck to forget to turn it off and come back to a dead battery.

 

[whitewingnut]

I’m certainly not impressed with Sena. I have been using their stuff for over 3 years but do not like it. I have several issues with them.

1. The units don’t do what they promise and they don’t fix them. Take the intercom distance on either the 20S or the 30K. They don’t even come close to what they promise.

2. Support is terrible. All they know how to do is say “Reset to factory and re-pair your devices.” If you press them, they will replace your headset under warranty, but that is about it. They don’t know about the long standing Freewire / 30K issues, or how to pair it with a GPS, or even when their firmware releases will be available. They also don’t know what those firmware releases are designed to fix. They do not know how the phone 1 / phone 2 preemption works. They also have never heard of the long-standing problem with popcorn noise on the 20S and the 20S EVO. That is in spite of the fact that it has been reported both via phone call and on their support forums. These people are not technically competent.

3. They release products late and they tend not to work even reasonably for a year after they are released. I would point to both the 20S and the 30K for those problems. They replaced a very large number of the 20S units originally because of the poor performance of the FM radio. They had even worse problems with the release of the 30K. Bottom line here is they charge a premium price for products that do not do what they claim and they deny all knowledge of problems.

4. Sena’s noise cancelling is TERRIBLE in comparison to the Packtalk. There are YouTube videos that show very clearly.

The battery life is good on the 20S and 20S EVO, but mine is starting to die after 2.5 years of use. I also understand that for some plain vanilla configurations they do work OK, but when you start to actually utilize a significant number of their features, many times the equipment does not work as expected.

I agree with everything list above. My wife's unit is now constantly cutting out "say a command", yesterday she finally shut the **** thing off. Intercom works pretty good, but I get a ton of noise from wind from her mic....going to try the Upper Air Deflectors to see if I can reduce it. Music quality is terrible on the 20s, but intercom and phone quality are very good. Folks have no idea I am on the bike when I answer a call and I can hear them clearly at 70mph both on my Wing and the ST1300.

Additionally, I have purchased the J&M BT-03 to ride with a friend, and we had a **** of a time connecting and staying connected. Intercom (bike to bike) was ok but not great, music was better than the Sena, but phone quality was unusable. To be fair, I am not exactly sure if it was the J&M, Garmin, or my Samsung S8. I will be testing it with the new Goldwing, and compare it to the Sena...I suspect it is the noise cancellation on the BT03 that is the problem. More to follow on this one.

All units I have used thus far have a terrible time connecting to other brands.

I did see the YouTube video mentioned in #4 on Friday, and have decided to give PackTalk Bold a try.

I have spent nearly $1k on intercom units and none deliver 100% of what is promised.

 

[ThunderBolt]

I have both the 30K's and the 20S Evo's sets. When I ride with the wife we use the 30K's, I think the Mesh is much more clear than the 20S's BT. The issue I had with the 30K's, is that all my friends have SMH10's or the 10R's, which the 30K would only connect to two of either of the 10's. So I bought the 20s Evo's, since they will connect up to nine BT units. They connected to all three SM H10's and the group with the 10R's. When I spoke with Sena about the issue, they said new Firmware was coming to fix the 30K problem. I have never tested it with the 30K's.
I pulled off one of the 20s Evo's USB cover accidentally and they said they didn't have parts but replaced the unit without any issue. I found support for the 30K's lacking somewhat originally and again I have not tested it since I also have the 20s Evo's. As far as distance, I have not been able to test the range due to the 10's have a much shorter range. As for the popping, I have not experienced that until one of the 10R riders got out of order. Over all, I find Sena to be good units. I would like to try Pack Talk, but I hear that connection to Sena's doesn't always work. Since everyone I ride with have Sena's, I have to stay Sena.

Battery life on both units seems to really good but the 30K's are a year old and the 20s Evo's are six months old. I to carry a portable power supply and can charge as I ride or when stopped to eat. Charging while eating provides a boost, as I have never ran them out of power, even after two full days of riding without charging.

Whatever device you use it is nice to be able to speak bike to bike without a CB as I don't have on my 2010 and only one in the groups I ride with has one. Using hand signals doesn't always work, as someone has to pay attention as one the groups found out for about four miles, when he need a nature break. I think that once Mesh become more prevalent the communication and distance will become less of and issue, if I understand how Mesh works correctly.

 

[Captron]

I love my Sena...BUT the jog wheel just keeps turning, and will not stay in the volume setting that I like it...
I call Sena and they will not help me , and can not stop the way the wheel spins... Too bad cause it's a nice system, BUT I use it only for telephone conversations, Never for music....

Ronnie

 

[Big H]

I’m certainly not impressed with Sena. I have been using their stuff for over 3 years but do not like it. I have several issues with them.

1. The units don’t do what they promise and they don’t fix them. Take the intercom distance on either the 20S or the 30K. They don’t even come close to what they promise.

2. Support is terrible. All they know how to do is say “Reset to factory and re-pair your devices.” If you press them, they will replace your headset under warranty, but that is about it. They don’t know about the long standing Freewire / 30K issues, or how to pair it with a GPS, or even when their firmware releases will be available. They also don’t know what those firmware releases are designed to fix. They do not know how the phone 1 / phone 2 preemption works. They also have never heard of the long-standing problem with popcorn noise on the 20S and the 20S EVO. That is in spite of the fact that it has been reported both via phone call and on their support forums. These people are not technically competent.

3. They release products late and they tend not to work even reasonably for a year after they are released. I would point to both the 20S and the 30K for those problems. They replaced a very large number of the 20S units originally because of the poor performance of the FM radio. They had even worse problems with the release of the 30K. Bottom line here is they charge a premium price for products that do not do what they claim and they deny all knowledge of problems.

4. Sena’s noise cancelling is TERRIBLE in comparison to the Packtalk. There are YouTube videos that show very clearly.

The battery life is good on the 20S and 20S EVO, but mine is starting to die after 2.5 years of use. I also understand that for some plain vanilla configurations they do work OK, but when you start to actually utilize a significant number of their features, many times the equipment does not work as expected.

Boy do you have my vote on that for sure! I have had the 20S and now the SRL model and still not happy at all. Pitiful support for sure. It seems to me that they don't even read your trouble fully because they always send back lame answers that either doesn't pertain to your problem, or you already did what they suggest. It's nothing but a JOKE when it comes to SENA support team. As much as these things cost, they should work as described and engineered without all these issues that we have. If I could afford it, I would try another brand that I know everyone says works great in every way. But without going into specific details, SENA products suck and they know it. I use mine with my 2018 DCT Tour and get aggravated all the time. I even complained about them on this forum under the SENA tab and never ever got any reply.

Big H

 

[whitewingnut]

I love my Sena...BUT the jog wheel just keeps turning, and will not stay in the volume setting that I like it...
I call Sena and they will not help me , and can not stop the way the wheel spins... Too bad cause it's a nice system, BUT I use it only for telephone conversations, Never for music....

Ronnie

I agree, it works very well for phone calls.

 

[noviwinger]

I have used SENA's for about 4 year now. First, with the SMH10H-FM and now with the 20S EVO. I generally love them but I have a few complaints. First, I can verify they are NOT waterproof and it is a bit of s stretch to call them water-resistant. Last year I took a 9 day trip and as you would expect, I got caught in the rain. The inter-comm became very intermittent to the point is about unusable. Second, the helmet mount is a bit under-designed. The unit slides into the mount easy enough but it does not sit solidly on the mount and it can cause the unit to cut out.

I am leaving on a trip in a weak and will pickup a second mount to use and have it ready to install. I am also looking to use a condom or some other barrier to keep the water out as much as possible.

For clear, dry days, it is hard to beat a SENA