Any thoughts on the new-not yet released ZWL?

Well, if the wattage keeps going down, we'll be better off with a PW ZW!   I like the idea of the single package, I'm just wondering if the electronics are more robust than the ZW-C.

I am taking the plunge on this one.  I've already waited 3 years or it seems like it anyway, just hope it comes out now in June as the revised schedule shows. 

The pictures look nice!

Let's hope the actual product lives up to the hype.

Rod

I don't know what to think about all the changes, but I can say that they let me try it at one of the York meets, and I really liked it for conventional operation. And the way you just touch the inner two controls and the gauges change is so cool!

I would like to see a better warranty on this item and assurance that parts will be available to repair these units if they fail. I don't want to invest a large sum of money on a door stop with a pretty face;  something like that will, "STOP TRAINS IN THEIR TRACKS "!  Perhaps, those with failed  ZW-B & C's should get a trade-in for the old one toward the new ! - How about it LIONEL??? Dennis M.

$99.00 is a high price for a PowerHouse throw-a-way. At what point are they going to consider the ZWL a throw-a-way? At what point will you no longer be able to get parts? You can't get parts for the New ZW. I am afread that Lionel's reputation for replacement parts is starting to get tarnished.

Al

When on of my PowerHouse units develops a problem with the internal circuit breaker, I'll open it up and bypass that and use an external breaker for it.  I'm not throwing it away!

I don't have any inside information, but I would guess that getting the UL listing on transformers and other devices with 120 volt power works against supplying replacement parts and making them easily repairable by the consumer.   Somebody authoritative from Lionel said that the reduction from 720 watts to 620 watts for the new ZW-L was due to UL requirements.  We're being protected from ourselves.

And yet, as others have pointed out, I can go upstairs and see a $20 hair dryer that uses 1500 watts and has a UL sticker on it.  That's a lame excuse if I ever heard one!

Maybe soon we will see a more common power supply that is good, not a branded unit restricted to one maker or another.

Hey how did you see it and play with it if it hasn't been released yet?

SandJam:   At one of the previous TCA YORK Meets, Lionel had an early pre-production sample that they were showing and allowed, under supervision, to touch and lift and give feed-back to them about the features that it had. It was not totally complete to all the final "do-dads" that is was to have, and so, it could not run trains yet, and hence, was not connected to any track.   Hopefully, they will have a fully functional battlestar (oops),  ZW-L  on display that  WILL  be running trains.   Dennis M.

The issuse with the modern ZW's, reliability, Parts etc. make me leary of the new ZW.  At least my PW can be repaired, even after 50 years....

The difference is that the hair dryer USES 1,500 watts of power, all of it kept internal where the consumer has no access to it.

The transformer DELIVERS power to a set of external wires that the consumer has access to.

It's apples and oranges.

That's kind of funny.  I just built a layout for a couple with four grandkids. She was worried if the kids could get hurt by shocks or whatever.  We both put our fingers over the rails of the Fastrack, I could feel a twinge, she nothing.  I suggested 'try to keep them from licking the track and you should be ok'.

That ZWL, and I hate to use this term, is sexy. 4- 180 bricks (now 155) and 4 TPCs built into 1 unit is inherently cool.  What a nice clean power system for a conventional or a certain type of layout.  I applaud Lionel's vision for new ideas and products.  My needs have changed, and I won't be needing one soon, so,  I'll wait to see how it pans out.   

They had one at York either last Fall or Spring. It was probably a pre-production model. They had it operating an undecorated model of the S3 on rollers, so it worked.

I'm torn because of the now 155 Watts per output instead of 180.

This was supposed to be a high power transformer, now it's 4 transformers with significantly less power than we have available with older units. 

Unless we hear differently, such as maybe the power can be split across the outputs differently depending on draw, but I will not hold my breath on that, as it's extremely unlikely.

I have one of what are apparently the very few relatively problem free modern ZW's.  I'm now thinking more of adding the additional 180 bricks (or even going the route of 180 bricks with TPCs) vs the new L. 

The features cataloged were excellent since it was all in one package.  I'm thinking that benefit has been outweighed by the lower output power.

-Dave

According to one of the Lionel reps I spoke with at York, the outputs will each be able to reach 180 watts, just not the last one if you have a heavy load on all 4.  

One of the 4 would come up short at 80 watts due to the 100 watt reduction in power.

While still not as nice as if they had actually made it at 180 watts for all 4 outputs, this makes the bitter pill slightly easier to swallow.

While I did not think to ask this at the time (just thought of it while typing - and John Z is probably the only one who can answer this) is how the transformer keeps track of which handle to limit the power(to 80), instead of limiting all 4 to some lower value.

This will be interesting for sure, once these are out there and people try using them.

-Dave

Z4000 is still the most powerful per channel output.

The z4000 manual states 180 watt for each handle. Rated at 400 watt this only leaves 40 watts for the other two channels. My new style zw with 4 180 watt bricks puts out 180 watts on each of the four channels. The new ZW-L puts out 180 watts for the two channels and 160 watts left for the other 2 channels BUT it has intelligent power shift which allows 180 watts to any channel. maxed out with 4 equal loads it could have 155 watts on each channel.

Ron