Glad you've had good experience but I'll offer additional anecdotal evidence in the other direction.
I was late to the dropper game due to the never ending reliability horror stories with the early ones. I bought a 9point8 as the original reviews were great, including reliability. My first one basically met those expectations. I then bought a second one for my other bike. Nothing but trouble. Would not hold air, no warranty response, etc. Agree the seat clamping mech is genius but that was only because I had to take the seat off every 2nd ride to add air to the stupid thing! One of their marketing claims was they work well in the winter - mine didnt... According to my LBS, my experience mirrored their larger sample size. If you got one that worked it was great. But it was 50-50 odds if that happened and manufacturer/warranty support was poor. They were close to $500 each and not sure I've ever been so disappointed in a MTB equipment purchase.
This was several years ago and maybe (hopefully) the newer ones are better.
June 23, 2022, 10:54 a.m. - LWK
Glad you've had good experience but I'll offer additional anecdotal evidence in the other direction. I was late to the dropper game due to the never ending reliability horror stories with the early ones. I bought a 9point8 as the original reviews were great, including reliability. My first one basically met those expectations. I then bought a second one for my other bike. Nothing but trouble. Would not hold air, no warranty response, etc. Agree the seat clamping mech is genius but that was only because I had to take the seat off every 2nd ride to add air to the stupid thing! One of their marketing claims was they work well in the winter - mine didnt... According to my LBS, my experience mirrored their larger sample size. If you got one that worked it was great. But it was 50-50 odds if that happened and manufacturer/warranty support was poor. They were close to $500 each and not sure I've ever been so disappointed in a MTB equipment purchase. This was several years ago and maybe (hopefully) the newer ones are better.