Bought a Leica 1000R rangefinder years ago and, while it works perfectly, the rubber/plastic housing is “disintegrating ”. It’s reminding me of those Remington recoil pads that went south a few years ago.

The rubber coating now sticky, gooey and nasty, impossible to clean up.

Is this the sort of thing Leica would warranty? Anyone with any experience in this matter?

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like Leica is treating their warranties and customers better these days. I'll bet they would warrant that. Sounds like a material defect to me. Call them, and let us know what they say. Thanks!

I had a competitive make optical something
do the same thing some years back.
Got really sticky out of the blue and finally
started flaking off.
I had a small dynamo radio I had for camping
do that as well.

Lots of plastic/polymer/rubber doo dads
had that problem. The most aggravating
for me was the soles of my Rocky boots.
I've heard that there were some gun stocks
that did that as well

Good Luck

Give Leica a call, their CS as of late has been top shelf.

Good luck! My Swarovski rangefinder fell out of my pocket and when I picked it up, it wasn’t in very good shape. I sent it in to see if they would fix it and they told me they couldn’t.

I have since gotten the EL range binoculars and they are great…

LOVE my EL binoculars. Mine are the earlier version that, from what I’ve heard, have better low light performance. Don’t have the rangefinder built in tho.

When you say years ago. How many years are you talking?

7-8 years

Shrapnel: Damn! That was a LONG fall out of your shirt pocket!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Fell out of your pocket or fell out of your truck at 70 mph.

No, it fell out of my pocket. I forgot to say it was 5 years later when I picked it up…

Both Leica and Swarovski have been great to deal with. I had some resistance on a warranty issue once, but called back and talked to a different cs person and they took care of me. Guess it pays to be persistent.

I’ve had a Leica RF for more than 10 years and it’s holding up just fine. Mist be a bad batch of rubber on the op RF.

I’ve had a Leica 1000-R for at least 10 years and so far and had none of the problems the OP describes.
Some plastics and rubber change drastically if exposed to certain chemical and materials. Get a good case like a Marsupial Gear pouch and keep it away from cleaning solvents.

My LRF 800 had issues so I sent it back to Leica. Since it was a discontinued item, they would not warranty it. However, they gave me 50% off a new unit of my choice so that’s what I did. I got roughly 20 years out of the 800.

My pup chewed the rubber eyepiece cover off my 1000R when I left it on the coffee table - I told them the truth expecting a repair bill. Instead they sent me a 1600 free of charge. I’ll buy a new Leica if this one ever quits.