Nitecore EA4 Problems, fit and finish, flaws (take your poll here:)

[Kilovolt]

If everyone can have a look at their EA4's lense and closely 'look' - does anyone have a clear piece of plastic hang out from between the bezel and the lense to one side? I have noticed it in a few people's pictures on CPF and online... Not sure what that plastic is at all?

I examined mine with a large magnifier and between glass and reflector I can see only what looks like a black o-ring correctly positioned, nothing protrudes from the edge. The bezel pushes the glass against this gasket.

 

[Kilovolt]

Now I can fully appreciate the meaning of this bit of plastic and can confirm that mine has none of that.

 

[herosemblem]

There is no thin plastic ring in that photo, nor is there one on my sample.

 

[Newuser01]

Hello, everyone......

Thanks for dropping in and chatting up if or not you have some issue with your lights.

I have tallied up all of the responses so far and seems everyone is happy with their lights otherwise a few problems here and there. Keep them coming and I will keep the original OPS with the tally.

Thanks for sharing.

Regards.

 

[Slazmo]

There is no thin plastic ring in that photo, nor is there one on my sample.

Your not looking hard enough! Read "Quality and Design - And lastly there is a thin clear round disc/ring between the lens and bezel, on one side it stick out enough to cast a shadow on the bezel". . Also you could be denying yourself a chance to be open to another fault in the torch itself - its at about the 1000am and 1300pm position in that picture... It is there, but its clear and it sticks out on my torch. I believe that its some plastic that sits around the lense itself and is used in production. All depends how the bezel goes on and how it's all put together...

 

[tjhabak]

I have both the EA4, and EA4W. Both of them are flawless. The same can be said for my sample of the EA8. My credit after blowing money on so many lights is another story!

 

[Verndog]

Your not looking hard enough!...

If you look hard enough, you can find fault with everything. I don't have this issue with either of my lights, nor do I see it in the pic either. That is all the harder I plan to look at a sub $60.00 light also.

 

[dougie]

If you look hard enough, you can find fault with everything. I don't have this issue with either of my lights, nor do I see it in the pic either. That is all the harder I plan to look at a sub $60.00 light also.

I'm afraid whilst I can see some design errors in my EA4 and there is a very slight and uniform gap between the bezel ring and body of my EA4 it isn't something I regard as a fault or troubling. At the price point I paid I'm more than happy with my light and consider it to be amazing value. Statistically it is always hard to extract any reliable or accurate correlation between a random number of people here on CPF complaining about problems than with the wider consumer market.

As an example, most people who buy LED lights (who are not enthusiasts) are usually unconcerned with tint issues. Likewise, most people who buy lights with a rattle which can only be induced by shaking it will not give it another thought. Of course fit and finish are important to some people but after the scratches and dings which most lights quickly acquire relegate the thoughts of QC to the simple thought does the light work when required?

This does not mean I'm advocating sloppy QC or suggesting that any of the other issues which have been brought up are inconsequential to an enthusiast or someone who seeks the most bang for buck for their money. However, at the price point that these lights go for the majority of people appear quite satisfied?

 

[Slazmo]

If you look hard enough, you can find fault with everything. I don't have this issue with either of my lights, nor do I see it in the pic either. That is all the harder I plan to look at a sub $60.00 light also.

Sub $80 light for us here in Aus.

Never seen any production issues like this with other sub $20 torches I have bought throughout my life. Anyhow I am not too concerned about tint or lumens or whatever. Just that the bezel is not flush and its crooked and the piece of clear plastic (that some can't see but Nitecore picked up straight away in that pic). Nitecore is asking for my torch back - to be sent back to China for QC rumour control supposedly. Problem is that postage and insurance from here in Aus to China near enough meets the cost of the torch - bugger it, just going to keep it with the flaws it has and fingers crossed that it's waterproof even with that piece of plastic hanging out.

 

[Racer]

It took me a while of staring at my EA4 to see what people were talking about with the little gap in the bezel and I finally see now. Mine has it, and it's not completely uniform either. I think I caught a decent picture of it in m review. But I've decided that it doesn't affect the functionality and I'm not going to let it get to my OCD

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

2 EA4s with XM-L2. Flawless. They've both been working for several months now. No problems.

 

[Slazmo]

'double post'...

 

[Slazmo]

I managed to take off the bezel and get to the offending piece of plastic. It is clear and as round as the lense and about 2mm wide... Its in below the bezel to seperate the metal bezal from the glass lense...

I flipped it over and reinstalled the bezel and its all good now - the gap even with the bezel is slightly less and its uniform all the way around.

I made a post to how to remove the bezel and fix it all...

Search CPF -> "Nitecore EA4 Bezel"

Crisis averted!

 

[xevious]

I managed to take off the bezel and get to the offending piece of plastic. It is clear and as round as the lense and about 2mm wide... Its in below the bezel to seperate the metal bezal from the glass lense...

I flipped it over and reinstalled the bezel and its all good now - the gap even with the bezel is slightly less and its uniform all the way around.

I made a post to how to remove the bezel and fix it all...

Search CPF -> "Nitecore EA4 Bezel"

Crisis averted!

Excellent to know of this, Slazmo -- great work! :thumbsup: So somehow in the manufacturing, sometimes this gasket gets flipped the wrong way and then presents a fitment problem. Interesting. I wonder how many lights were affected by this.

 

[Slazmo]

Not sure but Nitecore wanted this torch back 'no questions asked' and straight away... Looks like a issue or common complaint?

Simply enough if you have a EA4 and when turned on and you can see a shadow on the bezel - unscrew it and clean the inner and regrease and before nipping the bezel back up; position the clear gasket with a pin and then nip up the bezel nice and tight with the silicone pad.

 

[markr6]

What's this talk about the gap between the bezel and body? All the OEM photos I've seen show this gap. Now, if it's crooked I would be upset.

 

[wagnerone]

I'm on my 2nd defective EA4W.

The first one seemed OK upon arrival and first testing around the house. I ran it through its paces and then stood it tail-up on my desk. Returning a few hours later I grabbed it again to find it was VERY hot and upon picking it up, it was flashing very quickly. I turned it off and it never came back on no matter what I tried (different batteries, etc.).

That one went back for exchange.

The 2nd one arrived and it seemed like it worked well too. I put it through its paces and took it for a walk outside. I then pulled the Eneloops and set it on the shelf to wait for warm weather and camping season.

Yesterday I put batteries in it and played with a minute or two and, being gun shy from the first one, decided I'd leave the batteries in to see if it did anything goofy.

Sure enough, a few hours later I was sitting at my desk and it flashed on a few times in rapid succession. I thought it was lightning as it was stormy and ignored it.

A few seconds later though the lightning went totally wild and it went into continuous flash mode. It wasn't a steady flash, but flickering and inconsistent.

This was with it sitting 10 feet away from me, tail standing on a desk with nobody around. It had sat untouched for a few hours and then came on by itself.

I grabbed it and the switch was non-responsive. I pulled the batteries and returned them. As soon as I screwed the tailcap on, the light came back on. The best I could get from the switch was toggling it between turbo and the "high" position. The hard click of the switch sometimes would toggle the light on/off and sometimes not.

Messing with it more, it finally returned to normal operation and I could control it normally.

After 2 defective units that came on themselves and subsequently got quite hot (one burning out completely), I'm fearful of a fire and am considering just avoiding this light altogether.

Mike

 

[Labrador72]

After reading this thread I wonfer if at Nitecore they realize QC is supposed to be done before releasing a new light and not outsourced to their customers for free as an after sale favor!

Sent from my ST27i using Tapatalk 2

 

[Racer]

What's this talk about the gap between the bezel and body? All the OEM photos I've seen show this gap. Now, if it's crooked I would be upset.

The gap on mine is non-uniform, but at this point it's just fodder for my OCD since I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for this thread.

 

[Slazmo]

The gap on mine is non-uniform, but at this point it's just fodder for my OCD since I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for this thread.

Just do as I did - unscrew the bezel, readjust the spacer washer beneath it and then re-tighten the bezel and ensure that its straight.

I forgot to mention that the aluminium body and the bezel are not that great in fitment - there is a lot of play between the threads. This may be why there seems to be a lot of EA4's with crooked alignment in the bezels from factory... Why these tollerances are not tighter I dont know?