Nitecore HC50 has problems

[AbbyY]

Mine has the same problem. It's one of the cheapest flashlight in my collection but this can't be an excuse for Nitecore to sell defective products. I also have P16 and SRT7 and both of them work flawless.

I hope that HC50 is just an exception (a bad one) and Nitecore will fix it in the next batch. Obviously they have to replace the defective products sold, for their public image and in respect for clients. Otherwise the Nitecore brand will be known as a "cheap and crap" stuff.

 

[brightnorm]

...

I like the light. I have an Amazon bought Chinese xml-t6 (parallel) with a zoomable lens that I like too, but the low setting is still way too bright for reading. It claims to have 1200 lumens. Hard to say with a narrower flood beam and a bluer light on that light, but they seem equally bright.

Is this the light? If not can you tell me which one it is.

thttp://www.amazon.com/Zoomable-Lumens-Headlamp-Headlight-2x18650/dp/B00BHATTVI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1386784064&sr=8-3&keywords=headlamps+with+two+batteries+1200+lumens

Brightnorm

 

[wrcsixeight]

Is this the light? If not can you tell me which one it is.

thttp://www.amazon.com/Zoomable-Lumens-Headlamp-Headlight-2x18650/dp/B00BHATTVI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1386784064&sr=8-3&keywords=headlamps+with+two+batteries+1200+lumens

Brightnorm

This is what I ordered.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASWI72I/?tag=cpf0b6-20

The provided charger is truly dangerous junk. The beam is not wide enough when zoomed out. I really prefer the HC60 for near tasks, but the Zoom is a nice option. Pretty good battery life with 2 18650s in parallel. The elastic strap retainers are weak. I broke one off, fixed it with superglue saturated carbon fiber, and re enforced the unbroken ones.

 

[subwoofer]

The HC50 I have also does this and you can see more detail here (photo and measurements):

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-2x-R-CR123)&p=4336918&viewfull=1#post4336918

 

[Jash]

Yet another thread confirming my belief in Nitecore's quality issues. After giving that company several hundred dollars in return for faulty (and ultimately dead) flashlights, there's zero reason to give them any more.

On a positive note, got my HP25 today. Am wearing it now on medium flood. I can't wait for my next night hike!

 

[matrixshaman]

Never had a problem with Nitecore quality. Way better in my own experience than Zebralights which have had multiple failures for me and some with problems right when I got them. Does everyone understand how small a current microamps are? As Shaysrebellion said at most 169 microamps which includes the regular parasitic drain. That's .000169 Amps. Or .000089 amps due to the LED glow. If your light is sitting for a whole year unused it will still work fine. Nothing to worry about IMO.

 

[matrixshaman]

BTW I just bought an HC50 AFTER reading this thread.

 

[Verndog]

Never had a problem with Nitecore quality. Way better in my own experience than Zebralights which have had multiple failures for me and some with problems right when I got them. Does everyone understand how small a current microamps are? As Shaysrebellion said at most 169 microamps which includes the regular parasitic drain. That's .000169 Amps. Or .000089 amps due to the LED glow. If your light is sitting for a whole year unused it will still work fine. Nothing to worry about IMO.

To add to that, if your light is sitting 1 whole year unused...you don't need it so send it my way.:thumbsup:

 

[dwminer]

To add to that, if your light is sitting 1 whole year unused...you don't need it so send it my way.:thumbsup:

No, the problem with that is the drain goes away after several hours. Thought that could use this small glow to find the headlight in the night, but no it was a no low after hours . I just received the light and really like it . It was just under $51 dollars delivered to my front door. I say it's a keeper.

Dave

the glow came back, now I will consider it a feature.

 

[y260]

It took me a while to figure that my HC-50 glows. If anything, it's a free location beacon in a pitch black room. I don't see it being an issue at all.

 

[StealthZ]

Had mine for 3 weeks and no glow. Survived a caving trip this weekend through water and mud with no issues. I'm pretty happy with the quality of the HC50 so far.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I used mine last night out on a warm lake in cool weather. The steam coming off the lake illuminated by the HC50 was extremely wild looking. I had another bright light with more throw that just did not do the steam justice. I like the light. The glow is never going to run my battery down before I run it down. Pretty much a non issue. I'm glad I did not return it. I am glad I did buy it.

 

[Littlelantern]

Nitecore hc50 is my first light of this year,very satisfied with the solid built headlamp and want glue a strong circular magnet to the end of the tail cap just like my spark sd6.

 

[Oscar3]

It being May 2nd, 2016, has anyone had similar problems with the dim drain on the 2016 HC50's? I was thinking of buying my first "quality" 18650 using headlamp & buying this HC50.

 

[RI Chevy]

I have an older HC50. I just loosen the battery cap when I am done. It works great.

 

[HorizontalHunter]

Received answer back from Nitecore. They want me to send it back, to them. I won't, because of the shipping-costs.

FWIW:

I have the HC90 and I am happy with it.

I sent a flashlight light to Fenix (in China) for repair using USPS. I shipped in in a padded mailer that I picked up at the local Walmart. The shipping cost was about $8.00 and it took 7 or 8 days to get there.


Bob

 

[wrcsixeight]

My NitecforeHC50 purchased in December 2013 is now highly unreliable. Sometimes it dims to the 1 or 30 lumen setting when the battery is still fully charged. Sometimes turning on the red LEDS, then trying the regular settings makes it work, other times it does not.

I've really gotten many many hours out of this thing, so much so the headstrap is stretched out and lost a bunch of elastic properties.

I am quite bummed the thing decides to basically become useless, an doften at the most inopportune times. I've used Caig Deoxit d5 on all the contact surfaces on cap and battery ends, not really sure what else I can do. It is doing it with protected and unprotected panny ncr 18650B's that still appear to have a good amount of capacity left.

When it decides to dim the only thing that sometimes works, is setting it to the red LEDS then back to the normal settings, but this iworks only about 25% of the time. When it decides to dim, sometimes 5 minutes later it will work fine, oter times it won;t work again after 5 hours or 5 days.

Guess it is time to shop for something better as I cannot live properly without this kind of light source, and I can't rely on this one any more.

Anybody else have this issue with the HC50?

The Dim glowing when off was never an issue, but the dimming to useless light levels certainly is.

 

[RI Chevy]

Sorry to hear about the headlamp issues.
Maybe give Spark a try? I have both. My HC50 gets lots of use too. My Spark is a little nicer.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I am back to researching headlamps. The HC50s 585 lumens was always more than enough for my needs, but...... having not stepped up to the purchasing plate for a while, and kind of being wary of Nitecore now, well I am enjoying this forum a lot lately and all the product reviews and am willing to spend some more dough to have that kind of ridiculous level of light available.

But my panasonic NCR18650Bs well they have alot of cycles on them now, and I do not know it they can, could, or will be able to step upto the 2300 lumen plate even briefly. While my main needs for my current project mostly required the 170 to 350 lumen settings on the HC50, there were times when 585 and 2.5x reading glasses were called utilized, and a few times where 585 outdoors was not quite enough.

It does now seem like there is not that much difference between the high and turbo settings on my HC50 now when it works. not sure if it is battery or HC50 related. I have some laptop battery 18650 extractions which could not handle turbo, but quit using them for their poor capacity and my fear of the cheapo no name cells