Thrunite TN4A (XP-L V6, 4xAA) review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, VIDEO and more!

[TorchesSansFourches]

<snip> TorchesSansFourches that is one screwed up carrier!! <snip> So...did TN take care of you?

Yeah. The carrier is pretty bad.

And no, ThruNite has completely ignored 3 emails asking for support.

I purchased the TN4A from an online retailer, but upon contacting them, only a refund was available (no exchange). So I decided to contact ThruNite before I went the refund route, thinking that it would probably be best to let them know about the issue I presented here and ask for an exchange of the malfunctioning light. I emailed them (3 times as stated) , even providing a link to this discussion (mostly for the pictures), but the service department evidently is as screwed up as the battery carrier. I'm pretty sure that if I emailed them a bulk order request, I'd get a quick response.

I've given up on ThruNite's service department and will take care of any further business via the online retailer. I'll ask for the refund, and I may or may not re-order a TN4A. I have some pretty strong feelings about not supporting companies as poor as this one (two strikes here ... poor QC and no service after the purchase, at least in my case), but I had my heart set on trying this light out based on the positive reviews here and elsewhere, and I really wanted a 4xAA NW light, so choices are limited*. And of course your experience and praise of the light did not help dissuade me . If I re-order, and the new light malfunctions after my options for remedy from the online retailer expire, I'll just throw the light in the trash, re-assess what I really want in a flashlight, and definitely move on to another company.

Despite stupidly being on the fence about whether to re-order anything made by ThruNite, I definitely will not be mentioning them to anyone without describing just what a poor experience they might expect.

Thanks.

* Note - When I say 'choices are limited', I understand that there are other 4xAA lights manufactured (Nitecore EA41 NW was my second choice), but if the lights are not available through a source I can trust to take care of any issues, I will not purchase any of them. I simply don't trust the smaller online retailers, and I trust the manufacturers of the flashlights even less. I at least want to get some no-hassle satisfaction if the light is messed up right out of the box.

 

[LeanBurn]

Who was the online retailer?

 

[TorchesSansFourches]

Who was the online retailer?

Probably who you were thinking ... Amazon. No exchanges (only refunds) when purchasing from a third-party, even if fulfilled by Amazon. I usually will only buy directly from Amazon (when using them), but again in this case, choices were limited, and the TN4A was only available from ThruniteDirect / Fulfilled by Amazon and maybe some other third parties I'm not familiar with. Availability from each seller varies from time to time.

 

[LeanBurn]

That is good to know info...thanks.

 

[DPRoberts]

I have several Thrunite flashlights, and I've held onto this address as a "last resort" in case I can't get help from Thrunite (which hasn't happened to me yet).

Note that this is just a residence and not a business address, so who knows if it's still of any use.

Thrunite Service America
Contact: Liguo Niu
333 Erwin Rd. Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514,
United States

 

[TorchesSansFourches]

<snip>

Note that this is just a residence and not a business address, so who knows if it's still of any use.

Thrunite Service America
Contact: Liguo Niu
333 Erwin Rd. Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514,
United States

Thanks for that, even if it's not verified. It may come in handy at some point for other members.

For now, I went ahead and processed the refund via AMZN and had another TN4A NW over-nighted. We'll see.

Thanks.


----
P.S.

It really instills confidence when you may have to resort to contacting a business via employees' home addresses / personal contact info.

 

[CelticCross74]

damn man! Strange! I got what was supposed to be a NW TN12 2016 but when I got it the tint was straight up purple. I got it through amazon. So I dealt with them I exchanged the purple tint light for the CW TN12 2016. The whole process literally only took a week. The CW light works perfectly. All 3 of my TN4A's I got through the Thrunite store. Last variant I got was the HI model. I was unaware that TN had begun working with Amazon. Before the TN4A's came straight from a TN warehouse here in the states. The HI model showed up in an Amazon box it had come from a Amazon warehouse Idk what is up with that at all. Regardless all 3 work perfectly. The first TN4A I got had the battery carrier where the tolerances were just to tight to fit some cells. Putting the 2700mah Powerex NiMHs into the carrier I had at the time was a real work out. Getting the loaded carrier into the body required a long hard press. It also got stuck in the body. It took forever to get the carrier back out of the body I had to carefully tap around the lip of the body to get just enough room to pry it out with a small flat head screw driver. So out with the Powerex and in with the Eneloop Pros. They were a ***** to get into the carrier but not as bad as the powerex cells. The carrier only took a light press to get it into the body. Getting the carrier out required forceful upside down up and down motion and the carrier slowly came out on its own. Said TN4A is now loaded with L91 AA Energizer Ultimate lithiums. They fit perfectly and the loaded carrier slid right in no issues which is weird considering the L91's are 3000mah yet thinner by a touch than the pros.

The NW XML2 TN4A was next. Wow! What a glorious light and amazing warm tint! TN had obviously addressed the carrier issues I can load anything I want into it easily and it slides in the body no problem. I also use L91 AA's in this one as well. The tint is gorgeous and the same K rating at all modes. I honestly cannot tell a brightness difference between the supposedly higher output CW and the XML2 NW.

Lastly the HI. I knew it was going to be a hell of a thrower but had no idea it would be That good of a thrower! Most throwers do not have that much spill. The HI has a profile diameter of a D cell Maglite it is utterly massive. The hot spot is half the size of the non HI's but is very concentrated bright as hell and defined. Taking the HI out to where there is some room for the HI to stretch its legs the throw portion of the beam is the most laser like out of any of my throwers. To my eyes its a solid 60k CD light with tons of useful spill.

Let us know how your NW works out. I doubt that you will have any issues TN in my experience has been pretty solid when it comes to QC. Interested to hear your impressions on the XP-L NW TN4A. Ive read a few complaints about the higher modes being a different K range than the lower modes which is just very odd. My XML2 NW is solid K rated evenly across all modes.

 

[TorchesSansFourches]

<snip>

Let us know how your NW works out. I doubt that you will have any issues TN in my experience has been pretty solid when it comes to QC. Interested to hear your impressions on the XP-L NW TN4A. Ive read a few complaints about the higher modes being a different K range than the lower modes which is just very odd. My XML2 NW is solid K rated evenly across all modes.

The replacement TN4A NW arrived today, and so far so good. As you can see in the attached photo, the newly-arrived flashlight's carrier (on the right) is loaded with batteries, and it is not on fire. That would not be the case if batteries were loaded in the one on the left.

Everything else seems to check out okay. The modes work as designed. Having to always start the Lo-Med-Hi cycle from Low is a bit annoying, but I think I can learn to view it positively as a shortcut to Low rather than the poor interface design-choice that it actually is.

As for light color, on my samples*, Firefly and Low have a yellow center-spot, a greenish-yellow corona, and fairly neutral spill (it's hard to differentiate spill, corona and center-spot in Firefly mode). Modes from Medium through Turbo pretty much lose the greenish corona (still slightly present in Medium), and the spill is fairly neutral. Definitely, High and Turbo look the best during testing.

What I described above is what I see when shining the light on white cards or walls during testing. In most real-life usage, all I notice is the accurately reflected colors of whatever I'm shining the light towards (whites do, however, look like that could use a little Clorox, but nothing totally dingy). This is a drastic and refreshing change from the CW LEDs I've used before. I really do not like the bleached colors produced by most of the CW lights I've seen. The first LED flashlight I owned produced two initial and equally-astonishing observations: 1) Wow! That is bright; and 2) Wow! I can't tell the difference between dirt and grass.

I always thought observation #2 was at the very least unpleasant and could likely be dangerous. The NW LED (mostly) solves the unpleasanty dangerousness of it all.

Anyway, I wish this experience with ThruNite had started out last week as well as it began today, because I do like the TN4A NW (hopefully nothing goes wrong, knock on wood). But as it stands, with the initial molten battery-carrier problem, and the complete lack of response to my emails, I'm still not a devoted fan of the company.

Thanks.
--------
* Note - the samples (plural) I refer to are: 1) the complete, functioning TN4A NW I received as a replacement, and 2) the head from the original TN4A NW screwed onto the body of the replacement. This essentially was done to see if the heads varied. The original one is now boxed-up ready to be sent back.

I also should note here that the replacement TN4A NW seems to be older than the original (broken) one I received last week. The replacement's 5-digit serial number begins with 09, while the original's serial number begins with 10. It's also possible that the serial numbers contain codes that don't necessarily reflect purely manufacturing sequence.

 

[CelticCross74]

Glad to see you got your situation straightened out! I am still surprised that they basically wired the original carrier backwards and it still passed QC

 

[LeanBurn]

*********
After corresponding with ThruNite I received this:


"Thanks for contacting us. TN4A HI NW will be available in the end of Sept."


This is great news for those that were holding off on the TN4A HI because it was previously only available in cool white.
**********

 

[CelticCross74]

holy crap! nope...sorry just cannot have 5 of these things. More than set with the 4 Ive got. I am sure it will be very impressive though

 

[Grijon]

Thank you for the review, selfbuilt!

 

[boyka]

Thanks for the great review as always

 

[LeanBurn]

...still waiting for the TN4A in NW...supposed to come end of Sept...

 

[wolfstyle]

...still waiting for the TN4A in NW...supposed to come end of Sept...

Amazon has the TN4A HI in NW.

 

[LeanBurn]

.com...yes.

.ca...not yet :thinking:

 

[CelticCross74]

Hey its the TN4A thread again! Long live the TN4A thread. Happy to report my now 4 TN4A's are all still cranking away as well as the day I got them all including my first batch no lanyard hole or serial # CW. Blasting away on L91's quite happily. Have found the new XP-L NW to be the same tint to my eyes as the XML2 NW just a touch brighter. Have not noticed a tint change on lower modes with the XP-L NW.

 

[LeanBurn]

So do you have both HI versions, NW and CW? If so do you have any beam shots? What is you opinion between the two?

 

[CelticCross74]

got the CW HI. I already have 4 TN4A's. Not going to spring for the NW TN4A. I can give you a pretty accurate description of the tint though. Like other NW XP-L HI emitters its neutral to the point of having a touch, just a touch, of orange to it. Ive got a few NW XP-L HI lights and they all have the same tint. I believe its the XP-L HI V2 that is the NW version Ill have to double check it. The NW HI TN4A does not throw as far as the CW version its not a massive difference but out where there is NO light pollution at night youd notice. The XML2 NW and XP-L NW TN4A's to my eyes have the same tint which is actually a very good tint very 5000k and natural sunlight at dawn/sunset looking. I like my XP-L HI NW lights but to my eyes do notice a slight orange tint. One of these lights i have the Eagtac T25C2 XP-L HI NW actually has a slight rose tint to it its actually very nice.

My opinion between the two is if you are looking for a potent thrower in the TN4A package CW is the way to go. Its brighter, throws farther and in my opinion has better beam definition. The CW HI tint is pretty white no bad hints of harsh purples or blues. Ive got a beam shot or two of the CW HI against a white wall. I will try to dig them up and post them back here in an edit.

Here is the CW HI against a white wall from about 7 feet-

The non HI TN4A's have hot spots almost twice as large but not as concentrated and bright as is shown here. Note the usual TN4A very very wide beam profile is still present. The hot spot and thin corona on the HI is quite different from the non HI lights.

 

[LeanBurn]

I have asked TN for the specs on the NW so i can compare.

Has anyone found a diffuser that will work on the TN4A?