Help! Surefire 6p won't turn on.

browneyes

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Jul 26, 2006
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San Diego
Newbie here :stupid: need some help. I have been using my new 6p for a few days and now it won't turn on. I made sure everything is where it should be. I believe that the advertised run life is about an hour and I think I may have used it for that long but I thought the light would gradually get dimmer and then turn off. For some reason it will not turn on at all. Do I need to get new batteries or is this a bigger problem? :thanks:
 

Stream

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Dec 26, 2004
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Sweden
Sounds like you just need new batteries; lithium cells have a much more sudden drop-off than alkaline batteries.
 

SCblur

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Dec 30, 2005
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there's no way to know without a little experimentation. If you have some spare batteries and a spare lamp assembly, those would be the two most likely culprits. Try swapping out the batteries first. If that doesn't work, try a new Lamp. It's probably one of those. If all you have are spare batteries, and those don't light it up, call SF customer service and they'll probably send you a new lamp. Also, make sure all of the metal contacts are clean.

Welcome to CPF!
 

citizenal

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Dec 23, 2005
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Yeah, I would try new batteries, and then I would to to batterystation and buy a lot of spares. Your going to need them. :)
 

browneyes

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Are rechargeable batteries an option for the surefire 6p?

Yeah I think the batteries are the culprit but I was a little surprised that it just simply turned off without a warning.. :ohgeez:

I saw some cheap rechargeable 123A battery combos for about $25-30. These come in like a 4-pack of batteries + charger. I plan on buying a Fenix P1 in the near future so would buying rechargeable batteries be a good move?

PS. I also saw somewhere that somebody was selling batteries like those mentioned above on the CPF forum.
 

roguesw

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Dec 19, 2002
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Tokyo, Japan
browneyes, be carefull of Rechargaeble batteries,
most of them are 3.7 volts and when they come off the
charger they are 4.2 volts
these can instaflash the bulbs

i know some people have gotten rechargaeble 3.0 volts
but i dont know how common it is

for example, i am using 2x rechargaebles 3.7 volts to power
my M3T, MN15 bulbs, they are rated at 9 volts
 

Brighteyez

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Apr 5, 2005
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San Jose, CA
Re: Are rechargeable batteries an option for the surefire 6p?

Probably not. Rechargeables don't do that well with incandescent lights. They don't burn very long and the higher voltage from those batteries can blow the lamp assembly (that's $17 for 6P.) If you do get them, you'll want the unprotected ones for incandescent bulbs, and those can be easily damaged if you run them too far down. The protected ones often do not supply enough current to light the high drain incandescent bulbs.

Now on the other hand, if you're going to use them in a LED light, the protected ones work great. Depending on the light, you can usually go with either a 3.0 or 3.6V protected battery with a single cell light, and the 3.0 ones work very well with multi-cell Luxeon lights.


browneyes said:
so would buying rechargeable batteries be a good move?
 

nzgunnie

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New Zealand
Re: Are rechargeable batteries an option for the surefire 6p?

Or you could get rechargeables, and a P90, which actually works very well, mine runs with no trouble using AWs protected 123s in my 6P.

I run all my 6P/9P/A19 variations on rechargeables, either 123s, 17500s or even 17670s. They work very well with 9v bulbs. They will not work with 6v bulb, well not for more than a second...

Brighteyez said:
Probably not. Rechargeables don't do that well with incandescent lights. They don't burn very long and the higher voltage from those batteries can blow the lamp assembly (that's $17 for 6P.) If you do get them, you'll want the unprotected ones for incandescent bulbs, and those can be easily damaged if you run them too far down. The protected ones often do not supply enough current to light the high drain incandescent bulbs.

Now on the other hand, if you're going to use them in a LED light, the protected ones work great. Depending on the light, you can usually go with either a 3.0 or 3.6V protected battery with a single cell light, and the 3.0 ones work very well with multi-cell Luxeon lights.
 
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