Highest fall

Just curious, what was the highest fall that your light(s) have survived? What was the height of a fall that damaged your light(s)? What lights were they and what surface did they land on? What damage, if any, was done and was it repaired?

3 feet, cobblestones in the backyard, -- thrunite catapult, a prototype that shall be unnamed :sick2: , various smaller lights..

no damage other than scratches and dents.

I had my Surefire L4 fall outta my front shirt pocket while cleaning the windows in the house. It fell from the 3rd story window and all it had was a small scuff mark on the side of it. I thought for sure the window would have broken....but just a small scuff mark. I also had my M6 fall off my mountain bike and then I ran over it...again just a few scuff.

• SureFire L1, waist height onto tile, head/bezel hit: slight mar to a crenellation
• SureFire E1, hand height onto concrete, head/bezel hit: not even a mark to the HA finish
• SureFire C3, hand height onto tile, head/bezel hit. Mar to the Type-II anod on the head.
• Fenix LD01, two falls, both onto the head/bezel. Mar to aluminum @ bezel edge. Battery dent on one (neg) end due to second AAA. (2xAAA SL SP body)

Overall, I'm very impressed with SureFire HA.

Edit: Funny how most falls seem to hit on the bezel edge, hm? :-/

Perhaps I hold the record....

SureFire L1 Cree

Fell roughly 50 feet from its perch in my mouth while in a catwalk to bare concrete below. I was amazed that the light was still on when I made it down to retrieve it. Other than a dent in the bezel and the plastic lanyard ring broken off, the light was fine.

What do you have to say to that SureFire haters?

Somewhere I have a pic of the bezel if I can find it.

Ever-popular Quark AA. It slipped out of my hand down a ladder, hitting a rung about 8 feet down and clattering to the concrete 4 feet below that. I've got a nice ladder-rung-shaped bezel dent on the corner of the bezel. Lots of scratches from caves, tunnels, car repair, walking around, and other adventures.

I've heard it called "Butter-soft aluminum" but it's not so bad.

My MiniMag incan fell of my roof when we were putting up Christmas lights. It fell about 25 feet into a bush. It got scratched, but didn't need a new bulb.

Had an Inova X1 (generation 2) flashlight.

For those who don't know, it has a 5mm LED, powered by a single AA cell.


This fell onto a Hardwood Floor, from a distance of Less Than One Meter.

It Died.

Could not be revived or repaired by Inova, so they sent me a New model.

Alas, it was a new Generation 3 model.


Really expected an LED light to survive such a minor trauma.

:shakehead
_

Either the $19 MTE Rebel light from DX or a 3W 18650 Cree light from DX back in 2006. The MTE was dropped from the 3rd floor and worked just fine, the other was thrown across a yard onto the road and skidded.

Both survived, the MTE was returned (no physical damage, landed on linoleum tiles) because I didn't like the mode setup, I eventually broke the other light's circuit board. It's currently in direct drive.

I also dropped an X1 from around waist height, and it also stopped working, so I returned it.

My L2M SS SE, head landed first five feet on a concrete. I thought the drop in led is a goner coz this light is so heavy but it did survive. Got a ding and scratch on the bezel so I ordered another bezel.

Nothing but waist high falls from me.

Inova X1-V2, onto concrete :candle:

SF-6p, onto concrete, big ding in the tailcap, slightly dented bezel, small chip in outer rim of glass window from the impact. Cosmetic damage only. Several drops onto linoleum ESD flooring at work, no harm done. Carpet floor also no harm done

Romisen RC-N3-Q5, Several drops onto concrete. Cosmetic damage only, dings, gouges and dents.

FEnix L1T-V2, several drops onto various surfaces. Cosmetic damage only, dings, gouges and dents.

Fenix E0 Dart, several drops onto various surfaces as a keychain light. Cosmetic damage only, dings, gouges and dents.

My current eagletac p20c2 mkII dropped out of my hand from about five to six foot off the ground then as it fell I tried to catch it on the way down and only succceeded in hitting it and slamming it harder into the concrete floor with a bang. It's still going strong and barely marked.

Over the space fo a year or so, my led lenser P7 hit the concrete deck dozens of times from heights varying from two feet to six feet. It's got plenty of scars but works as well as the day I bough it.

Surefire G2, with a M60. Loaded with CR123s. Let's just say someone (cough cough) chucked it across half a football field while on and landed it on concrete. There's a dent on the bezel and tailcap, but it's fine.

Quark AA
3 feet vertical, 5-6 feet horizontal (slipped from my hand and flew off)
ceramic tile and landed with a very loud noise
Rear end has a small flat surface where it hit the floor

It was also dropped waist high on concrete floors multiple times... no marks that I can distinguish except for one little piece of ano that came off on the bezel

lights said:

Perhaps I hold the record....

SureFire L1 Cree

Fell roughly 50 feet from its perch in my mouth while in a catwalk to bare concrete below. I was amazed that the light was still on when I made it down to retrieve it. Other than a dent in the bezel and the plastic lanyard ring broken off, the light was fine.

What do you have to say to that SureFire haters?

Somewhere I have a pic of the bezel if I can find it.

Click to expand...

You should do a CPF poll..... Surefire Haters vs. Surefire Fanboys...bet the Fanboys would win by a HUGE margin.
Perhaps a true SF hater would reply something like....
"It should have levitated back up to you with a new easter egg mode like my Quark would have"
or....
"My Maglite XL100 would have turned itself off to preserve batt. life- your Surefire didn't"

Fenix tk40 1 meter... actually i trowed it down with force on a wooden floor, i was furious because it stopped working.. when i checked the light again, i could see no damage. i used my multimeter to check everything out. only after i had checked the head it started to work again..

this is why i like a aaa twist format. simple and light enough to be dropped without damage.

lights said:

Perhaps I hold the record....

SureFire L1 Cree

Fell roughly 50 feet

Click to expand...

Nope. And I doubt I do either, but I had a surefire L4 fall out of a small climbing daypack at the anchor between the second and third pitch of a slightly less than vertical rock climb. ABout 180 feet, I think, with some bouncing off the cliff involved. A narrow miss of a potentially fatal collision with someone on the first pitch (my most sincere, humble and embarrased apologies and ofer of free beer sufficed to minimize the rage....it was a MAJOR mess up on my part to allow it to happen).

I doubted I would find it, but someone at the base actually went and grabbed it for me. There was a decent amount of damage to the ano, but not nearly as much as I expected. The tailcap still works, the glass was intact, and the light functioned (and functions) perfectly.

It landed in a wooded area near the base, and I think the less than vertical nature of th route slowed it down a good deal. Still, I was (and am) impressed with that little light.

OK, here's something different. Top of stairs to bottom with a 6Z. The "different" is that I had the light in my hand when I slipped and it went with me down the stairs, basically under my leg. The bezel was pretty badly bent in the process at the front end. You can imagine what my thigh looked like. SureFire replaced the functional but cosmetically troubled bezel (which was the older style with the lexan window) under warranty.

From long ago Fenix
C