IMR Battery Issue or What?

I've had an aluminum EDC XML for about two months and LOVE it; however, I've had some small but persistent issues. Here's the deal:

I'm running both AW IMR 18350's and 16340's. I get a small but noticeable flicker every once in a while. At first, I thought it must be a low battery. But it still sometimes flickers (on each L/M/H mode) even with a fully charged AW. Then I thought that maybe it was the cheap $10 Nano charger that might be causing the issue, so I bought a Pila charger hoping to get a more reliable charge. After charging the 18350 today, I popped it in and still see a small flicker at times. Granted, it works without a glitch 90% of the time, but it's still quite annoying when it happens, you know?!?

My question: is this to be expected or is something up with either my four AW batteries and/or the light itself? Is there anything else I should try?

Many thanks!

I had the switch fail in my Tri-EDC, causing the same sort of flicker. I'd contact Mac directly.

Make sure the light engine is tight in the head. Any looseness will result in flickering. I use a set of needle nose pliers.

Is it flickering with both battery sizes? I had a problem with a spring that was cut a little too short and 16340s.

Thanks for weighing in here. I took your advice, KenAnderson, and grabbed the needle nose pliers. Sure enough, I got the light engine to tighten a small quarter turn (or less).

I just did it tonight, so time will tell if that's the root cause. So far so good though.

Vernon said:

Thanks for weighing in here. I took your advice, KenAnderson, and grabbed the needle nose pliers. Sure enough, I got the light engine to tighten a small quarter turn (or less).

I just did it tonight, so time will tell if that's the root cause. So far so good though.

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I suspect that should fix it. Mine did the same thing and flickered with even a small amount of looseness. If you have some deoxit from Radio Shack you can also remove the light engine and clean the threads on it and the housing and then make it good and tight. You'll likely never see the issue again.

KenAnderson said:

I suspect that should fix it. Mine did the same thing and flickered with even a small amount of looseness. If you have some deoxit from Radio Shack you can also remove the light engine and clean the threads on it and the housing and then make it good and tight. You'll likely never see the issue again.

Click to expand...

You're right on. No flickering yet!

Vernon said:

You're right on. No flickering yet!

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If the flickering happened every day, week or month you'd have to wait 3x this long, 3 days, weeks or months, to be 95% sure the problem is gone.
http://www.talkstats.com/showthread.php/12844-equip.-failure

xul said:

If the flickering happened every day, week or month you'd have to wait 3x this long, 3 days, weeks or months, to be 95% sure the problem is gone.
http://www.talkstats.com/showthread.php/12844-equip.-failure

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Very interesting, xul. Thanks for the link.

Time will tell, for sure.

I just want to follow up to confirm no flickering for two weeks. Many thanks for weighing in on my little problem and providing a quick fix.