HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
I dont know how long most of the 30 or so better quality LED flashlight manufacturers have been around, but aside from maybe Surefire, I'd bet most have been around for 5-7 years or less. How many times have you watched a commercial where they advertise a "lifetime warranty", and yet you know full well that the company offering that warranty probably wont be around in 5 years? Even if you buy a product from a company, and that company doesnt happen to go out of business, or change their name and their business model, there's still always a very good possibility that company wont still be producing or stocking parts for the product you bought 5 years earlier.
I just needed a part for a recently discontinued light that was only made for about 1.5 years, and the parent company said that they only had "one part left", when I emailed them, so I bought the one part they had left that I needed as a spare in case I have a problem with the original part later on. But if they have stopped making that light after just 1.5 years, and they have run out of those parts just 5 months after they stopped making that light, then if I had waited a few weeks longer to inquire about that part, I'd have been sh*t out of luck!
So what happens when you need parts for a light you bought 3-5-7-10 years ago? What are the odds most of these companies are still going to have those parts in stock? Lets say a rear click switch breaks..... I'd imagine that most of these clicky switches are somewhat universal, so you could probably contact a company that makes electrical parts and buy a switch that will fit your light, but what if its some other part that goes bad that isnt something so universal?
Do you just throw out an otherwise perfectly good $100+ light because parts arent available anymore?
Has anyone had any issues with getting parts for older lights?
I just needed a part for a recently discontinued light that was only made for about 1.5 years, and the parent company said that they only had "one part left", when I emailed them, so I bought the one part they had left that I needed as a spare in case I have a problem with the original part later on. But if they have stopped making that light after just 1.5 years, and they have run out of those parts just 5 months after they stopped making that light, then if I had waited a few weeks longer to inquire about that part, I'd have been sh*t out of luck!
So what happens when you need parts for a light you bought 3-5-7-10 years ago? What are the odds most of these companies are still going to have those parts in stock? Lets say a rear click switch breaks..... I'd imagine that most of these clicky switches are somewhat universal, so you could probably contact a company that makes electrical parts and buy a switch that will fit your light, but what if its some other part that goes bad that isnt something so universal?
Do you just throw out an otherwise perfectly good $100+ light because parts arent available anymore?
Has anyone had any issues with getting parts for older lights?