brand new arc aaa works unsatisfying

hello
i just got my first arc aaa from toolshop.de
my frist impression was the nice exterior and the not really nice beam quality but i knew that when i saved 10€ instead of buying a premium
then the real trouble started: the light only comes on about 2/3 of the time
first i thought it might be related to the roll-crimp issue so i did a search on that but after i removed the foam ring i saw it was already fixed
the contacts aren't dirty either (how could they?)
i tried batteries of diffrent brands
i scraped off tiny bits where the case connects to the batterie
i guess you know it already ... nothing worked

this whole issue is especially frustration since i cant really send the light oversees just to get it checked out because i am on a long term "buissnes"-trip to africa starting from 1.2.04 (american stlye date)
which is what i bought the light for...

also while "exploring" the light i found that the chemcote only covers the section above the winding with the rest beeing bare aluminium
altogether i dont really consider it a lucky buy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

but as i intend to keep it does anyone have a idea/solution to the main problem?
thanks

Send it back to ARC for a replacement.

Have you tried cleaning the negative battery terminal contact at the bottom of the battery tube? Even if it doesn't look dirty.

Greetings, jones. Fellow newbie here. I agree completely. I've had 3 AAA's of late and 2 of them have the 'sometimes they work, sometimes they don't problem'. There have been several other threads in the past on the topic that generally end up with the same advice - either send it back to ARC, or 'clean' contacts within it.

Here's what hasn't worked on the intermittent one I have now and the one I sent to ARC last month: replacing the battery, cleaning the negative contact at the bottom of the battery tube, replacing the battery tube with a 'good' one, cleaning the male threads on the head, and cleaning the positive contact on the head.

The thing that did work on the last intermittent one I had was sending it back to ARC, you can't deny they offer excellent service. But I'd rather have a product that didn't need it. I was going to give AAA's as Christmas gifts this year, but those less technically inclined, and not an LED-geek type (like me...) would find this product annoying, I figured.

So what is the deal with the intermittent nature of these things? At least with my current bad one, it's within the head and no amount of contact/thread cleaning is going to effect any improvement.

Mine is unreliable when I use zinc-carbon AAA cells which are flat on the end, but quite reliable when I use alkaline batteries like the one that came with it. Jones, you might try an alkaline battery (e.g. Duracell) if you're not using one right now.

thanks for the replies
unfortunatly none of your tips (expect nascars...) worked
i guess this is hopeless /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
sending the flashlight back to arc seems to be the only solution
i could send it back to toolshop.de but this is definitly not the resellers fault

i feel tempted to moan about the arc quality management (or whatever this is called) since i dont seem to be the only one who seems to have problems with a flashlight that comes out of the box
its nice to know you have a top support at hand if your product fails but i would like to be the one to break it...

none the less im still looking forward to the ls4

.. moan away, however it might be better over in Cheers & Jeers. It's unfortunate that your 1st experience with an ARC product was not an exciting event. Your one of the few that have been unfortuneate in that respect. The majority of 1st time ARC owner are estatic over the purchase and product. That being said, don't give up on ARC. It is the premier company as it relates to product and support. If your issue was in fact not due to the roll-crimp issue, I know that Peter (owner of ARC) will want to see your light to analyze it and see if he can determine why it failed. That's why I suggested sending it back. Peter will take care of you to your satisfaction. Trust me.

Isn't this the ARC forum ?

Where else is he to go ?

Are ONLY accolades allowed here ? I wonder.

Nascar is right......send it back.
They stand behind their products 100%.

I once damaged one of their lights. I sent it back and asked if they could repair it. It was my fault.
They sent me a new one...No charge

Can't ask for better then that.

Hi JohnK...

Warranted criticism is certainly fine, and is helpful to all other CPF`ers as well as to the manufacturers who care about quality.

Out of the 200-300 Arc AAA`s I`ve purchased over the last few years, I also have experienced problems with 2 or 3 of them. A phone call or email was all that was needed to get a replacement sent out right away.

What you will find is that Peter (i) makes excellent flashlights, and (ii) Arc has no equal in the world of good customer service. If something is wrong with an Arc product, Peter will take care of it. Pure and simple. Hence the accolades for Arc you see so often.

Personal note: I see you`re into reloading. Same here. Do you shoot competitively, or do you mainly reload for your hunting needs?

Best wishes to you.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It's been a pretty good while since the AAAs have reported any problems. I guess that's because ARC addressed the problems as soon as they became aware of them, which leads me to wonder about which version you actually got. Maybe you got 1 or 2 year old stock and, or, maybe the light had been used for demo purposes, which could cause some oxidation on the contacts. You normally can't see the oxidation, especially on the positive contact, so it very well could need cleaning.

And it very well could be bad. Sorry that it happened, particularly with your current travel situation, but they will take good care of you. I wouldn't feel that you made a bad choice with a standard either. The newest ones are brighter than ever and just as bright if not more so than my older premiums. I won't buy any more premiums except for special editions. That doesn't hold true for the LSs - definately go for the premium there.

[ QUOTE ]
jones said:
sending the flashlight back to arc seems to be the only solution

i feel tempted to moan about the arc quality management (or whatever this is called) since i dont seem to be the only one who seems to have problems with a flashlight that comes out of the box
its nice to know you have a top support at hand if your product fails but i would like to be the one to break it...


[/ QUOTE ]
OK, here's a possible scoop...
If you have access to a computer that uses internet explorer, try getting "live on line" with Peter or Merri, explain the situation.

My bet is that they will try to work something out.
(No promises, I don't work for or represent ARC Flashlight, but I am a VERY happy customer.)

-Plec

There's a page on arc's site somewhere about how to fix an AAA. It involved cleaning the threads and inside of the battery tube, and replacing the solder blob on the head. anyone got the url?

Edit: try here: http://tinyurl.com/uqdc

Jones: don't worry about not getting the Premium. Mine (from toolshop too) is a Premium but the hotspot is way off-center and the colour is terribly mismatched between the head and the body. And sometimes it's working fine, sometimes it takes 3-5 tries to turn the damn thing on. Of course I tried every imaginable fix. I haven't decided if I should send it back because
a. it's still working
b. it will be long before I receive a replacement (10-14 days is the best case scenario)
c. I don't know if the replacement will be any better
d. I don't know if I should throw more money at it – I'm already down almost 60$ and only to move a piece of paper one street with the postal service it's 1.53 EUR (of course, not insured, not signed).
I really don't know what to do – right now I'm waiting for the light to make up it's mind and die completely, then the a.-c. points will vanish and I'll have to make up my mind if I want to pay 5-10 EUR to send the light back (ok, a good light is better than 10 eur and a broken light I guess).

Crazy Conspiracy Theory Time

When Arc sold those batches of 'no warranty seconds' on eBay I wonder if some ended up at Toolshop.
The problems being described sound like Peter's descriptions of the 'seconds' and I know that there was interest from Germany.
As one of the middlemen, I don't remember sending any to Germany but I definitely remember that that was going to be the final destination of a few of them.
And I only handled one of the eBay auctions -- there was a second.
Can anyone else speak toward their dealings with Toolshop?

Are the AAA seconds identified in any way? I think they mark the LS seconds in some way.

The only problem like that I had was in an old ARC AAA that didn't have the Chemkote lining. It would not turn on reliably, returned and got a new replacement.
Since I gave some Arc's as gifts I make sure to run them through 2 batteries before giving them out. I would hate for someone to need them and not work.

toolshop is an official Arc dealer and I did not have any kind of problems dealing with them. My last two AAA's were from the latest release with the longitudinal inscription.
IMHO we can forget the conspiracy from this side.
bernhard

georget98, I have an LS second that is not marked as such in any way. (it does have a cracked lens though, so it's obvious /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) but the LS's have serial numbers and I'd be very surprised if Peter wasn't keeping track of which ones got sold as seconds. The AAA doesn't have any such marking on it to identify as far as I know.

Jones, please contact us. We are out until Monday for the Christmas holiday but we want to help. I am sorry you got a defective unit.

And yes, I would like to be able to track the seconds better. I ask Merri from time to time to characterize the returns. It appears to me that >95% are previous versions. There are enough old versions and seconds in circulation to create a regular problem thread here in the Arc forum. However, I suspect that most people just don't even bother emailing us let alone post here on the CPF.

Once we sell the product and it is sold and resold several times, we tend to loose track of what it's condition is. This tends to also happen with the LS. We could sell it as a first but parts could be swapped out, the unit damaged and resold, etc.

CPF'er Carpe Diem is a good case study. He has bought a large number of lights from us and experienced failures that are similiar to our overall return percentages. Those percentages are typically a fraction of a percent. Carpe keeps good contact with us (he is also a beta tester) and knows his lights. I trust that he is a good source of feedback on our quality level.

I tend to have a negative view about our product quality. When people like Carpe Diem provide failure numbers that are lower than what I expect, my first reaction is to suspect they are just being nice and not reporting everything. Even though my perspective may be negative, I can add that angst to my forward pursuit of perfection. We are constantly tweaking the design of all of our lights to make them better.

Peter