What is the deal with Surefire these days?!

knucklegary said:

MM, SF repair shop will confiscate (steal) your older model flashlights, and then send whatever they decide as replacement without first contacting you!

In my case, i called SF the very next morning, requested the employee by name, and made it clear to him that i could drive to the shop and be there before he leaves for home that same day..

My second gen z2 was returned (2nd day delivery) received in same condition sent.. Without apologizing the worker told me to keep the new G2z they sent. I gifted the nitrolon, think it was 350 or 400 lms, only high..

SF is good for sending older replacement parts if they have 'em in stock. But Do Not send older or vintage models. Whenever possible make the repairs yourself.

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That's not good at all. I guess I'm lucky they didn't ruin the E1L by putting an e1b mv head on it or something. Hopefully they will give the e2d parts back. That particular light had a lot of wear and was very cool looking. Still worked great but had a little fogginess in the lens due to age. Worst case scenario I end up with an upgraded defender and can buy another 200 lumen. I will say the 1000 lumen head is pretty dang bright and the low is brighter than the specs state much like the edcl1-t that I like so well.

yazkaz said:

Totally agree. Especially with C-series lights, aftermarket parts are plenty (thanks to conscious mfyers like LF). So may I ask, what was your problem with the Z2 concerned? What exactly was broken, and what did you expect from the pending repair?

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That incident was more than a few years ago and it was a simple lens replacement. SF offered the service complimentary. All needed was to pay for shipping. This was before aftermarket parts were so plentyful.. Not having spare lenses, and having to machine a proper bezel tool. I thought sending to SF was the best way.. Live and learn!

Cheers to Mark at Lumens Factory for making it easy to maintain our vintage SF 🤗

yazkaz said:

Surefire's lighting products are built tough for extreme situations. At least this was the case before. With LED products however things have become much more challenging as additional efforts had to be carried out to protect the driver circuitry inside. Except that, wirings and ICs are prone to fail after prolonged usage, and when that happens, any actual repair would be a real PIA.

Your E2L (2xAA) in question was easy to deal with, as both ends (head and tail) could be opened up to facilitate botched-up battery removal.

It's unfortunate that product cycles have become shorter and shorter these days, as many companies would use this as an excuse to force customers into newer purchases, instead of cherishing and reusing any existing lighting products via modular upgrades. Really pathetic indeed.

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That's why even with their longer lifespans, I still like incandescent. Besides the better light they produce, if the bulb burns out I simply buy a new one ( if available ). With potted electronics, not very easy

I just received a shipment notice:

"Your repaired SureFire product(s) have shipped via UPS GROUND"

Another one outta the bin then?

After all the hassle, hopefully you'll receive a fresh, if not brand new, flashlight🤞

I always snap a pic of serial# keep it filed in
phone

knucklegary said:

After all the hassle, hopefully you'll receive a fresh, if not brand new, flashlight🤞

I always snap a pic of serial# keep it filed in
phone

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I should have done that but forgot.

Have you checked out Elzetta flashlights, Bones or Bravo models?

knucklegary said:

Have you checked out Elzetta flashlights, Bones or Bravo models?

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No, a co worker recommended modlite but they are more than I'm willing to spend.

knucklegary said:

That incident was more than a few years ago and it was a simple lens replacement. SF offered the service complimentary. All needed was to pay for shipping. This was before aftermarket parts were so plentyful.. Not having spare lenses, and having to machine a proper bezel tool. I thought sending to SF was the best way.. Live and learn!

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True. And I assume you had a broken Pyrex lens replaced back then?

Speaking of which, glass lens replacement is a very delicate thing. Even with the appropriate bezel tool, the lens sometimes is so stuck with the underside gasket, when you force the glass out you may end up chipping the sides, subsequently necessitating a lens replacement. Then the other thing is lens thickness. The stock Pyrex glass is ~3.25mm thick but a typical replacement UCL is 2.1 to ~2.86mm. Which means the underside gasket also needs to be replaced with a slightly thicker one (so as not to cause any gaps when a third-party bezel ring is installed). Only now does LF offer the UCL in ~3.4mm thickness so the original gasket can be retained. And then there's LF's own combo bezel tool, so no need to worry even if OR sells out of its own variant.

vicv said:

That's why even with their longer lifespans, I still like incandescent. Besides the better light they produce, if the bulb burns out I simply buy a new one ( if available ). With potted electronics, not very easy

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You will be surprised some integrated LED head assys are not fully potted inside. This is to leave a backdoor for possible electronics repairs (and/or replacement). But once the internals are fully potted (and hardened), no chance.

A modular system is still preferred by many of us, but then this does not allow for effective LED heatsinking as compared with the integrated head design.

yazkaz said:

You will be surprised some integrated LED head assys are not fully potted inside. This is to leave a backdoor for possible electronics repairs (and/or replacement). But once the internals are fully potted (and hardened), no chance.

A modular system is still preferred by many of us, but then this does not allow for effective LED heatsinking as compared with the integrated head design.

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Ya, I've argued against the heat sinking abilities of the p60 platform before. I was told I was wrong and to stop talking and I gave up. To me, a modular system is redundant today when I can buy a convoy with every new emitter cheaper than a drop in and they have excellent heat sinking. But I do still understand. The 6P type lights are just about perfect in the hand. I just keep incandescents in them.

vicv said:

Ya, I've argued against the heat sinking abilities of the p60 platform before. I was told I was wrong and to stop talking and I gave up. To me, a modular system is redundant today when I can buy a convoy with every new emitter cheaper than a drop in and they have excellent heat sinking. But I do still understand. The 6P type lights are just about perfect in the hand. I just keep incandescents in them.

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I assume you're referring to the Convoy S2? Yeah I heard that it's the hobbyist's goto setup, as the emitter and driver choices are said to be plenty. But since I personally don't (can't) build anything (I manage/service my LED modules via a third party) so I can only take the Convoy with a grain of salt.

As for 6P-style incandescent setup, there are only two for me: an M3/T with a 1xCR123 extender (for 2x17670s), and the 2x18650 C-head/tail. For the latter I run on IMR incan modules with the best 18650s possible (AW protected, Readilast protected hi-current, AW IMR, Sony VTC-5A/D etc.).

11Blg said:

I just received a shipment notice:

"Your repaired SureFire product(s) have shipped via UPS GROUND"

Another one outta the bin then?

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Let's us know how it turned out..

I received my warranty product from Surefire. It is a new light still in the package. I opened it and put in a fully charged 18650 and did a function check. This one works as advertised for now. If any problems with it arise in the short term I'll update but after a few cycles without issue it will get rotated into usage.

Silver lining is the additional 18650 I got for the hassle.

Right On!! 👍👍

11B30 🇺🇲

I said I would update if any more problems occurred with the replacement light and unfortunately here it is. The light exhibits the same issue as seen with my first one except it now happens with the intellibeam mode. When turning it on it will activate for a fraction of a second and then turn off. Another click of the button does nothing. It needs to be cycled an additional time to get the light to turn back on. At first I thought this may be due to a battery that required charging. I have now tested it with several 18650's at varying states of charge. The issue happens randomly regardless of the state of charge of the battery.

As such I strongly discourage any professional users or individuals looking to purchase this light for a defensive purpose from purchasing it. I'm done wrangling with surefire and this light will be shifted to utility/recreational use only.

Very strange

I'm not sure if I missed this question, are you running SF 18650 cells?

If not what mfgr cells are you using?

You are very unlucky is all I can say. There is an excellent solicitor who presents a program on a radio station I listen too who specialises in consumer law. He always says if you have a problem getting satisfaction from a retailer or manufacturer do an internet search on the product in question and the specific problem you have. As he says if it's a common fault With that specific product it will be all over the net and put you in a strong position.

My intelibeam works great but thats no consolation to you.