Is the BLF A6 reliable?
I see Recommendations to Convoy flashlights in this site. Are they good?
Right now the BLF A6 looks the best, but I heard few bad reviews that it didn't work at all, or was missing O-ring that made the lens fall and break.
I have two
BLF A6 flashlights, and one
Astrolux S1. Other than a couple of drops onto the kitchen floor, I have not given them hard use. I have holsters for them that I use when they are carried in my daypack.
One of my A6 flashlights arrived with only 6 out of 7 output modes working. The sub-lumen Moonlight mode would not work, but all 6 of the other modes did. At no charge, the vendor sent me a replacement head.
I was fortunate to later have the assistance of an experienced flashlight modder. When we dismantled the "broken" head, we found nothing wrong with it. Its Moonlight mode was not working, but the explanation my friend eventually settled on was that natural variation in 7135 chips was the culprit. Those chips are running on their lowest settings for Moonlight modes. There can be significant variation from one chip to another. Evidently, mine was not outputting enough current to turn on the LED.
The maker of the A6 and S1 is Manker. Frankly, the A6 had more than its fair share of issues initially, so there were some complaints. You can, for instance, see photos of poor solder joints if you review the A6 threads at BLF. The overwhelming majority of buyers, however, got working lights.
The Astrolux S1 came later. It is the exact same flashlight as the A6. Only the name is changed. Because the S1 came after the A6, the lessons learned making the A6 have been implemented on the S1, and also on later runs of the A6.
I am comfortable recommending either the A6 or the S1. I do not have any experience, however, using them in high-shock environments such as what you get with a bicycle-mounted flashlight. The A6 has springs on both ends of the battery, so it might fare well on a bicycle, but I have never tested it there. I recall reading that others have used the A6 successfully on a bicycle.
Are the A6 and S1 as dependable as my
ZebraLight SC62w, a flashlight which uses potted electronics? I doubt it.
I cannot speak from personal experience about the dependability of Convoy flashlights. As yet, I have never owned one. The folks who do, reporting both here and at BLF, have only praise. Based on that, I am comfortable recommending Convoy. As Ven points out, beware of fakes.
