How rough are you on your lights?

LEDBE
Brasso

Brasso

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
1,638
Location
Alabama
I see all these lights for sale or trade on the market place and I have to wonder if some people drag their lights behind their pickups down gravel roads. I have had lights that I carried and used daily for years and they still look new.

Just wondering. There are some that I want, but then I see the picture and I think...how the hell!
 
My duty lights are pretty banged/dinged up; they often impact doors, walls, the metal latch on seat belts, but no serious trauma. My EDC lights are pretty much immaculate. I usually carry in a holster, so they are well protected. I like to keep most of my possessions in new condition, so I go easy on my personal items.
 
I take care of my things, but I don't baby them.

I find it resonably hard to damage my lights, unless I accidentally drop them or something.

I'm still waiting for my EDC'ed LX2 to get some scars :naughty:
 
My most beat up lights are my AAA's that I keep on my keychains. The rest of my lights stay in good shape as I try to take care of them, but now and then in use there will be accidents and some of my lights have a ding here and there.
 
I don't baby mine either, but it appears that some people are going out of their way to abuse theirs. I mean, seriously, there's a Quark for sale right now that looks like a rabid weasel chewed on it. I just don't get it. My duty lights look better than it does.
 
rather then beat up lights it surprises me when people own several $500 lights and

NEVER USE THEM.

whats the point?

its dark, i need a light....oh dear, its at home, on a shelf :ohgeez:

id buy a beat up light over a pristine one in a heart beat and save $$

same light same output right?

scratch and dent matter not 1 bit.
 
The lights that are handy get used the most. The small LED lights are very handy, get picked up most often and will show wear. I try to take care of my tools but don't baby them. LED lights are rugged and can take a good bit of rough treatment. A light that sees daily use arround my house is a M30 Triton. It has a very useful beam and with aw18650s a long run time. It still looks new but a closer look showes it's not just sitting arround collecting dust.
Billy
 
My attitude towards my edcs is that these lights will be will be used, damaged, and at some point will become inoperable. At the same time I do not abuse them or perform "torture tests". My E1B was not cheap but I won't feel bad if it dies in the line of duty.

I manage commercial kitchens and that environment can be surprisingly rough on lights. The Microstream I edc at work has been dropped on tile floors several times and has had the finish bleached by harsh cleaning fluids. My E1B has a nice ding on the head from being dropped on bathroom floor tiles while I was changing a lighting fixture at home and has hit ashphalt a couple times while running errands.

When I buy a light that I know I'm going to use a lot it comes with the realization that it very well could be lost or broken as that comes with the territory.
 
I certainly don't baby my lights... But with an edc like my Ra Clicky I don't give a flying fart in space what harm comes to it...
I drop it almost daily onto tiles at the swimming pool when taking my pants off and it falls out of my pocket... It's one of the most ridiculously overbuilt lights ever an so it just doesn't enter my mind to be afraid of dropping it.
If and when I find a better edc to suit me I'll probaby sell this one, albeit for a lower price. To someone unlike yourself who prefers the shelfqueen look...
 
Well, I try to take good care of my lights, but I don't baby them cosmetically. The only harm a ding in a light will do is the resale value, and I'm investing for dividends, not futures, if you'll forgive the metaphor.

Tallying the lights I've got on or near me:
  • 4D Mag P7
    Out in my truck, so I can't inspect it right now, but I know the bezel's dinged from asphalt several places, the head has some anodize gone from rubbing on a LockBlocked light. Miscellaneous scuffs and dings all over from belt and truck service.
  • 3D MagRebel in 14670 MiniMag
    Actually surprisingly new-looking; I guess because it lives in a holster and stole a rubber grip from some cheap Garrity to match its Kroll switch. Only one dent worth mentioning, a light, but wide, depression right at the junction of the head and body, evidently where it fell on something.
  • Akoray K-106
    Serious pocket/knife wear, some concrete/asphalt dings on both ends.
  • Streamlight Microstream
    Pocket wear only.
  • 10mm DX fauxton w/ lighthound guts (on keyring)
    Ugly-as-homemade-sin weld marks, but those are original. ;) Surprisingly, no evidence of pocket/key wear.

Honestly, I'm surprised how good my EDC lights look. I guess I must be more careful than I mean to be...
 
My BM Mini-Grip has a blade that looks like I've scrapped it with a rock. The inside looks like I've used it to dig through dirt. It still works like new and holds an edge for weeks. I'm not babying the thing ever, I bought it to be a knife.

My EDC light (on topic now), an E1B wearing my E2DL tailcap, looks like I abuse it on purpose. I've never used it for anything but a light, however, day to day use has left it looking a little worn. The tailcap is so bad I probably couldn't get money for it. With the way the bezel looks I might not even be able to give it away. Luckily the body still looks good. With how wide and bezel and tailcap are it's saved the body.

The light I've used through out my time at the PD as my main light looks the same. It's a single mode E2DL with my E1B tailcap (a great tactical light, but too rare to destroy any further). It's somehow been worn from use.

My G2 is holding a UV LED until I can buy extra batteries and put the P60 back in. It will probably never be used until I sell it. It's the older style with the tailcap internals that fall out. Good for maintenance.

My GMG 6P also looks mint. It's holding an el cheapo DX LED to play around with. It's always going to be that way. Another 6P, which will be bored, is coming in to be my duty light in a few weeks. It's going to start taking the abuse.


I use mine when I can. I don't care if they all broke. I don't care if they are so worn you can't tell what they are. They are flashlights, and I'm too broke to not use them :)
 
WadeF said:
My most beat up lights are my AAA's that I keep on my keychains. The rest of my lights stay in good shape as I try to take care of them, but now and then in use there will be accidents and some of my lights have a ding here and there.
Click to expand...

Axactly like how i treat my lights.
 
I use my lights extensively, both for work, play and adventure.
Recently I managed to smash the glass lens in my Olight M30 :mecry: (currently I have the diffuser lens removed from the rubber mount and screwed in behind the strike bezel, actually works quite well).

My Fenix T1 has been to hell and back (and currently is undergoing major surgery with a LED transplant) :sick:

I managed to lend a really old and worn Mini Mag AA on my last trek and they lost it (the stories that unit could have told and the scars it had from my use on Active service in Cambodia in the early 90's) :sigh:

My current Petzl Tactikka XP headlamp strap is looking decidedly dirty from cam cream, sweat, mud, dust and bloody hard work :eek:

But my most battle scarred (not just dirty but fair wear and tear hard use) would be my 30 year old 6D (can they really be that old ? :wow: )
It is currently my "lives by the front door light" primary use NOT for illumination :twak:. Now fitted with a Terralux LED and glass lens (I am a sucker for smashing glass but what the heck, I hate scratched plastic lenses :crazy: )
This light could tell a million tales of legendary and true !

I have used it for everything from a crow bar to assisting laying wire rope on a winch drum, smashing glass from windows, a hammer, wheel chock and countless other tasks. It now has that fine petenna that only a fine piece of antique furniture could emulate :twothumbs


30year6dmag.jpg


Not the original head unit, replaced a couple of years ago due to the old one getting crushed whilst using as a lever to put new tracks on a bulldozer!
Replaced countless lenses/o-rings etc and now on second switch/driver unit. I think the only original part left is the tube itself !
 
Last edited:
I do not go out of my way to abuse my lights, but neither do I baby them. My EDC lights usually sit in my pockets along with keys, pens, coins, etc. If they get scratched or scuffed up along the way, it does not bother me. It might affect resale value but I usually do not plan to re-sell my lights. The ones I have sold on the Marketplace are usually quite heavily below retail to compensate for whatever character marks are on the lights. Overall, keeping them pristine is not a priority. I bought the lights to use them, after all. :twothumbs

Though admittedly, I do have a few Surefire E-series lights which are shelf queens... :whistle:
 
Pretty much all of the lights are in pretty newish condition but that's not because I don't use them. It is just that when you have more than enough flashlights to rotate a different one each day for more than month, it's hard to put enough wear on any one of them to really notice anything siginificant.

The only beat up ones I have are the E01 that I had on my keychain and a used E1E "teardrop' that I bought used. I've now put a Maratac AAA (I've found it after I couldn't find it for a week) on my keychain and gave the E01 to my friend.
 
When I read threads like this, I feel like such a wuss. I have to admit I baby my lights.

My E01 is beat up from being on my keys, but that's why its there and my Arc is not...didn't want to beat up the Arc. I won't even put coins in my pocket if my BitZ is in there. It rides with the chapstick, and coins go in the other pocket. My Perfy Tibaby goes in the little coin pocket so it can't scratch up my lights in the regular jeans pocket. I have a couple lights that I don't mind too much if they get scratched, but they rarely do.

Thing is, I love the way well used lights look, and I know that many of my lights are definitely tough enough to take some abuse, I just don't have the heart to do it. Or the ones I do allow to take some abuse are the ones I don't usually carry, so no one sees the battle scars. I would love to be able to whip out my Milky L4 and show off a scar from some adventure we had (love that light), but instead I am so careful not to grind it against things or drop it. And if any light is going to take abuse, it will be that one!

Yep, I'm a wuss. I use em but sure don't abuse em. :eek:

And, cue the guy who will now offer to take my lights and scar em up a bit and send em back so I no longer have to be afraid of scuffing them...10...9...8...7...:p
 
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