How the L1d has held up

[Cornkid]

Hey guys; it has been a while since I've been on the forums. College has been pretty intense!

I bought my Fenix L1d a few years ago, and have used it fairly regularly. (2 or so hours / week) Unfortunately, it's starting to show signs of wear and tear that I didn't expect. For one, if I'm running and the light is on its lower settings, the light flickers, and in some cases even completely turns off! I think that is largely due to the battery jumping up and down off of the contacts. This never really was a problem for me up until fairly recently, but it is very annoying. The threads arent as sharp as they used to be which makes screwing it together a bit of a challenge, but it's still manageable.
Other then that, I'm finding that the lanyard is holding well and the clicky is like new.

Although my L2's clip broke off, and my L1 has a few significant dents.. they have been holding out as well.

I am starting to look for another light, something i can carry in my camera bag when I go out to do some digital photography. The iconLights by PK look pretty nice. I think I might look into those..

Tom

 

[LightWalker]

Hey guys; it has been a while since I've been on the forums. College has been pretty intense!

I bought my Fenix L1d a few years ago, and have used it fairly regularly. (2 or so hours / week) Unfortunately, it's starting to show signs of wear and tear that I didn't expect. For one, if I'm running and the light is on its lower settings, the light flickers, and in some cases even completely turns off! I think that is largely due to the battery jumping up and down off of the contacts. This never really was a problem for me up until fairly recently, but it is very annoying. The threads arent as sharp as they used to be which makes screwing it together a bit of a challenge, but it's still manageable.
Other then that, I'm finding that the lanyard is holding well and the clicky is like new.

Although my L2's clip broke off, and my L1 has a few significant dents.. they have been holding out as well.

I am starting to look for another light, something i can carry in my camera bag when I go out to do some digital photography. The iconLights by PK look pretty nice. I think I might look into those..

Tom

Have you tried cleaning the contacts and streching out the clickie spring a little?

 

[burntoshine]

you definitely need to clean the contacts and threads with alcohol. first use a pink pencil eraser to clean the positive and negative contacts on the head; then use alcohol. don't forget to relube your o-rings. every once in a while take the o-rings off, clean the grooves and o-rings, evenly apply lube to the grooves, put the o-rings back on (also using a toothpick or something similar, while the o-ring is in the groove, stick the toothpick between the o-ring and groove, rotate the toothpick around so as to more evenly distribute the lube), now take the excess lube (using a tiny regular screw driver or something similar) and spread it around the o-ring. this will ensure that lube is in all the places it needs to be. there should be a moderate amount of lube over the o-ring. when you're done with everything, put a fresh battery in, put the head back fully, then back off the head to where you can see a little bit of the o-ring. now turn it tight again just enough to where you can't see the o-ring anymore. now take a q-tip and wipe off any excess lube. apply some pressure with the q-tip to the space between the head and body so as to get all of the lube out of there.

...wipe the light clean and you should be good to go.

i use q-tips to get the threads clean. putting some alcohol on the q-tips can help with that too.

for lubrication on the o-rings, i use 'silicone grease' - available in the plumbing department at lowe's, home depot, and most hardware stores. it's a small, flat, plastic container. click here <--- that's what i use

flickering is almost always caused by a poor connection.

if you haven't done any maintenance on your light, you're well overdue.

hope this helps.

happy lighting!

 

[richardcpf]

The iconLights by PK look pretty nice.

They would be a downgrade from your current L1D.

Just look at this:

Your L1D is at least twice as bright/efficient combined.

If you want a nice AA flashlight to repolace your L1D, you could get the Fenix LD10, Nitecore D10 or the Quark AA.

 

[burntoshine]

Cornkid, i just realized your join date and how many posts you have; perhaps you already know and tried everything i mentioned.

hope you figure it out; either way, it's about time you get a couple new lights.

good luck!

 

[Cornkid]

Thanks RichardCpf for that chart; i dont think ill even be considering the iconLight anymore.

LightWalker & BurnToShine: I have tried all of the methods described and get similar results. I'll keep trying, and hopefully resolve these problems.

Currently I'm looking into the 4sevens quark series; they look promising. The new saint minimus looks pretty amazing as well. I just hope it supports rechargeable batts.

Tom

 

[LightWalker]

Thanks RichardCpf for that chart; i dont think ill even be considering the iconLight anymore.

LightWalker & BurnToShine: I have tried all of the methods described and get similar results. I'll keep trying, and hopefully resolve these problems.

Currently I'm looking into the 4sevens quark series; they look promising. The new saint minimus looks pretty amazing as well. I just hope it supports rechargeable batts.

Tom

The Quark lights are good lights, I dropped one of mine head first onto concrete last night and it only suffered some small nicks.

 

[burntoshine]

i agree; the quarks are nice. i ended up selling mine because i recently decided i no longer like cool white tints upon owning a couple neutral whites.

i was tempted to get a neutral white quark, but they're sold out of the single AA. then i thought about getting the neutral tactical AA (still in stock), but for some reason i went with the Fenix TK20. i guess i just wanted a beefier neutral for outdoorsy stuff.

a quark might be your best bet. it has a great low (moonmode) and the user interface is exactly the same as the fenix L1D. plus it has a reversible/removable clip! i don't know anything about the pk icon lights.

whatever you get, i say stick with a single AA light.

just my thoughts.

 

[carrot]

People are strangely biased against the IconLights. Don't feel like getting into it now but they are specially designed to regulate that way.

 

[DimeRazorback]

Don't the ICON lights go back to full power everytime you turn them on...

Ie. the output starts to drop, turn it off. Turn it back on and it is at full brightness.

I think that is a smart way to conserve batteries, but still maintain high output.