How to unfog a lense (Nitecore D10)

[liquidsix]

The other night, to acheive a cool effect I dropped my D10 into a glass of water while it was turned on and fully tightened. It wasn't in there long (5-10 minutes) and now the lense is fogged up from the inside (Waterproof to IPX-8 standard? I don't think mine is.)

Does anyone have any advice for unfogging this thing? Should I just leave the head off for a long time? Should I leave it lense up or down or on it's side? Or should I just try to send it back (last resort)? After all it didn't nearly live up to its specs in this case right?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[kramer5150]

I did that on a Nuwai Energizer 1AA. I just took the head off and heated it, the switch and body tube inside with a hair drier. It suffered a bad flicker condition from the water. After drying it its been working fine for several months. My wife uses it every night, to help conserve electricity.

Unless it specifically is designed to be a dive-rated submersible light, I generally disregard waterproofing claims. Crazy as it is... my ONLY decently water resistant, dunk-proof light is a $12 Nuwai river-rock. (the funky moon-beam one). I have had this light down to 5-6 feet for 2-3 hour stretches and it survived fine, and the switch is fully functional while submerged. I have dunked my 6P, but I don't really consider it functionally submersible since the switch cap will leak when rotated.

 

[yaesumofo]

Re: How to unplug a license (Nitecore D10)

You will have to take the light apart and dry it out.
I believe the D10 comes apart by loosening the driver board. It unscrews and backs out of the head. use a pair of needle nose pliers and grip the slots in the brass ring and turn counter clockwise until the whole thing is loose and comes out. do not touch the reflector surface and once loose protect it from dust. there is an O-ring in front of the lens. take the lens out. Note how it comes out because there may be a coating on one side of the front glass. be careful of how you clean this lens.

Use care.
There may be more to it. I do not know because I have not taken my light apart. If you have some canned air it wouldn't hurt to blow off any dust that may have accumulated during the time the light was apart. I hate dust in my lights or on mu reflectors.


Allow the driver board to dry completely. A blow dryer just blowing air no heat, for a few hours should do it. Low heat is ok but NOT high. remember you are just trying to dry the driver out not melt it.

When dry (several hours) reassemble. make sure the O-ring is correctly seated.
re lube the body (piston) and body O-ring.
Good luck.
Yaesumofo

The other night, to achieve a cool effect I dropped my D10 into a glass of water while it was turned on and fully tightened. It wasn't in there long (5-10 minutes) and now the license is fogged up from the inside (Waterproof to IPX-8 standard? I don't think mine is.)

Does anyone have any advice for unfogging this thing? Should I just leave the head off for a long time? Should I leave it lense up or down or on it's side? Or should I just try to send it back (last resort)? After all it didn't nearly live up to its specs in this case right?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[tricker]

The other night, to acheive a cool effect I dropped my D10 into a glass of water while it was turned on and fully tightened. It wasn't in there long (5-10 minutes) and now the lense is fogged up from the inside (Waterproof to IPX-8 standard? I don't think mine is.)

Does anyone have any advice for unfogging this thing? Should I just leave the head off for a long time? Should I leave it lense up or down or on it's side? Or should I just try to send it back (last resort)? After all it didn't nearly live up to its specs in this case right?

Thanks in advance guys.

i had the same problem....left the head off for 2 days, then turned on high for about 15 minutes(to evaporate anything left) and removed head again for a few hours......works like new

 

[hyperloop]

havent had the need to try this, but if my lights got moisture in them, i would try disassembling it and putting it in a sealed plastic container with some packets of silica gel (the kind that you can get at camera stores) to absorb the moisture.

Read somewhere else that this guy put his mobile phone in a container of raw rice after he dropped it in the toilet (the theory was that rice absorbs moisture).

Think the silica gel method sounds more plausible but thankfully havent needed to try it yet. If you do try it and it works, please post.

cheers

 

[9x23]

I dunked my EX10 in lukewarm water and in about 5-10 minutes it fogged up, and stayed that way for 3 days before I sent it back to 4sevens and it was replaced. The light still worked but the fogged lense made for a flood beam. If I knew how to take it apart back then I would have done so and aired it out myself but ended up sending it back under warranty. On that light I believe the water came through the front bezel/lense and not the body o-rings since it appeared dry in the battery compartment. If you decided to take it apart I would also recommend that you run it under a no-heat hair dryer until it appeared dry, and then leave it apart for a few days afterwards in a dry environment to bring it to "normal" room temperature before assembling. Also, make sure the o-rings are installed properly at the lense/bezel when reassembling. Good luck!

9x23

 

[Kilovolt]

I don't have a D10 yet but in my EX10 the ring that holds down the lens can be unscrewed from the outside using rubber gloves. You can then just take out the lens and let the inside dry out.


BTW it comes back to my mind that I learned about it here

 

[kts]

If this had been a Fenix, ppl would have said "send it back for a refund"

The more I read about D10 & EX10 makes me happy I didnt fall for the hype :shakehead

My P2D has been dunked several times, and never fogged up in any way.

 

[WildChild]

My first one fogged up behind the lens when I blowed cool air to clean dust on it. It left a stain after everything evaporated.

 

[Kilovolt]

As Meuge discovered there's no gasket/o-ring between lens and reflector.:shakehead

I keep my EX10 well away from the water...

 

[Illum]

what happens is the air was humid to a certain degree during the assembly of the light...what you did was throw a cold plate into a hot and humid room, resulting in condensation, once that condensation mixes with the coating/oil on your window...it becomes annoying because the stain will remain indefinitely even after you managed to dry it out

so far the lights I own that has the "fog"
Fenix P1-CE [permanently stained]
Fenix L2P v1[permanently stained]
Fenix L0D-CE [non Q4]
Surefire A2
Surefire KL4-BK

some reason only fenix lights have a left over residue...I think theres a coating of some sort that managed to interact with water.

 

[litetube]

Can anyone confirm what Yaesumofo describes for opening the D10 head?
Searching I cant find anything. Figured someone would have figured this out by now being CPF. NC mentions a "special" tool to do it but how "special " could it be? The only slots I see in the ring is the split in the ring.

 

[brucec]

As Meuge discovered there's no gasket/o-ring between lens and reflector.:shakehead

I keep my EX10 well away from the water...

Really? I have two EX10's and they both have o-rings. And in the proper place too... However, one bezel ring had a bad bur that had to be filed smooth. Perhaps water could enter through the o-ring if there was uneven pressure from the bezel.

 

[Kilovolt]

There's a mistake in my post above: actually I meant there's no o-ring between glass and bezel while there is a very thin one under the glass. In my case this o-ring was badly installed and some of it was under the reflector. In any case as Meuge explains in his description here the assembly appears to be not sufficiently tight.

BTW after unscrewing by hand the bezel the lens, the reflector and then the whole light engine come out of the front.

 

[PhotonBoy]

After taking the light apart, another way to dry it out is to place it on top of a electrical device like a CRT PC monitor overnight. It's amazing how quickly this will dry things. You might want to wrap it lightly in a paper towel to protect it from dust.

 

[liquidsix]

Alright thanks guys. Its been a couple days and the lense looks like it's back to normal. I left the head off of the body, lense up, and sat it on a crevas so that airflow could get through the head. Luckily it didn't stain, the lense but I'm going to leave it out longer just in case. I hope there's no moisture lying dormant somewhere in the head. If it comes to it then I'll take yaesumofo's advice and try take the head apart (Surgery!)

If I had a CRT display I'd definitely try sitting it on top of that for a while too!