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grnamin said:
My brother asked me to help him check his KL4 (on L4) for the presence of gaskets. Looked like the gaskets were in place. Did the blow test for peace of mind. Bubbles! I opened up the KL4 with rubber bands for grip. Sure enough, there were two gaskets present, but it still failed the blow test anyway. I replaced the gaskets with an O-ring. Good to go now. I would suggest that KL4 owners who can see the gaskets are in place should do a blow test anyway just in case.
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Grnamin
That is excellent advice. I did the same thing, but used a "too thick" o ring which I powerfully compressed and then gave the L4 a pretty rough water test. I turned it on but purposely didn't tighten the Z52 (my preference) to its max because I wanted to lightly "encourage" a leak if it was going to leak. I was able to test to about 2-2.5 feet (after my initial 8" sink test) but it was a fairly brutal test. I swooshed the L4 through the water at high speeds at every conceiveable angle, purposely banged it quite hard repeatedly against the metal sides and bottom of the old fashioned deep tub, banged, knocked and swooshed it at all angles and speeds, all this repeatedly over the course of the regulated hour (approximately).
It passed the test with flying colors. Dry as a bone in all observable interiors and no condensation whatever behind the (gasketed)lens. I plan to re-Loctite the lenscap and I've even toyed with the idea of putting a very thin o-ring at the base of the threads that accept the lenscap. I thought I'd ask FlashLightLens about UCL but decided to stick with Pyrex.
I gave it this rough test because if I can't count on the KL4 when the chips are down (if it becomes my EDC) than I'll relegate it to home and near home use. My EDC lights double as both general purpose and "what if" lights and they have to meet my stringent requirements which I formed after my experiences on 9/11.
Brightnorm
