LED Flashlight Failures: Your Story?

[CPFBiology]

Have you ever had flashlight failures or your flashlight stop working for no apparent reason? If so, which flashlight was it, and what happened? When did it happen-the day you received it in the mail, a year of service later?

1) Ultrafire CreeLED flashlight, takes 2AA. Ran it for 20 minutes, then stopped working. Purchased from DX.

2) Another DX flashlight, Hugbsy (sp?). Dropped from 1m height, flashlight stopped working after that.

 

[Monocrom]

In general, it's best to avoid DX if you want a light that will actually last.

In particular, it's best to avoid Ultrafire if you want a light that'll actually work reliably.

 

[don.gwapo]

Not yet, even my lights sustain numerous falls from work they still works.

 

[yellow]

just the time white led started to be useful for illumination, I used DX lights as host for projects.
So I got (and still get) quite a bunch of them ... thats where my "two thirds" rule comes from:

when they look good on the pics (= the threads might be of a quality I wont get bored immediately), the failure rate is a good:
1st third immediately, plus
2nd third while doing a few "test runs" to work them in (or they are "rejected" because of tint, or ...)
so the last third remains "acceptable"

... but that was be4 Fenix and their comparable competitors completely stomped the market,
and I NEVER had a Fenix, Jetbeam, Quark, Inova,..., fail.

 

[mcnair55]

I have been totally done in every time with these DX type lights and would not go near one for all the tea in China,nothing but heartache on each and every one,ok for messing in the house with but for work when they fall off car ramps etc total rubbish.(my opinion only I hasten to note)

My first non DX was my Microstream,still running like a train after 3 years hard use and it was even only less than £10 including the post from the US,about £8.49 if my memory serves me correct.

I think now I am a big Fenix fan.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

I had one of the Naithawk Damascus Dear123 lights for no reason within the first 20 min of ownership (and that light was expensive) but the customer service was great and they had a new one in my hands in a week. Thats the only LED light that has straight failed on me. Luckily it was just while I was on the sofa playing with it and not in the forest somewhere. (although I wouldnt have taken a damascus flashlight in the woods in the first place)

 

[^Gurthang]

Lets see:

Numerous M@Gs, bulb popped at inopportune moment...

MiniM@Gs, ditto

Cheap-@$$ "shower-head" LEDs [AAA], yes I bought them before I knew better.... Switch failures galore... or they just fell apart.

My modded M@Gs, LFs, SolarForce, and even DX [after some TLC]... NO failures after drops, whacks into doors, trees, etc.

 

[Flying Turtle]

My only real failures were self-induced. Managed to cross thread the tailcap on a Dorcy 3AAA and allowed a battery leak to partly disable an old Dorcy 1AA. All the better lights have held up fine.

Geoff

 

[etherealshade]

Lost a Maglite 3D LED to leaky cells, a Deerelight CL1H v4 to crappy tailcap threads which wore away to nothing, and a Fenix L2D got locked into Turbo only due to the head welding itself to the body somehow. No amount of persuasion would budge it. Everything else I've used has been fine.

 

[kramer5150]

40% of my DX purchases were DOA.
My inova X1-V2 died from a waist high fall onto concrete.
Old Fulton anglehead switch is intermittent... but its over 30 years old.

 

[swxb12]

I failed my LED PR-bulb replacement in one of my house lights. It stopped putting out usable light, most likely due to batteries inserted the wrong way. I've been careful with every light since, even ones that have protection built-in.

I still use alkaline batteries in some house lights. More fail waiting to happen. :green: - A good excuse to pick up some of those Costco Eneloop packs while they last...And maybe a Sunway M40A to keep them refreshed...and a TK40 as a backup to the uh, Sunway. Yea...

 

[HeadCSO]

Maybe I've been lucky. I've never had a light fail, either DOA or in use.

 

[mossyoak]

2 Arc-zero failures
3 HDS- zero failures
6 Mcgizmos- zero failures
7 Surefires- zero failures
2 Muyshondt- zero failures
1 Peak- zero failures
10 Princeton Tec- zero failures
I dont have all these anymore but ive been pretty lucky
And they all have a common place of manufacture

 

[wyager]

Before I knew about expensive lights, they all failed from use. The only good light to really fail me was my maratac AAA, and it only failed partially. Sadly, it was during a moment of important use... But I had a new one a few days after I sent it in. Now it works fine. My fenix only ever failed me because the switch retaining ring had come loose.

 

[awid]

akoray k-106

put a 14500 in it.

went on for .5 sec

dead.

 

[Jash]

Two Nitecores have had issues. One is at the factroy as we type, the other is pending judgement. Not very happy considering the price of them.

On a survival story though, my son's led maglite got dropped off the veranda onto concrete yesterday (about 2.5 metres) and apart from the scratches it works just fine.

 

[Buckley]

My Lumapower Encore was DOA. BatteryJunction promptly refunded the purchase price, but I still got stuck for nearly $10 in shipping.

 

[mega_lumens]

The only (temporary) flashlight failure I had experienced so far is directly attributed to a leaky duracell alkaline AA. My, original, Fenix E01 worked for 3 years on a single battery. I got the stuck leaky cell out of it, but that process resulted in slight damage at the threading. Needless to say, this E01 is still working like a tank on a new cell. This experience has elevated my trust and respect for Fenix lights.

 

[red02]

1 Dereelight - 0 failures
1 Quark - 1 failure.
5 LRI Freedoms - 0 failures; 1 thrown out because due to my mistake, 2 lost. Original Freedom still works perfectly at 2+yrs.
2 Surefires - 0 failures
3 Zebralights - 1 failure, the replacement (no. 3 works), 1 lost.
1 Fenix - 0 failures
1 NDI - 1 failure out of the box.

 

[tolkaze]

3 DX failures
1 Quark failure (operator error - Too much power for far too long with no heatsinking! )
1 not really failure with a Novatac. Had been using it for nearly a year on very low... one day it just didn't work. I kinda took a while to realise that I had to finally replace the original battery