My P3D has died an early death

[faucon]

I set my P3D on a hotel night table in the "candle" position, and accidentally knocked it over onto its side. It's never been dropped before, and it's been lightly used. The light never left the table. Now it will only switch on about half the time or less. When it won't come on, sometimes shaking it vigorously, like a thermometer, will cause it to light up. All of the modes are still there if it happens to come on---I'm just never sure whether it will or not when I click it. I can't find any obvious external or internal damage. Needless to say, it's unreliable and therefore useless to me now. I'm disappointed that this particular Fenix light seems to be so fragile---at least mine was.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

See if its just the switch that got broken. Short the negative battery terminal to the bare aluminum light body at the bottom of the light with the witch removed. Switches tend to be the most fragile part for many lights.
How long ago did you buy it? Contact your dealer you bought it from, most of the good ones we like around here will likely exchange it if it's obviously not beat up or torn apart.

 

[Zeruel]

It shouldn't be. There has been threads substantiating the abuse P3D can take. Even mine fell 6 feet and it has no problem although the result is a scratch on the bezel. You should contact your Fenix dealer....

 

[LightWalker]

Try tightening the retaining ring in the tailcap. I have dropped several Fenix lights and they all still work well.

Change batteries at the head end to prevent loosening the retaining ring in the tailcap.

 

[qip]

#1 cause of a fenix death , tailcap retaining ring oversight

do you change batteries by the head or tail , when changing by the tail everytime you tighten and loosen the tailcap the retaining ring may move loose ever so little and one day it becomes flickery due to loose connection

change batteries by the head and you never have to worry about the tail getting loose anymore

this pbs announcement has been brought to you by the good samaritans of cpf sponsored by fenix :nana:

 

[Patriot]

I never thought about that. Good tip. :thumbsup:

 

[faucon]

Thanks for the tips. My light is from the original batch of P3Ds, so it's a couple of years old. I usually open my P3D through the head, but I also seldom check the tailcap to see if it's firmly tightened. Sure enough, it was a tiny bit short of fully engaged. Tightening the tailcap really firmly seems to have solved the problem. I was sure something must have broken when it fell, since it worked fine up until then. But by loosening the tail a minuscule amount last night, I was able to pretty much replicate the hit-or-miss problem I was having. I'll see if I can tighten the retaining ring, too, just in case it might have contributed to the problem.

 

[Woods Walker]

#1 cause of a fenix death , tailcap retaining ring oversight

do you change batteries by the head or tail , when changing by the tail everytime you tighten and loosen the tailcap the retaining ring may move loose ever so little and one day it becomes flickery due to loose connection

change batteries by the head and you never have to worry about the tail getting loose anymore

this pbs announcement has been brought to you by the good samaritans of cpf sponsored by fenix :nana:

Or just tighten the ring. There are two points on the ring for this.