My TerraLUX TLE-6EX MiniStar5 Exploded!

[Unbreakable]

Taking the advise of some forum members here I purchased a TerraLUX TLE-6EX for my 6 D cell Maglite. The thing was awesome. I was installing a ceiling fan for my girlfriend and had to cut the power in her bed room. So I drug out my new hot-roded maglite to assist me. I set it on her dresser (Which is wood) and turned it on. Wired up the fan and turned the power back on and forgot about the light. Within about 2 hours total runtime... I smell elctrical smoke. At first I thought it was the fan and something was burning up... So I watched the fan for about 5 minutes to see if I could smoke... Nothing. After 5 minutes I could only smell a faint remains of the smoke... as I turned around I saw my maglite... the bezel was full of gray smoke and the poor little LED was hanging down. WTF? I thought these things were supposed to run for 25 hours on a full tank and last 10s of thousands of hours. What should I do. Will Battery Juntion warranty it or do I need to contact it's manufacturer? I was very dissapointed in this first trial.

 

[orcinus]

LED's (as any mostly other piece of semiconductor electronics) are sensitive to high temperatures. And modern, high-powered LED's dissipate A LOT of heat. Without a proper heat sink, things get ugly pretty soon.

Now, one would think a 6D Mag is a pretty huge heat sink, but the thing is, the head is pretty much thermally isolated from the body of the flashlight. And without your body (hand) to help draw the heat away, it probably overheated and broke down the LED.

 

[Unbreakable]

Ok... so now what? I'm I just SOL or can I add a heat sink to my light? Does anyone make like a collar or slip on heat sink for a Maglite? Does anyone know if these things have a warranty?

 

[Norm]

Return it for warranty replacement, that's not supposed to happen.
Norm

 

[orcinus]

What Norm said.
Sorry, i dunno what i was thinking... I just took a look at the thing and that's one BIG honking block of metal the LED's sitting on.

Just BTW, what did you mean by "the poor little LED was hanging down"?
(just being curious)

 

[StarHalo]

The TerraLUX drop-ins run right at the threshold high temperature for the LED, in fact they're actually a little dimmer than they could be because they get so hot it drops the output slightly. Odds aren't too bad if you were to leave it running indefinitely in an area with little or no airflow, something would eventually go wrong; this is why runtime testing is always done in front of a fan. But there's obviously no way to deduce if it was caused by a defect in the drop-in, so you should be able to return it for a new one.

I know with my TLE-300, when you install it you have to first screw it into the socket all the way and then unscrew/raise the Mag head until it touches the bottom of the drop-in, so it sinks properly. If the head screwed down so that it wasn't touching the drop-in, there'd suddenly be no heatsinking, which would definitely cause a meltdown..

 

[WadeF]

I just took a look at the thing and that's one BIG honking block of metal the LED's sitting on.

Sure you're looking at the right produce? The TerraLUX TLE-6EX's don't have much heat sinking material, hardly a BIG honking block of metal. They have shown to have pretty poor heat sinking, unlike something like the Malkoff drop-ins, or similar builds, where you actually have a BIG honking block of metal that makes contact with the flashlight's housing that actually properly heat sinks. I had trouble with two TerraLUX 6EXB's, one would turn angry blue quickly, the other (the replacement) has problems too. My 3rd unit works pretty well, but I don't run it for long periods of time. I could see how leaving one run in a 6D Mag, which is the high end of what the drop-in is rated for, could cause it to over heat. It maybe defective, but even if it shouldn't do that I wouldn't leave mine run for that long in fear of a melt down.

My TerraLUX units get so hot they could probably burn me, too hot to hold for sure.

They are nice for the price, but if you need long run times I'd go with a Malkoff drop-in or something similar.

 

[orcinus]

I definitely need to get some sleep
Yeah, i've been looking at the wrong thing. This thing's original-bulb-sized, right? So my initial post stands after all.

 

[Unbreakable]

They are nice for the price, but if you need long run times I'd go with a Malkoff drop-in or something similar.

Thanks for the advice. That's why I bought the stupid thing... because I wanted something in the 150 lumen range that could run for around 20 to 30 hours. Guess I picked the wrong horse. I'll check out the Malkoff.

 

[BigD64]

Replace the plastic reflector with an aluminum one. It will sink better.