Well I have only just received two new EC1's just over an hour ago now, and I must say that I am not very impressed at all. After unpacking them and initially thinking that they looked so much nicer in real life and that I can't wait to try them out, I am now bitterly disappointed as they are both faulty and now need to be sent back. This situation is made even worse by the fact that I live in Australia and because they are not yet available here at all I had to purchase them from an authorised Nitecore dealer in the USA, and because it is now already dark here by the time that my wife gets home from work and then takes our two dogs for their nightly walk, and so for this reason I had wanted to get her one ASAP for her immediate use, and so I paid an extra $50 to have them both shipped over here by using USPS Express International. I had decided to ship them this way so that not only would my wife have one to use a lot sooner for her safety, but also because of the fact that they would be protected against any loss or damage sustained whilst in transit by the included USPS Express insurance cover, however now we are left in the position where not only will we now have to be without the lights for an extended period of time, but also the fact that the $50 we have already just spent on the expedited shipping may have just as very well been thrown in the rubbish bin, and even worse we are also now going to have to pay for them to be shipped back again for a warranty claim.
When I had first decided to purchase these, just as I usually always do I had specifically decided against either buying a cheap inferior quality item or buying something for a considerably lesser price from one of the various possibly unauthorised internet sellers (you most probably all know which place that I am referring to), and so not only did I decide to buy a supposed good quality and so called "respected" brand, but I also even went one step further than this by only purchasing them from an authorised dealer, not that all of this has seemed to have done me any good. What I would now really like to know is what's up with Nitecore and the fact that it appears as though there is either very little or no quality control whatsoever, nor does there appear to be any period of reliability testing carried out on any of their new products prior to them actually releasing them for sale to the unsuspecting public.
One of these lights only very partially works and the other one does not work at all, well just to be 100% accurate the red LED light is still able to be lit up on the otherwise totally non-functional light but that is the only thing that will work on it. The screws for the clip are also very loose and with no real way to effectively tighten them due to the fact that the clip totally covers the heads of the screws, and because of the extremely narrow size of the slots in it the only type of screwdriver that would fit in through them would only be a minuscule sized jewellers one which would then not be able to grip the philips screw heads properly due to the fact that it is about ten sizes too small for the intended job. It would then end up turning inside the slots and it would therefore most probably ruin the heads of the screws therefore making it impossible to either tighten or remove them at any future time.
Also when I compare the two reflectors of each light to each other there is a rather large difference in between the quality of them, as one is both very nicely formed and virtually as shiny as a mirror and the other one is not. Both of the LED's are far from being centred however the one in the "ATNFL" (Almost Totally Non-Functional Light) is so extremely bad that if it was centred any worse the LED would be actually touching the reflector on one side. As to the exact problem that causes them to actually not function correctly, it appears that in the "PFL" (Partially Functional Light) that if it is fitted with any primary CR123 that measures 3 volts or under it will not work at all, and I have quadruple checked this by not only using several different brands of battery (Surefire, Energizer Lithium, Tenergy, Titanium Innovations and Eagle Tac) but I have also tested them first by using four different DMM's, yet all with the same end result of the "PFL" not functioning at all. It does appear to function whenever I either use a primary CR123 that has a reading of at least 3.2 volts or if I was to use a fully recharged RCR123 with a reading of 4.18 volts.
I have also tried exactly the same thing with the "ATNFL" but it will not even work at all (except for the red LED that is) with any of the many different primary CR123's or rechargeable RCR123's that I have tried in it no matter how high their voltage was. I will also add that I have not even tried to contact the US dealer that I purchased them from yet because even though it is not their fault at all and I do not blame them for it in any way, I do know that even if I was to contact them that the chances are that I would most probably still have to pay for the rather high international shipping costs of returning both the lights, and just to leave an even far worse taste in my mouth we would also end up being without them for a very minimum of one month and much more likely even several months. I have since decided to contact the local distributor about it and he appears to be going above and beyond the call of duty and he has also been most helpful as due to the circumstances he has very kindly offered to contact the manufacturer on my behalf about all of the problems, and he has kindly offered that I may be able to quite possibly ship the lights to him directly thus saving me some further unnecessary costs, which is something that I truly do appreciate if in fact the situation does eventuate. Unfortunately for me and my wife this will still mean that we will be without them for a very extended amount of time!
Overall this has not been a very uplifting experience to say the very least, as I had originally been quite excited and enthusiastic earlier this morning when I first knew that they were going to arrive, however any positive feelings that I had were VERY short lived and the whole thing has really sort of ruined my day to a certain degree. The worst part about all of this is that it could have all been so easily averted if the manufacturer in question had bothered to make certain that they were supplying the general public with a product that was fit to be used for it's intended purpose before it even left their doors however this appears not to have been done in any way shape or form, and actually getting a well made and fully functional light is much more akin to a "lucky dip", and because of this I will be extremely hesitant to ever purchase a Nitecore product (or their sister brands) ever again. I possess many many lights of different brands and different types and thankfully this sort of scenario doesn't seem to happen very often, touch wood. I also happen to own several very nice JETBeam's and as a matter of fact I even own a Nitecore TM11 however I am quite sure that I don't have to tell anyone about all the various problems that many people have had with this particular light as well.
Also I would really like to apologise for my post being so long but I wanted to try and make absolutely certain that I had included all of the relevant details and that I was also being 100% factual whilst doing so, and I have mainly gone to all this trouble just to let people know what has happened so that hopefully others will be able to avoid being unnecessarily placed in to a similar most unfortunate situation. Lastly and most importantly I will just say that somebody definitely needs to get their act together!
Sincerely Yours
Phil Ament (DNO, SHPAB) :wave:
Disgruntled Nitecore Owner
Should Have Purchased Another Brand