Power outage and my Tiablo A9 died

[BGater]

We have been covered in ice for the last 4 days, power has been on and off constantly. The other night I was outside looking over the power lines around the farm to see what the ice thickness was and my A9 went out. No flicker, no dimming, just out. Put in a fresh 18650, nothing. Tried RCR123's and 123 energizer liths, nothing. Cleaned the contacts, tried jumping from the battery - to the body, nothing. What a bummer , the first real test at it let me down. Waiting on a return email from Lighthound to see where it needs to go for repair.

My wife said to me "well, is the love affair over ?" . Just because I sleep with it under my pillow........sheesh.

 

[Alan B]

That is most unfortunate, now she'll understand why you need a couple of backups...

-- Alan

 

[Oddjob]

It's the worst when it happens at such an inopportune time:sigh:. It's also bad because we tend to emphasize the reliablity and durablity of a light as justification of the price we pay for some of these lights (at least I do sometimes). Ceratainly non-flashohllics would have more reason to mock us when something like this happens.

 

[fieldops]

It's the worst when it happens at such an inopportune time:sigh:. It's also bad because we tend to emphasize the reliablity and durablity of a light as justification of the price we pay for some of these lights (at least I do sometimes). Ceratainly non-flashohllics would have more reason to mock us when something like this happens.

A good time for a new motto.......Don't just buy both, Bring both!!

 

[PhantomPhoton]

I have nightmares about such things. I feel your pain.

Loosing face in front of a wonderful wife probably didn't help much either. I wish you better luck in future flashlight playtimes. I wouldn't worry too much though, Lighthound will make it right.

 

[Akita]

Bummer

Wives tend to blow these things completely out of proportion and rub it in for a minimum of like twenty years...their memory is like an elephant's.

Last ice storm we had locally...my wife went postal when she found out I didn't have enough generators and emergency lighting to sustain a large military garrison for a couple of years.

After the power was restored ten days later...I took that opportunity to stock up on a dozen of everything...especially flashlights.

Explain the severity of the consequences of not owning a couple dozen flashlights and a few cases of batteries before the next storm hits,or a major earthquake,or a nuclear war,or a tsunami,or an alien invasion from outer space...

Works for me :twothumbs

 

[BGater]

Truth be known I have plenty of backups, maybe 25+ but I will never admit that to the wife. I told her I wanted to play with THAT light that night. The wife told me to be careful acting like that, the other kids will laugh. Hehe. She only carries 3 LEDs on her, 2 keyring and a Seoul modded Civictor in her purse so she cant rib me to much.

I really like that little throw monster (Tiablo A9) that fits so neatly on my belt. No worries, Lighthound or Tiablo will fix the little jewel . Maybe I need an MRV also......hmmm . It IS almost Xmas.

 

[Lightguy27]

Well I don't exactly have to worry about ice storms where I live(Go ahead, look at my location):thumbsup:, but you could call my home Hurricane central and Im not talking about the football team guys. So I have been prepared for disaters all my life and I am proud to say that the closest I have ever had to a Light failing on me is the Batts went dead. And when a storm comes I get my Surefires (I only use my SF's when it really counts as they are the best lights I own) all batteryed up, fill the spares carriers, pick up a couple spare lamps and pray :hahaha::bow:. Wait, Im getting something.... I see some new lights in you future!! Good luck Next time around!!

-Evan

 

[KeyGrip]

Two is one, one is none. I'm sure 25+ is enough

 

[BGater]

Oh for shame......you used the terrible "enough" word ! Its in the same catagory as "plenty", "no more" and "stop or I will take your credit cards".

Still waiting on word from Lighthound, been 5 days. They are probably swamped with Xmas so close.

 

[BGater]

Scott at Lighthound contacted me today with an RMA#, said they will repair or replace my A9 and ship it back within 2 days after they get it from me. Pays to buy from a place like Lighthound, have always had great service from them. :twothumbs

 

[a4d]

Well good to hear that they took care of it. That really stinks though that it went out at such a bad time.

 

[Alan B]

One way to insure that our lights are reliable is to test them, and make sure they work. This reduces the chance they will fail when we really need them. My own A9s does not have enough test time on it, so I don't have much idea how it might perform when the need arises..:thinking:

When the wife next chastizes for "playing" with the lights, you can use this example to justify your new "reliability test plan".

:twothumbs

-- Alan

 

[BGater]

USPS dropped off a box from Lighthound, today. They didnt repair the light, they sent a brand new (checked the ser. #) replacement in box with all the new goodies. Near as I can figure they probably had it about 2 days or less, then shipped a new one to me. Thats fast service any time of year, and amazing right here at Xmas time.

I dropped in an 18650 to make sure it worked ok. I put it back in the box for now, not sure if im going to keep it or not. I probably had the only bad one in a million, but it sort of ruined the honeymoon for me.

 

[BGater]

Alan, I agree 100% with testing a light. Only way to know. I personally wont have a light that I have to put a stopwatch on if its on high to make sure I dont burn it down or something. I check for heat as im runtime testing, if it gets to hot I send it on its way. If I loan someone a light, dont want to worry if its going to get used "right".

When I got my first Tiablo A9, I ran it to shut off in high and low on 18650's. It didnt have a single bobble. Almost 4 hours on high, and 19 hours on low. Thats what further stumped me when it suddenly went out.

 

[ltiu]

I always bring 3 lights and some spare primary batteries. I leave the wife behind.

 

[Alan B]

...
When I got my first Tiablo A9, I ran it to shut off in high and low on 18650's. It didnt have a single bobble. Almost 4 hours on high, and 19 hours on low. Thats what further stumped me when it suddenly went out.

Sounds like a fine test plan. Amazing it failed after that.

I don't always run a set of batteries down in testing, but do put some time on the light, and continue to "use" the light. The testing you did was good for basic thermal and electronic performance, but didn't subject the light to a lot of on/off cycles and other mechanical handing, etc. I hate to "mistreat" a light in severe testing, but by "using" it for a few weeks it gets some handling. I need to do that with my A9, I have been doing that with other lights lately.

The question is whether to try the A9 one more time. Even Surefire gets it wrong the first time occasionally. If I liked the other characteristics of the light (which I do), I'd give it one more shot. More testing...

Good luck with your lights,

-- Alan

 

[BGater]

I do like the light alot, looks great and is a good size. Its not for EDC but its not bad to belt carry in a RipOffs holster for emergencies or special outing.

If I decide to keep this one I will do a runtime test and cycle the clicky a little bit. My first one was used for about 2 months and had maybe a few hundred on/off cycles on it. I may be able to do a "its ok now but what if it fails again when we need it most" excuse to ease the wife into another light purchase. :thumbsup:

 

[Zenster]

The question is whether to try the A9 one more time. Even Surefire gets it wrong the first time occasionally. If I liked the other characteristics of the light (which I do), I'd give it one more shot. More testing...

Good luck with your lights,

-- Alan

Surefire and every other brand of anything at one time or another.
The thing to look at is the product's history on a much bigger scale. Since the Tiablos don't have any real "failure record" established, just look at this one as a fluke. It happens. Stuff breaks; if it has a moving part or an electronic circuit, you can bet that a statistical number of examples of any product have or will have failed.
I don't think this one failure demonstrates the reliablity of an entire brand, any more than the (many) known failures of Surefires make that brand a failure prone brand either.
With your Tiablo, look more to how well you were taken care of with the company getting you a (brand new) replacement. I'll take a company with that kind of service attitude over a "perfect" product any day.

Do a google of "failure rate of Maytag", a brand with a historically good reputation, and prepared to be dumbfounded.

With all that said, anytime I have something that I need to rely upon, the first thing I do is to use it a LOT, not for just one outing.
Also statistically speaking, the longer something is used since new, the longer if will probably work as advertised until actually "worn out".

 

[bestcounsel]

I recently had a Lumens Factory bulb go out on me during a security detail. It was a new bulb too. The most important thing is to have back up bulbs if your running incans or a back up light if running leds.