SF TITAN ISSUES You have any?

[Arcoholic]

O.K.
now i do have a minor issue, the quickrelease to the lanyard now releases almost too easy, after a few weeks of use. I can now just pull the light out of the attachment point by pulling it with one hand sideways. Not too easy to explain but the whole assy, relaxed a good bit. I have no intention of sending it back but i might give them a ring

 

[yaesumofo]

Much to my amazement My TITAN repaired arrived today. It is still #943.
OK My impressions.
The action is smooth but STIFF. Not easy to operate with one hand.
There is a little flicker at the bright end while working the twist.
I hope goes away and is a matter of breaking the light in a bit.

The emitter is slightly OFF center. Now the is not much room in the reflector hole for an off center emitter. There is the possibility that the actual center of the light emitting part of the emitter is centered. It is hard to tell. IMHO it would be more important to center the area which emits light rather than the whole emitter. In any event the centering is within a reasonable tolerance. The areas involved would be measured in just a few 1000ths' of an inch.

There is no significant debris in the emitter/reflector chamber.


OK My TITAN is now working. It was not when I sent it in for repair.
There is an improvement in the debris on the emitter this unit is clean.
The light is nice and bright. The tint is improved the repaired unit is not as BLUE as the original. I like the tint More on the repaired unit than the original. It may be brighter. I did not take a measurement prior to shipping.
My big wish here is that my titan would have a smooth and easy to activate action. Using 2 hands is not always an option.
I wish it was as easy to operate as any of my Pd's. I love the Pd's action.
I think the flicker will go away with use.

OK that's it. I would like to hear from you guys who a TITAN how easy or tight the action is when compared to a PD (the gold standard in twisty actions IMHO). I am also interested in your emitter centering. Is the emitter centered or is the area which emits light centered?
Surefire seems to be taking their time with these. For good reason. Since they are a very expensive flashlight and they have a commitment to repair these for the life of the (well Hell I don't know what)..but it is a long time. It makes perfect sense that it will cost them less to repair light right the first time. Having to repair a TITAN more than once could easily cost the company any profit made on the light. Having to do it more than once would eat into any profits that the TITAN program would generate for the company. In order for this light to be produced in Aluminum The light would almost have to not be a huge liability for the company.
I will end my titan for a week or two and see how it goes. I often carry my PD in the same Lanyard carry mode I am carrying the TITAN in. My hope is that MY TITAN becomes a smooth operating flashlight and takes the #1 position in the EDC rotation. I will report how things are going in a week or two here in this thread.
Yaesumofo

 

[nitrox1]

Thank you Yaesumofo. I appreciate your report. Mine too had a very bluish tint, which i don't care for. Hopefully it will come back whiter like yours. My Ti PD-S is super white.

How did they ship it to you? USPS, UPS, FED-EX.

I'll report on my repairs once I get it back and use it a few days.

John

 

[yaesumofo]

It arrived via UPS.
I have lubed the light with 1/16 of a drop of nanolube with the hope that it's action becomes smoother.
I figure that like most titanium flashlights the TITAN just needs to be used A LOT before it becomes truly smooth action wise.
The event which sent this TITAN to Surefire was a 4.5 to 5 foot fall to the ground.
Not a big fall.
This doesn't fill me with confidence.
I wonder if SureFire did drop tests during the R and D phase of this light. I would love to see those results if they exist. I can't imagine that there was NOT a durability component during design testing.
As it stands I will be VERY careful to no submit my TITAN to any strong G forces. I woulkd love to see the results from any drop testing which may have been done.

I really like the threaded tail. I plan to look into making an alternative to the OEM lanyard connection which utilizes the threads....Just thinking out loud here.
Must remember that the market is SMALL.
Yaesumofo

Thank you Yaesumofo. I appreciate your report. Mine too had a very bluish tint, which i don't care for. Hopefully it will come back whiter like yours. My Ti PD-S is super white.

How did they ship it to you? USPS, UPS, FED-EX.

I'll report on my repairs once I get it back and use it a few days.

John

 

[yaesumofo]

Well after a few weeks back My titan is the same as it was when it cam back to me.
there is a decided FLICKER near the brightest when turning the light DOWN but not when turning it up.
IMHO there should be NO flicker..none.
I don't get it. Surefire had this light for weeks. then they sent it back to me with this issue. I figured it would go away with use. No such luck.
Hey do any of you guys with titans have any kind of flicker issue?
Yaesumofo

 

[Kilovolt]

No flickering on mine in any condition.

The only minor issue, already reported by someone else, is that occasionally when I turn off the light it remains on at a level slightly higher than minimum (regardless of the speed of turning the head) and I have to repeat the operation.
It does that maybe once every 7-10 days.:thinking:

 

[Size15's]

IMHO there should be NO flicker..none.

Yaesumofo, if you're not satisfied with it - send it back again.

 

[this_is_nascar]

No issues here. If anything, the twisting action has gotten smoother with use.

 

[karlthev]

I wasn't/am currently not interested in a Titan but, for $500 and, considering the size/reputation of the company and, the fact that this was a limited production run, I'm surprised that this wasn't resolved the first time it was sent in. This does seem to be an unusual scenario for this light however, even more reason for it to have been given priority attention. Just my opinion though....


Karl

 

[cy]

Ice Storm Tulsa, enormous amount of tree debris everywhere. In other words loads of chainsaw/moving heavy wood work. 200,000+ folks without power. downed trees in almost every yard.

after a hard day of clearing tree debris. putting my chainsaws away, was taking off my kevlar safety gear...... my Titan drops on the kitchen floor!

Titan had separated from it's lanyard around my neck. evidently slots had aligned up just right during my strenuous activities. really lucky Titan didn't fall out earlier, no telling where it would have ended up.

really like my Titan, but now no longer trust it's clip. it's got to go.
thinking of machining out a short threaded rod with a drilled hole on the end.

TICO makes a Ti hex socket cap screw http://ticotitaniuminc.thomasnet.co...0&origin=&assetid=spec&forward=1&backtoname=#

Titan shouldn't fall off regardless of what you are doing. got a two week hike at Philmont coming up this summer. no way Titan is coming along unless this issue gets resolved.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Berkley Point (spelling?) sells one of those attachments that can be screwed in to end of the Titan, with a d-ring type end. That can be used as a lanyard attachement. You could probably lock-tite the sucker in there and never have to worry about it coming off.

 

[this_is_nascar]

Something like THIS. You can purchase that attachment point seperately, however I can't find it.

 

[B@rt]

The lanyard attachment was my main reason to sell mine, I now see I made the right decision.

For a light that has been in the pipeline so long I was amazed at the dumb design of it...

 

[yaesumofo]

it would be a good idea to put a locking pin through it. LOC tight ? vs a locking pin? I would go with the pin.

BTW all it took was a short fall (like one where the clip fails) to kill my Titan the first time.

Size 15..
I can't express how disappointed I am with this Maybe my expectations were too high.
What I don't get is the randomness of it. Clearly there are a majority of units which perform perfectly. There may be lots which flicker in the hands of people who don't know the difference I don't know.
It is almost as though that when it was over in service they just did a drop in replacement assuming that it would operate perfectly...Or they decided to send it with a flicker figuring I wouldn't care or god forbid the flicker is considered within spec!!
As it is the personal side of surefire service is great. Lets face 90% of the time when a unit breaks on a surefire a drop in replacement will take care of the problem. The titan is full of new (for surefire) technology. Interesting that even here on the cpf we still don't know how it actually works. we have x-rayed it and figured out how to take it apart and done it (I haven't done it but it has been done) It is a pretty well studied light.
It is also a pretty expensive light.
For what it cost me I could have bought a very nice CUSTOM Titanium flashlight.
Anyway I choose the TITAN. and I will stick with it. I like it's design. I like how it operates.
Hell I even like the clip.
I don't like the flicker and it will go back again.
Yaesumofo

Something like THIS. You can purchase that attachment point separately, however I can't find it.

 

[Size15's]

I understand your disappointment - I really do.
Regardless of how we try to manage our own expectations there is always a strong sense of disappointment when something we didn't expect to have issues - turns out to.

The first time I had a SureFire product have an issue, then again when I had a SureFire product fail - it dents the confidence.
But what I've taken away from the experience and this is mirrored by my experiences in general is that we go through life 'collecting things that just work' - that we have learned to trust and rely on - and yet - they can still disappoint us - they can still fail.

It's what we do then that defines our character. There are times when I've had to reach for my backup [plan] and move ahead.

 

[tvodrd]

I've EDC'd mine for a full 2 months now, and the bright flash at turn-on hasn't been seen for over a month. I can turn it on one-handed with ease and when lipping it, (frequent) I can turn it off with just lip pressure holding the body. They do smooth with use/wear-in. My first cell developed the strobing at shortly before end of life. I'm on my 2nd, and cell life is very good. Sorry you're still having problems Yaesu.

Larry

 

[nitrox1]

Tomorrow marks the 2 month anniversary of sending mine back. Still waiting patiently for it's arrival. Surefire responded to an email from me about 3 weeks ago stating they were rebuilding the head.

I had it for 1 day and realized that it was defective. Hopefully it will come back working right. If not, back it goes. If it can't be fixed properly, I'm going to want a refund.

Please everyone keep us posted on your repair results. Initial problem, did it get fixed properly, turnaround time etc.

Thanks,
John...

 

[this_is_nascar]

Tomorrow marks the 2 month anniversary of sending mine back. Still waiting patiently for it's arrival. Surefire responded to an email from me about 3 weeks ago stating they were rebuilding the head.

I had it for 1 day and realized that it was defective. Hopefully it will come back working right. If not, back it goes. If it can't be fixed properly, I'm going to want a refund.

Please everyone keep us posted on your repair results. Initial problem, did it get fixed properly, turnaround time etc.

Thanks,
John...

As far as I'm concerned, this is pretty damn unacceptable. I know there are several folks here at CPF that have an "in" with SureFire. It might be nice to use that advantage to let some of the folks at SF know this is pretty crappy customer service shown to a buyer that was willing to shell-out several hundred dollars for one of their products.

PK, are you reading this? I know it's not your area within SF, but WTF?

 

[Size15's]

The Titan has a delicate assembly process and there are only a few engineers at SureFire who can assemble them properly.
I understand that Titans are not these guys day-jobs. SureFire Engineering is extremely busy in the build-up to SHOT Show. I can see how a Titan repair/rebuild 1) takes longer than a normal product, and 2) takes longer at this time of year, not least because of Christmas and New Year but mostly because of the SHOT Shows.

I would not personally expect or demand a fast turn-around of my Titan if it was in for repair right now.

IMHO it is a different matter when it comes to customer service.

Obviously Titan owners feel they have purchased a special SureFire product - and an expensive one as well. It follows that Titan owners would think it reasonable to expect any problems or issues with their Titan to be handled with special care and customer service. SureFire don't often have special products released to the public and so I don't believe they have a dedicated customer services team to take care of issues with these types of product.

Perhaps this is something SureFire can (and need?) to do better if they're going to continue offering special runs of products?
In which case I feel that customers need to let SureFire know by writing a letter. I find that a letter carries far more weight now-a-days because they have to be physically handled and tend to require a written reply.

Al

 

[nitrox1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I appologize if my post sounded like I was complaining. I wasn't. Just wanting to get the stats posted so others in the same boat could see that it may take a while to get these things fixed.

SF has always taken good care of me from a CS standpoint. 2 months is a bit too long to have to wait, but it is what it is.

T.I.N. Thank you very much for your concern on the issue. I really appreciate it.

Size 15. Thank you for your explanation. I agree with what you are saying.

Take care and here's to hoping we all get solid performance out of our uber-cool titans in '08. And hoping for a production version for the masses.

John...