I'll admit I don't have a super scientific system for checking if it reaches high, but it used to be that if I shined it on a white bedroom wall at night I couldn't stand to look at it and it appeared substantially brighter than my E2E, now it is just sort of bright and the E2E appears much brighter (both on fresh cells).
I cleaned the spring in the tail cap (plus the tail cap swap w/the E2E, and I think my E1E as well, actually) as well as the contact on the head. I regularly clean the threads and apply a tiny amount of nygel (sp?) I purchased at battery junction.
As for surefire quality, generally flawless, and even in this case, the light never left me in the dark. I'd much rather have a failure where I can't run as peak power vs. losing all functionality. SF quality is the reason I've mostly given up on less expensive lights. That said, Fenix has been pretty trustworthy (gifts mostly) and I'll let everyone know if the ITP A3 breaks. I'm fairly hard on stuff, not intentionally, but my regular use seems rougher than others'. For now, I'll have to rely on the trusty Arc AAA.
As far as carrying this, I've carried it pretty much everyday since February 13th, 2008. I'll spare the list of abuses it has endured and leave it at "I'm not disappointed". By far my most often used Surefire of the bunch, though I'll admit that E2E saw some use back in the day.
