Surefire G2 owners

[bhds]

How does your G2 "behave" when losing power? Tonight mine went from decent medium power level to absolutely nothing in the span of 1 on/off cycle. I thought that I had maybe blown a lamp. By coincidence I ran into someone else later tonight who also has a G2 and when he saw me using mine made the comment that his had suddenly died a few minutes ago. Borrowed my batts and confirmed that it was the batts only. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Size15's]

This is typcial. The batteries give good output right until the last.

 

[bhds]

Hmmm... That is interesting. Now I am truly confused. My E1 using the same brand surefire batts acts just like other incandescents. Slow fade to flickering nothingness at which point I can take the batt out and get a fairly high level "moon" mode in my arc lshp. When I got home tonight I took the dead batts from the G2 and both of them barely lit up the lshp. Considerably less light than my arc aaa. ??? Is this something particular with the G2?

 

[kev1-1]

I think that this 'sudden loss of power' type of event is quite common when using the higher power (6v+) Surefire lights. I believe that it is to do with the rather flat discharge rate of SF123A's...of course I may just be talking rubbish! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[bhds]

Come to think of it I may have been wrong. That was a batch of duracell 123's that I used in my E1. Not surefire. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Size15's]

The 123A battery and SureFire's SF123A do have "flat" discharge curves compared to Alkalines. They also have the ability to recover if you don't use the light for "constant-on" very much. Therefore it is normal for SF123As powered lights to give good output right up to the last.

Al

 

[Double_A]

What your describing with your G2 is consistant with all nine of my Surefire incandescent flashlights. When the batteries go they go quick.

GregR

 

[jbroker83]

Yes, I own two G2's and use them only sparingly...but I have had the same problem...the first time it happened I was scared about a blowout as well. But really, I've learned to buy some extra batteries, and if I have my G2 in the car, it's a good bet that I have a spare pair of batteries two, just in case.

BTW, mine beam wasn't as bright, but still pretty good, and then the next click....nothing.

 

[Xrunner]

Same thing happens with all of my Surefire lights, although it seems to happen at different rates (from white to nothing, or from white to a few seconds of yellow to nothing). Either way it happens, it's very quick. One interesting thing I've found is that a Surefire KL3 can use those batteries that are "dead" and still have a light output between the low and high mode of an L1.

-Mike

 

[pedalinbob]

this seals the deal for me. time to buy my first high powered 2x123 light!

i was concerned about rapidly dimming performance (it would suck to have to change $2.50 worth of bats after 30 mins use!), but if the overall discharge is somewhat flat, then i can now see the usefulness of this type of light.

ooohhhh...what to get...what to get...?

E2E, G2, TL-2, Scorpion, Legend LX (cheapie), A2 (drOOOLLL!)...damn.

Bob

 

[Double_A]

Let me add that this is NOT a problem with Surefire Lights.

As Al said this is a how lithium batteries behave, they provide a flat discharge curve with a sharp drop off just before the end.

For what it's worth I did a recent study I did for my company. I asked both MagLight and Surefire how long did it take their lights to drop to half of their original brightness. For Maglight I asked about a 4D cell light using fresh good quality akaline batteries. Maglight replied 20-30 minutes! I wrote them back asking them to confirm their response and they confirmed it! Surefire I specified the E2e, they said 60-65 minutes till a decline to half brightness.

GregR

 

[SilverFox]

Hello GregR,

That is a very interesting bit of information.

Thank you for sharing it.

Tom

 

[jbroker83]

Bob, as the owner of a pair of G2's, an E2, a Streamlight tL-2 and 3, a Brinkman Legend LX, and a scorpion....I would recommend the G2 as a starter. It's the least inexpensive (excluding the Brinkman) durable, and most important, dependable. The TL-2 is also up there on my list.

I know most people would start with an e2, but I like my G2 better than my e2, maybe it's because since I have two, I'm not as "worried" about losing one like I am with the others.

 

[bhds]

While at first my problem seems kind of good in that my batts got sucked dry up until the end and the light behaved almost liked a semi-regulated light. But, I did some more searching through the archives narrowed down to surefire batteries. And I think that I may have experienced the problem that others in the past have had with their surefire batts. Sudden failures. I do know one thing. The way the light behaved was completely and totally unacceptable. There was absolutely no, none, nadda, zip any kind of warning. I used the light. Turned it off. Ten minutes later I turned it on again. NOTHING. Not even the slightest glow. I have some yuntong batts in the light now. I will be using it tonight off and on and when I get home I will do a little test and run it all the way down and see how it behaves.

Thanks,
bhds

P.s Life was much simpler before my "addiction" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Size15's]

I believe that if you had another G2 with fresh batteries in it and you compared beams with the light that was working fine, you would see that the output (amount/beam colour) was different.

I can't remember the last time I used an unregulated flashlight until the batteries stopped working - I always swap to fresh batteries when the output quality has dropped enough for me to notice. You do get an eye for this after using the flashlights for a while (multiple battery sets).

I believe that SureFires are meant to produce the best light they can - and that means changing the batteries to maintain the output. What this creates is a huge heap of mostly used SF123As but a happy user.

Al

 

[paulr]

A Mag 4D with the stock bulb will run for many hours on a set of alkaline D's. Of course it won't be as bright as the pocket sized G2 with two 123's.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Paulr,

Did you happen to see this earlier post from Double A?

[ QUOTE ]
For what it's worth I did a recent study I did for my company. I asked both MagLight and Surefire how long did it take their lights to drop to half of their original brightness. For Maglight I asked about a 4D cell light using fresh good quality akaline batteries. Maglight replied 20-30 minutes! I wrote them back asking them to confirm their response and they confirmed it! Surefire I specified the E2e, they said 60-65 minutes till a decline to half brightness.


[/ QUOTE ]

This indicates that the Mag 4 D run time to half brightness is only 20-30 minutes.

Tom

 

[Double_A]

SilverFox-

My study showed that for our Emerg Response Team use, where we need a bright light all the time, the Surefires with lithiums were just as cost effective as the Maglights we had been using.

We made the assumption that when the flashlights beam dropped to half of it's original brightness we needed to change the batteries. In doing this the cost to run an E2e (with $1.25 Surefire 123's) was $2.50/hour and the Maglight 4D (with $0.50 Duracell Alkalines) was $4.00/hour.

Surefire says the light output of the 4D maglight and a 6P (E2e) are roughly equal (actually the E2E is much better) factor into that which would you rather carry during a 12 hour shift and toss in how much more professional our appearance was carrying the E2e compared to a huge Maglight...it was a no brainer for us!

Now an average homeowner this may not the case. As most of the situations in which they would need a flashlight it would be acceptable to operate the flashlight till say 25% of it's original brightness. Enlisting help from another CPF member Brock, he did some runtimes for me using a 3D maglight. If I remember correctly the times and therefore the cost to operate the Maglight to 25% was around $2.00/hour, compared to the Surefire's $2.50

For me however that is still not enough of a difference to forfeit the other advantages of the E2e.

GregR

 

[pedalinbob]

yes, that is what my concern was: the cost/hour to run.

i dont think i would use a high powered light for more than 10 minutes at a time anyway.


i think my wife got a twintask 2L as a christmas gift for me...she asked what else i would like...G2!!! (we are going to disney for christmas. maybe i can practice blinding goofy and mickey!)

Bob

 

[JasonC8301]

I have a Mag 6D and honestly, its size to output ratio isn't all that great. Beam quality isn't anything good either. It can throw well, but not much. My current 2C mag mod to run on 3X 123 has the same voltage as a 6D but in a much more compact size (did I mention it is also much lighter.)

I do not hav a G2, but I have tried a few other 2 X 123 lights. I currently have a Scorpion and SF E2e. I had a Pelican M6 but that light is long gone (was still on first set of batteries when I lost the thing.)

The Scorpion based upon my usage dimms down to 50% brightness at like 30-40 minutes of constant on. I used my Sf E2e and mine dims down but not noticably unless you pop in fresh batteries. I have not put my SF E2e through enough use to see if it suddenly drops off.

My tigerlight seems to have a flat discharge curve. I have used it enough to see it go from insanely bright to a sudden off then on and it yellows to the output of a 4D mag on fresh batteries. Tigerlight warns you not to discharge the battery fully, once it starts to dim charge it.

PS Bob. I'm going down to Disney 1-1-04 till 1-6-04! (11 years later, Orlando revisited, will be packing my Scorpion, SL TT 1L, Arc AAA LE, Ultra-G, and spare batteries.)