Surefire lamp turning black

[ebow86]

I've put at least a year and a half of hard use with my surefire 10X dominator. Today I took off the bezel and noticed that the LOLA is starting to darken and has black deposits around the glass envolope, not terribly bad but difinetly noticeable. The lamp seems to still work fine thought. I know this can be a normal issue with older lamps that have lots of runtime but my question is this. Is this a sign that the lamp is near it death or is too hard to say? I have a feeling that the blacking and deposits are a sign that it's ready to kick the bucket but I'm asking here just to verify.

I'm not too upset though, I've gotten lots of use with the lamp and I'll probably just get an MN32 for a change. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[DimeRazorback]

I would replace it, just to avoid any possible chance of a lamp explosion and subsequent repairs.

 

[labrat]

This is quite normal with most incandescent bulbs, they do darken with use!
It does not mean they will explode, or abruptly die when you see them become darker, they will however loose some output as the darkening progresses.
But if you can live with the decreased output, there is no problem using the bulb until it dies completely (which can still be some time before it does!).
No reason to worry usually though!

 

[fyrstormer]

It's caused by the filament evaporating and vapor-depositing on the inside of the bulb. When the bulb gets up to operating temperature the Halogen Cycle should keep that from happening, because the vaporized filament will temporarily bond to the halogen gas and turn into salt, which then gets re-deposited onto the filament, but if the bulb is getting used in short bursts then it won't heat up enough for this to happen. All filaments disintegrate this way eventually, but if they never get a chance to heat up properly, they will wear out much faster.

If you use your light in short bursts, an LED would be a better choice because LEDs operate best when cool.

 

[bestcounsel]

aha! Thats why one of LF bulbs (practicaly new) started blackening....i used it with short bursts....

It's caused by the filament evaporating and vapor-depositing on the inside of the bulb. When the bulb gets up to operating temperature the Halogen Cycle should keep that from happening, because the vaporized filament will temporarily bond to the halogen gas and turn into salt, which then gets re-deposited onto the filament, but if the bulb is getting used in short bursts then it won't heat up enough for this to happen. All filaments disintegrate this way eventually, but if they never get a chance to heat up properly, they will wear out much faster.

If you use your light in short bursts, an LED would be a better choice because LEDs operate best when cool.

 

[fanaticalflashlightfan]

Sorry to hear about your lamp, seems like the large upfront investment didn't live up to the hype, imo. I'm sure if you call, they give you an RMA and fix ya right. I'd rather start with a basic platform I can fix (I drive a 96 Civic) after it's been tricked out. Good Luck

 

[computernut]

My Strion bulbs in my A2 darken quite quickly but my LF and Surefire bulbs seem to slowly blacken over time.

 

[ebow86]

I'm guilty of using quick flashes on all my incandescents, which is probably what contributes to the blackening.

 

[325addict]

I do both, long and short periods. Sometimes, a quick inspection which only takes a few seconds, then I use it for half an hour or more in one "burst".

Even my oldest Surefire P90 LA is still OK, only a little darkened, but hey, I've been using it quite a lot for almost two YEARS now! Try that with a standard Mag lamp (white star)... they died faster than I was able to replace them on rechargeables. They even died BEFORE they had any chance to blacken.
How different is that with the Mag Num Star lamps: they even tolerate some overdriving, don't blacken at all and are still alive after many hours (I use a 5-cell lamp on 6X NiMH AA). Best of all: they are a lot brighter than the standard lamps

Timmo.