Teking X1 35W HID Poor Build, Optics & Battery Runtime

[Oztorchfreak]

Admin note: Threads of this type should be done in the MarketPlace - Thread closed.

I bought a 35W HID tube type torch from a place in Melbourne, Australia about eight months ago. I have had no end of problems with this unit in the first couple of months. Firstly the so called adjustable flood/spot is not useable as all you get when you adjust the front lense is heaps of artifacts and rings over the top of other rings and a dirty brownish stain in the beam. The next thing was all of the advertised battery runtimes in my real world of use fell to about fifty percent of that claimed attainable. The seller sent me another 11.1v 5200mah battery pack. This one also has the same problem as the first one. I have sent many emails telling him about this cheap and nasty torch that he sold me. I have not had a reply back when I asked for another torch that he had of a different brand but same size roughly or a refund. :mecry: The shop in Melbourne, Australia is http://www.luxhid.com.au/

I hope nobody else has had the bad buying experience when trying to buy a HID as I have.

The HID Torch that I bought was the one at this link.

http://www.luxhid.com.au/index.cfm/details/281/3400,lumen,35W,HID,Torch/


This link below shows a similar image of the whole kit that I paid $320 for and never again will I deal with this Company.

http://img.en.china.cn/0/0,0,317,19023,534,392,8678b9bb.jpg

 

[kramer5150]

Quality of those has been hit or miss here on CPF. One of the biggest complaints I have seen is the battery pack tendency to quickly self discharge.

They are mass-manufactured in China and sold under several different brand names from various www retailers.

Oh and welcome to CPF!! Hopefully your next purchase will be more of a success.

In their defense, their warranty coverage clearly states that they offer a 6 month warranty. So, expecting a refund or exchange after 8 months at this point in time is unreasonable on your part.
http://www.luxhid.com.au/index.cfm/warranty_hid_lights_/

 

[Monocrom]

It's ironic that some of those, under various names, have proven quite reliable. While other samples have been junk.

 

[jasonck08]

It's ironic that some of those, under various names, have proven quite reliable. While other samples have been junk.

That's because there many different factories making them....

All the factories just basically cloned each others design, but the electrical components are definitely different quality.

 

[dudemar]

A reasonable company would go out of the way to provide a replacement, even after the warranty expired. If I was the seller I would want to keep my customers.

 

[Oztorchfreak]

I gave the seller plenty of information about the problems including the parasitic drain on the batteries but no offer of refund was forthcoming. The seller did not even reply to me about the major problems that I had emailed to him about this piece of junk whilst still in the warranty period. Be warned, there is a lot of junk out there. You just have to mainly rely on forums like this to offer good sound advice on future purchases. :shrug:

I have just received my Stanley HID 0109 35W torch from Ebay in the USA. It took about a week to deliver and is running ok. Mine came with no Hi-Lo switch, but I don,t really care about that issue. It would have been nice to be told in advance that it had only one mode that being Hi. It does need a bit of shimming to adjust the focus and the color temperature is higher than the X1 HID. It has a green/blue hue to it when shone on a bridge's concrete pilons near my place. I will try and post some pics or a video on its performance. I can see a house lit up dimly at about 600 metres across the water next to the bridge. The bridge makes a great testing ground for throwing torches as there are a lot of pilons spaced apart by around 50 to 100 metres apart. It acts as a measuring stick to see which pilon it will reach and is just around the corner from me. It is the Captain Cook Bridge between Sans Souci and Taren Point in Sydney, Australia. The bridge is about 600 metres across where the pilons are underneath. I can also spot white boats on the waterfront as well. :thumbsup:

 

[kramer5150]

I gave the seller plenty of information about the problems including the parasitic drain on the batteries but no offer of refund was forthcoming. The seller did not even reply to me about the major problems that I had emailed to him about this piece of junk whilst still in the warranty period. Be warned, there is a lot of junk out there. You just have to mainly rely on forums like this to offer good sound advice on future purchases. :shrug:

I have just received my Stanley HID 0109 35W torch from Ebay in the USA. It took about a week to deliver and is running ok. Mine came with no Hi-Lo switch, but I don,t really care about that issue. It would have been nice to be told in advance that it had only one mode that being Hi. It does need a bit of shimming to adjust the focus and the color temperature is higher than the X1 HID. It has a green/blue hue to it when shone on a bridge's concrete pilons near my place. I will try and post some pics or a video on its performance. I can see a house lit up dimly at about 600 metres across the water next to the bridge. The bridge makes a great testing ground for throwing torches as there are a lot of pilons spaced apart by around 50 to 100 metres apart. It acts as a measuring stick to see which pilon it will reach and is just around the corner from me. It is the Captain Cook Bridge between Sans Souci and Taren Point in Sydney, Australia. The bridge is about 600 metres across where the pilons are underneath. I can also spot white boats on the waterfront as well. :thumbsup:

Hmm thats just wrong... they should have honored their warranty for any defects within the warranty period. They have a return policy too, you had every right to pursue that as well, although its only for 7 days. I'm guessing the defects with this product had not revealed themselves to you until after the 7 days.

Don't let it discourage you though. There are many very good retailers out there who will stand behind what they sell.

Oh... another thing, the Stanley HID run time is not the greatest either... around 25-30 minutes.

 

[2filthy3]

Hi,
I have one off these also, Ignoring all the quality problems, can anyone compare the PERFORMANCE only of this unit to a better quality flashlight of the same style, such as POB, AE.
The total light output of the bulb seemed ok, the optics just did not seem able to harness the light, adjusting the focus did not have the desired effect, it was all flood all the time.

I will note though that mine was tested to run 70 minutes on high.

 

[Oztorchfreak]

The run time on my Teking HID 35W torch was never any better than 70 minutes even when brand new. These torches should not be advertised at such exagerated run times. Even the new battery was no better when I received it and the new battery was even worse at 62 minutes when fully charged and discharged a few times. I did not like dealing with overseas dealers mainly due to the fact that postage and return warranty issues can be expensive and hard to manage from another Country. That is why I went local in Australia only to find out that I bought a TURKEY of a torch. I guess I should have gone for the 35W or 26W HID torch at TacticalHid.com in the USA that I was reading good reviews about in this forum. Although I have read on these forums that they are still made in China.

My newly delivered Stanley HID 35W that I bought from the USA really powers into the night and has a much tighter beam than the 35W Teking HID torch. The only problem for Australian buyers is the US 12V adaptor is rated at 120V AC and will not run on 240V AC. I had a mate make up a power supply to give the torch the 18V DC at 500ma that it needs to run the internal charging system. It runs perfectly well at 18V as this is what we measured when testing the output voltage from the original adaptor running on a 120V AC bench power supply. The charging LED turns orange and flashes whilst charging and when charged the internal charging circuit cuts the current completely from the external power supply that we made for it. The LED light then turns green. I also can charge it through the handle at the bottom via a 12V automotive battery charger. It depends on the angle that you look at this indicator LED as to what colour you are seeing between the red and orange indications. This multicolour LED is a bit misleading on my torch as it was not until I measured the current that I actually knew whether this torch was charging or not. It looked like it was flashing red from the top of the torch but when you view the LED from underneath it looked like it was flashing orange. It turns out that it really was flashing orange and was charging ok. Flashing red indicates the torch needs charging.

Good luck to anybody trying to buy a reliable HID torch from a reliable dealer! It seems pretty much a gamble if you ask me.

P.S. We spell the word "color" as "colour" over here in OZ. We can't help it if we live "Downunder" and we have some differences between us and the rest of the world.

Good night.

Oh that's right you guys spell "night" as "nite" over there as well. Then I guess it is just plain old goodbye for now then.

 

[Monocrom]

Nope. We spell it as "night." Nite is a respected CPFer.

 

[Fusion_m8]

Thanks for the heads up. :thumbsup: After reading your thread and giving it a lot of consideration, I pulled the trigger on a Titanium Innovations L35 from BatteryJunction instead of a lesser known brand which was around $100 cheaper, but had known issues with their battery packs on some of their lights which had been in storage for too long.

I bought a 35W HID tube type torch from a place in Melbourne, Australia about eight months ago. I have had no end of problems with this unit in the first couple of months. Firstly the so called adjustable flood/spot is not useable as all you get when you adjust the front lense is heaps of artifacts and rings over the top of other rings and a dirty brownish stain in the beam. The next thing was all of the advertised battery runtimes in my real world of use fell to about fifty percent of that claimed attainable. The seller sent me another 11.1v 5200mah battery pack. This one also has the same problem as the first one. I have sent many emails telling him about this cheap and nasty torch that he sold me. I have not had a reply back when I asked for another torch that he had of a different brand but same size roughly or a refund. :mecry: The shop in Melbourne, Australia is http://www.luxhid.com.au/

I hope nobody else has had the bad buying experience when trying to buy a HID as I have.

The HID Torch that I bought was the one at this link.

http://www.luxhid.com.au/index.cfm/details/281/3400,lumen,35W,HID,Torch/


This link below shows a similar image of the whole kit that I paid $320 for and never again will I deal with this Company.

http://img.en.china.cn/0/0,0,317,19023,534,392,8678b9bb.jpg

 

[Oztorchfreak]

The dealer in Melbourne no longer advertises this torch. I sent him an email about whether battery runtime problems etc led to the removal of this torch from his website and he seems evasive in giving me a direct answer. Why can't sellers just admit that they were selling a piece of rubbish to their customers whether they realised it or not?

If the seller noticed a number of complaints then I said he should take the issue up with his supplier and then the supplier should contact the manufacturer. This dealer seems to want to put his repution at stake when he could have easily addressed this situation with me and any other buyers. It seems stange that he no longer carries this brand of torch after all of my complaints. If it was so good why does he no longer stock this brand of torch? The link to this torch has now disappeared from the website.

I still have a piece of unreliable junk that I cannot use as intended. What a waste of my good money. I would advise people to deal with reputable dealers in future and carefully research their future purchases on good forums like CPF etc and be advised by the tests that CPF members conduct.

 

[Fusion_m8]

OzTorch:

have you tired contacting the ACCC? Lodge a complaint in writing and get them to deal with the dodgy b@st@rd who sold you the light.