What lights have failed on you?

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I don't love or almost like my Lowes Cree, but it does work well.

Likewise my RC-G2. I tried the reflector with a P4 from one of my SAIKs and am considering how to put the whole SAIK module into the G2....

 

[tsask]

my Streamlight Microstream has a nasty habbit of not lighting up when I press the switch, then later working fine.

 

[LED-holic]

No LEDs yet knock on wood.

 

[yaesumofo]

My Surefire Titan crap out after falling to the hard ground. It was one week old. It did not work properly after the fall. I sent it to SF they fixed it and returned it to me a month or so later.
I had a tail switch fail on an HDS EDC. It was replaced by HDS.
I have had numerous photons and inova zipper pull lights fall apart on me (after rough use).
I am sure there have been others..
Oh ya I had a 6 d mag which is full of leaking batteries as we speak. Into the trash it went.
Yaesumofo

 

[PAB]

Had 3 Inova second generation X1's fail on me. I had all 3 refunded by the merchant since they failed within the first month or so.
One MagLED 2AA failed. Unfortunately it was too late to get a refund and I didn't want to bother with sending it to maglite.
NightIze 1 watt upgrade for maglite 2AA broke after a week of normal usage. One of the wires snapped. I wasn't aggressive in twisting the light on and off. Returned to merchant.

 

[Lunal_Tic]

Maglites (various), almost always a switch or contact issue.
Brinkmann AA; switch
Fenix L1P switch
Petzl Zipka flickers and goes dim. If you fiddle with the batts it'll usually get better, just aren't held in well
Arc AAA, Old black bodied version; sometimes fails to light even with a new battery. Take the batt out and put it back in and it usually works again.
Surefire E series clickies 2-3; one wouldn't click the others were crazy hard to click
Lumaray First gen FL-12; one LED died, they replaced the head
Techno Light (the one that had H3 in the head); threads on the plastic body broke screwing the head off.
Gerber Hornet lantern
Gerber Mantis; hasn't broken but I retired it because the joints were weak from the getgo
Gerber Inferno; switch
PT Switchback headlamp; wonky switch
Pelican M8 LED; batter carrier split
Swiss Lights (version 1 or 2); would cease functioning if you ran the battery out.
Aunoc CR123 Rebel light; contact path is flaky, might turn on might not.
Aunoc original AAAA; + side contact spring didn't make good contact with the driver, blinked
Photon 3; one version would go dead just sitting in the drawer
Swiss Army Night Vision watch; LED module made by Emissive Energy never goes completely off, kills batteries too quick


Just because a light fails doesn't mean that I don't like it. I'm just listing failures. If I think of others I'll update this.
-LT

 

[gary3911]

Nitecore DI : switches off whenever knocked and switches on in strobe mode.

Fenix L2d : I think its the driver. Output stuck at middle setting.

Arc AAA-GS : Just doesn't work. It's an Arc - there's only one damn moving part.

ASP Triad : switch

 

[kaichu dento]

my Streamlight Microstream has a nasty habbit of not lighting up when I press the switch, then later working fine.

Mine did that when I first got it, then some fiddling around and it has never done it again.

I also have the same problem with my Browning Zero Gravity AA.

 

[cy]

an important distinction needs to be made for battery failures polluting the data posted here.

which of course ends up in light failure. battery leaks can cause all sorts of gremlins, even after bad cell is removed and light cleaned.

ok... back on track. list doesn't include lights dying from battery leaks or incand bulbs poping or custom lights that needed a small tweak to make contact or killing light by using li-ion cells or other user induced failures.

Fenix L1-P (3x)... bad tailcap switch
streamlight two AA led light.. board failure
gladius ... tailcap switch
U2 .. tailcap switch
streamlight headlamp... cracked plastic battery cap

there's got to be others that I'm forgetting...

for the large number of lights I've used in the last few years. list is amazingly short, when failures for batteries and user induced issues are not included.

seems tailcap switches (clickies) are responsible for a large % of failures. that's why I don't like clickies and have gotten rid of almost all my lights with clickies.

that's why my preference is for lights has:
1. twist activation for different levels,
2. an independent/bombproof ground path for battery
3. li-ion support.

that's why my main EDC is a ti PD. Surefire Titan is still in trial status, recently taking over duties from Li14430.

can you please post this to a new thread? I would like this thread to be on topic... almost like a survey, simple and concise. The intent for this thread is to help those members like me who are having difficulty evaluating lights and picking the right one. Many members use their lights on the job. Reliability is just-as if not more more important than flood, Lux, lumens, run time or beam pattern.



I thought about creating a tally-chart, but that might be difficult if this thread continues to grow at this rapid of a pace. Also, I intentionally limited this to LED lights, knowing that there would be a TON of incan lamp failures polluting the "data", since it is unavoidable at some point...

Some great feedback everyone!!! keep posting away whenever they crap out THANKS everyone for not making this into a fanboy brand-bashing session. Mods please feel free to delete those comments that derail this thread in such a way.

Curious...

What lights have you owned that have failed on you?... I am not talking about O-rings that wear out, lenses that scratch or rubber switch cap boots that wear out. I mean flat-out DIE and fail to illuminate as they once did when brand new. Feel free to comment further too. If the failure is the result of user error or excessive abuse feel free to state so.



**edit**
I thought about creating a bar-chart, but that might be difficult if this thread continues to grow at this rapid of a pace. Also, I intentionally limited this to LED lights, knowing that there would be a TON of incan lamp failures polluting the "data", since it is unavoidable at some point...

Some great feedback everyone!!! keep posting away whenever they crap out THANKS everyone for not making this into a fanboy brand-bashing session. Mods please feel free to delete those comments that derail this thread in such a way.

Also, please try and keep this thread on topic and post "how-too repair" discussions separately.

Not too long ago I was in search of a light for my job inspecting large 8 foot telco-cabinet gear for ISPs. I was on the fence and flat out could not decide how to spend my $$$. This thread helped clear my mind and weed out some strong contenders. I am VERY happy with the choice I made.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

1.Streamlight 4AA Polypro 7 l.e.d.- l.e.d.s all burned out within 10 or 20 hours.
2. CC Expedition- solder that is + battery contact wore out
3. CC Trek light- same problem as CC Expedition.
4. PT Matrix headlight- battery endcap broke, "approved" lithium batteries permanently dimmed l.e.d.s so I returned it.
5. Brookstone 7 l.e.d/xenon/cold cathode fluorescent light- cheap plastic columns holding cheap thin springs in place got cut through by springs leaving springs angled making poor contact, battery end cap broke too.
6. Inova X5(If I can call this failing)- used Ultralast "3.0 volt" RCR123A batteries which fried the l.e.d.s. I tried freeze pop method to change l.e.d.s unsuccessfully. I let the light dry and turned it on to see if it would work. The l.e.d.s all worked, although at less than half the original brightness. I threw it out (123A batteries are expensive). I was impressed that it survived with the l.e.d.s being fried, being filled with water, and frozen with water inside. Of course I bought a new one when they updated to CS l.e.d.s.

 

[geek4christ]

Gerber Sonic - my buddy carried it on his keychain for about a month and then two days ago pulled it out and it wouldn't light.

I cleaned the contacts, tried known good batteries, etc, but it's just dead.

 

[Frank423]

Lumapower MRV SE - always problems with that light, sometimes it works but most of the time not, guess it's because the switch

 

[Wyeast]

Of all the lights I have, only three come to mind as having failed.

Pelican Stealthlite 4AA - switch finally wore out after like 10 years of hard service - light replaced by Pelican :thumbsup:

Gerber (formerly CMG) Sonic - light developed a low-level flicker, refused to hit full brightness with new batts - replaced by Gerber :thumbsup:

MagLED 3AA - Dud switch - often flickers or goes out when bumped. You can read about my attempted warranty repair in the Jeers section. Light is still broken - on permanent loan to someone who doesn't care if it needs to get thwacked against the sink every now and then.

 

[bspofford]

This collection of anecdotes over five pages seems to include every major brand EXCEPT DereeLight. Did I miss a report? Obviously, we should consider the fact that there are perhaps a hundred times as many MAG lights out there, but I would assume that there are quite a few Dereelights at this point in time. It seems that Nitecore DI lights are listed fairly often, and they probably don't have as many units in the field as Dereelight CL1H lights. Wouldn't it be nice to have some data on the failure rate and types of failures per 100 lights? Consumer Reports compiles this kind of data for cars, but I doubt that there are enough of us flashaholics to justify their interest.

 

[Black Rose]

I haven't had any fail yet, but my 2AA Mag LED has issues.

Sometimes when I turn it on it flickers a bit before going gull strength, even with fresh batteries.

The head rotation on it feels very clunky. In comparison, the head rotation on my non-LED 2AA Mags are extremely smooth.

 

[AlexGT]

The ARC AAA!!!, An irrespectful little brat of a light that never turns on when you need it and lights up whenever it wants to, it never was reliable!, I sentenced it to life without parole on a drawer in the kitchen.

:thumbsdow :hairpull:

Dang! After all these years thinking about it still makes me mad!

AlexGT

 

[chaosmagnet]

My first 2-AA Mini Maglite would eat bulbs like nobody's business, and after several night-time fumblings to get the spare installed I started to replace them preemptively as they aged. Later generations of Mag's bulbs seem to last a lot longer. My 2-D Maglite had the same issues with the same resolution. These now are second-line lights stashed for emergencies, and they're kept with spare batteries and additional spare bulbs.

That same 2-AA developed a dead switch, which Mag replaced under warranty.

I have a 2-AA Mini MagLED that developed a flakey switch. A few minutes of twisting it back and forth seems to have degunked it, and it works a treat now.

My only Solitaire died for reasons unknown and wouldn't live again.

I'd have more money if I still thought that Mag made the best flashlights .

I've had several fauxtons and a couple of Photons die on me. I don't carry them any more.

No problems with my (still new) P2D, Streamlight Scorpion, or Rayovac Sportsman Extreme (got two of 'em).

 

[GarageBoy]

My Elektrolumens XM3
I damaged the reflector cleaning it, got it replaced
I went to short through the LED to observe the current the LED was getting. That somehow broke the tail switch (wouldnt shut off)

 

[blinder switch]

I had one of two BOG cree Q4 drop ins for a SF 9P which at that time it was mounted to one of my Bushmaster M4 type carbines (5.56x45mm/.223 Rem). I did not even get 15 minutes total time on it (safe queen) and it just flat out quit working when I was checking it out after I had purchased it several weeks before. BOG (Bugoutgearusa) took about 3 weeks to send me another. I will never trust that company again.

The other was my fault. I was organizing my SF collection, messing with my SF E1e/bulbs and one of my SF E2D's/bulbs which can use the MN02 (extended run time) and the MN03 for the E2D. I accidentially put a high output MN03 incan bulb into my miniture E1e and it melted the bulb area of the E1e in less than a second with a flash spark to go along also.

No big deal to SureFire, as I had all replacement parts mailed to me in just a few days. On the packages the incan Executive Elite MN01, MN02 and MN03 are clearly marked, I kind of wish they could stamp the bulb code onto these bulbs, but I learned my lesson....the Executive Elite E1e only uses the MN01, and the E2D can use the MN02 or what I use, the MN03, or 65 lumen incan bulb.

No problems with my other 10 SureFire lights.

 

[kramer5150]

bump!!