Zebralight Price Increase, Combo, $108.50 - H600??

[markr6]

WOAH!!! Check out the Zebralight page:

Zebralight H600 - Price: $108.50 (up from $89 - 22% increase! Not only is everything out of stock for months now, they throw salt in the wound with this. Not happy!)

and

"H600Fw Floody 18650 Headlamp Neutral White and ZL631 Combo"

What is this all about? edit: Nevermind, I realize that's just the battery but still a little sneaky in my opinion.

 

[markr6]

OK...To be fair I do have to look at both sides here. Maybe ZL had a lot of complaints about battery issues so they just decided to include their battery that fits to eliminate any problems. Still, I would rather buy just the light and choose my own battery since there are a lot of options when choosing a Li-Ion 18650.

 

[Lurveleven]

You cannot call it a price increase when it is not the same package. You now get a battery with the light for $19.5 which they sell for $19.99 on its own, I wouldn't call that a price increase. However, I agree with you that it would be better if you had the option to buy the light on its own.

 

[markr6]

Yeah I know, see the OP where I edited immediately after posting - "edit: Nevermind, I realize that's just the battery but still a little sneaky in my opinion."

 

[mellowhead]

They're obviously just trying to cut down on the problems lately of people using incompatibly large cells and causing problems with or damage to the light. You can hardly blame them for trying to reduce their exposure to needless warranties.

 

[markr6]

Again, see my original post...UURGH! I would buy a second if the battery was 3400mAh, hell even 3100. May not be a big difference but being forced into a battery, I would like to have the options

 

[phips]

This is pretty ridiculous.
Probably all it would take would be a different spring / (redesigned) longer tailcap.
Or ideally just make the body 2mm longer - I doubt anyone would even notice that.

The solution they chose is not something you should force on the end-user - its just a restrictive work-around.
Not to mention that many people already own plenty 18650s and Zebralight's batteries are not even the newer 3400mah Panasonics.

 

[Mooreshire]

I'd bet that it also has something to do with people using generally terrible cheap batteries and then complaining that turbo mode won't work and that the runtimes are inaccurate. Zebralight is selling a lot of products to people who are happy to save a few bucks where they can and don't know about high end cells and battery drain curves. If you put a really bad CrapFire style battery in an H600 it quickly cuts out in Turbo mode (due to the battery's very low protection threshold) and steps-down quickly from High to have poor life in Medium. By offering their (older but still powerful) battery bundled with it at least people won't be complaining that they put a recycled laptop cell in and it didn't perform well.

I agree that it's a ridiculous and restrictive work-around too of course! I wouldn't want to buy that combo, especially now that I already own better 3400mah cells.

I've never had any trouble fitting any batteries I've gotten into mine, although some of my cells' negative contacts are scratched up a bit as others have complained of. I did have the aforementioned power issues while using a "3000mah" TrustFire-with-flames before I read up a bit and invested in quality batteries.

 

[javan]

Bear in mind also, that you can always seek out the stand-alone light for a cheaper price elsewhere, if you're educated enough to pick your own or already have your own batteries.

I ordered an H600w yesterday, via amazon, specifically because I got it without an included battery, with 2-day prime as an added bonus, ordered better cells elsewhere, but I've already been sucked down the CPF rabbit hole, in hindsight, if I was smart, I probably would have saved myself the days and just ordered the combo to protect my sanity. ;D


From the ZL business perspective, it's probably a win win for them. Customer service can be the most expensive part of your operating costs, especially with things like this that have health hazards and a learning curve that requires actual effort on the part of the user. Plus they get rid of those batteries that probably weren't selling anyway.