Zebralight Reliability Poll Revised for 2012

[robostudent5000]

As discussed in the original Zebralight Reliability thread, here's a revised poll with more refined parameters. It's still not exactly scientific, but hopefully this will give us a better idea about whether only certain Zebras tend to go bad or they all do.

I've limited the poll to Zebralight headlamps which are currently available to purchase. So the H50, the H30, and both versions of the H60 are not included as they are generally not available. I have included the H502 for any future users. Multiple selections are allowed in case you've owned multiple models.

Also, this is not a thread about Zebra's customer service. Please limit any rants to the reliability of the Zebralights themselves and rant elsewhere about how disappointed you were with their communication or shipping times

The poll will close at the end of the year, so hopefully it won't be resurrected years later by some disgruntled Zebra customer.

Note: In the poll I identified the second gen H501 as having a press fit switch. I realize that this may be erroneous. I'm not sure how exactly the switch ring is attached. Just know that by that I meant the second gen H501. Sorry.

Note 2 (1/14): as per post #20-22 below, THIS POLL DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE DEFECTIVE BATCH OF EARLY H501'S. I was mistaken about the H501 having two different versions of the switch ring. I thought that the H501 with the permanent switch ring was a second version and that there was a first version with a screw down switch ring. However, the Zebra H501 seems to have always had a permanent switch ring. The phantom "first version" seems to just have been a figment of my imagination*. I thought that including only what I believed to be the newer generation of H501 would exclude the defective batch of early H501's, but instead I've probably only succeeded in confusing a bunch of people. I'm sorry about that. I can't make changes to the poll. As a result, this poll is even more flawed than initially thought. I think it still has value concerning the other models (H51, H31, H600, and in the future the H502), but the info regarding the H501 is probably useless. Again, I offer my sincerest apologies.

*i'm not sure exactly where this idea came from. it likely has something to do with the H60 having two different versions of switches. i might have even gotten the Zebra H501 confused with the Ultrafire UF-H2 - the UF-H2 has a screwed down switch ring. I don't know.

 

[marcis]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

I own the H51f, have been edc'ing it now for over a year and have had no problems whatsoever. Flashlight has worked perfect. Also, it gets fairly beat up... it has hit concrete quite a few times. Worth noting that for all the times it has hit concrete, it still cosmetically looks almost new.

 

[Imon]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Not quite ready to vote in this poll yet but I do know that a common complaint of the Zebralights is that when the battery no longer can provide the juice the ZL lights will just shut off without warning or without dimming down to a lower setting.

This is a problem with my H31w and SC51. Both these lights however are more than a year old. I wonder if ZL has gone around to fixing this problem...
I hope so because as much as I like these lights these no-warning shut-offs are tremendously irritating.

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Not quite ready to vote in this poll yet but I do know that a common complaint of the Zebralights is that when the battery no longer can provide the juice the ZL lights will just shut off without warning or without dimming down to a lower setting.

This is a problem with my H31w and SC51. Both these lights however are more than a year old. I wonder if ZL has gone around to fixing this problem...
I hope so because as much as I like these lights these no-warning shut-offs are tremendously irritating.

i think that's more of a design flaw than an actual failure. let's limit the discussion to instances of actual failure.

 

[skyfire]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

i only have my H501w left, ive used it almost nightly for over 2 years now. no problems here :thumbsup:

 

[Bolster]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

No failures from either of my two older H50s either, but they weren't included in the survey.

Too bad I get only one vote, as I own five zebralights. I should be able to vote on each.

I'm going to quote this guy (LOL) from the other thread, as background information:

Africanexp: you are aware of the known issue with Zebralights early 2009? Several weeks or months of insufficiently sealed H501s and H60s left the factory, and cause a large uptick in failure rates that spread out over months (and years), giving Zebralight a black eye for reliability. Zebralight is up front about this:

"First few batches of H501 and H60 had problems with leaking switch caps and lens, causing mulfuntions of the lights. They have been addressed long time ago with revised/modified machining and assembly process."

Even though Zebralight fixed the problem relatively quickly, so many were purchased during that time period (and later, from dealers) it's had a negative effect on peoples' perception of reliability. Not that they're perfect but you are not seeing nearly the volume of complaints with more recent (or earlier) releases. Take out that bad batch of lights and Zebralight would probably have a normal-looking number of failures. A shame it happened though, and I suspect they learned a valuable lesson. No reports of a similar problem since, that I'm aware of.

One other thing to consider. Imagine that brands A and B both have failure rates of 2 out of 100. Brand A is wildly popular on CPF, and hardly anybody on CPF buys brand B. Which brand will have more reported failures on CPF? Now look at rankings of relative popularity.

Take me for example...I own 5 Zebras, have given 2 as gifts, and talked my sailor friend (who is torturing them slowly to death) into buying 2. So I'm keeping an eye on 9 of them. No failures. BUT, I didn't buy any of them in 2009. I bought both earlier and later, just by luck. The sailor uses his constantly in a salt environment that will eventually kill them, but they've held up so far. When he does kill them, I'll report.

For the record I own Zebralight, Spark, Petzl, Icon, and Energizer headlamps. (Looking forward to my first SF when they make a decent AA version.) For mission critical tasks, I don't "completely trust" any of them; they're just inexpensive mass produced items. I always carry a backup. If I owned a custom Horton or a $600 Scurion, I might feel differently.

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Too bad I get only one vote, as I own five zebralights. I should be able to vote on each.

yeah, i wish there was a way to reflect that in the survey too, but we're kind of limited to what we have. unless you want to reactivate your old Survey Monkey account.

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

bump.

 

[DM51]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

The previous poll is now closed. It was not specific as to models, but the results were:

No trouble reported: 258
Failure reported: 83

That is a failure rate of just under 1 in 3. It seems a high figure, but as with all such polls it cannot really be regarded as a reliable scientific sample. People will probably be more likely to report a failure.

 

[RedForest UK]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Also many on here will have had multiple zebralights and if any failures occur will report it, even if all their other zebralights were fine.

For example, I have had an H501w, H51 and SC51. The circuit died on the H501w (first driver version) but since it has been repaired (new driver) it has had no issues. The H51 and SC51 also had no problems, although I only had the SC51 for a few weeks before sending it back due to glue on the LED dome, it was lost in the post and I never heard back from zebralight..

 

[Bolster]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Also many on here will have had multiple zebralights and if any failures occur will report it, even if all their other zebralights were fine..

Between the Zebras I own and the ones I've given to friends, I keep my eye on the health of 9 zebralights. When one fails, I'll report it and it will be counted as an example of a failure. But that would be one failure for nine lights (if and when it happens). The more Zebralights I buy, the more likely it is I'll be reporting a failure.

So one way to look at the failure rate, as counted here, is a rough proxy for popularity. At minimum, "failure" and "popularity" are inextricably confounded, the way we're counting it. And before Cox Communications deleted all my images, you may recall seeing a graph I submitted, based on polling data from this forum, showing that Zebralights were far and away the most popular headlamps on this forum.

Unless you know how many lights each owner has, the failure rate reported here or in the previous thread doesn't give a reliable estimate of failure percentage.

 

[RedForest UK]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

Between the Zebras I own and the ones I've given to friends, I keep my eye on the health of 9 zebralights. When one fails, I'll report it and it will be counted as an example of a failure. But that would be one failure for nine lights (if and when it happens). The more Zebralights I buy, the more likely it is I'll be reporting a failure.

So one way to look at the failure rate, as counted here, is a rough proxy for popularity. At minimum, "failure" and "popularity" are inextricably confounded, the way we're counting it. And before Cox Communications deleted all my images, you may recall seeing a graph I submitted, based on polling data from this forum, showing that Zebralights were far and away the most popular headlamps on this forum.

Unless you know how many lights each owner has, the failure rate reported here or in the previous thread doesn't give a reliable estimate of failure percentage.

Exactly, very well put

 

[pocketlight]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

could we include the SC600 and the SC600w in the poll?

 

[DM51]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

could we include the SC600 and the SC600w in the poll?

That would exceed the number of options the software can have in a poll.

Also, those two are not headlamps, and this is the headlamp section.

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

could we include the SC600 and the SC600w in the poll?

sorry, i barely figured out how to make the poll above so i could be wrong, but i don't think changes can be made to a poll after it goes up. and there's only room for 10 choices and since this is the Headlamps forum, i limited the poll just to the Zebarlight "H" models that are or will be available this year.

i think you could make a separate Zebralight Reliability Poll in the LED Flashlights forum for the Zebralight "SC" models. if you do, please let me know and i'll provide a link to it in this thread.

 

[clip_point]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

No failures reported on the H31 series so far, me likey.

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

it looks like one member decided to vote that he had a failure with every model listed including the as yet unreleased H502. :shakehead

i guess it was inevitable. haters gon' hate.

 

[Henry50]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

I probably would have included "i just want to vote" option

but jesus, failure rate is high. :duh2:

 

[Bolster]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

I think restarting the previous poll is a good idea, but I have doubts whether we can determine much of an answer via this forum's limited polling feature:

- We don't have a control group (ie, another brand or two to compare);

- There's a well-known effect that people who experience product failure are disproportionally motivated to express their disappointment, relative to contented consumers who haven't experienced failure (I have seen this ratio reported to be around 7:1);

- We are not tracking the date of purchase, and there is the known switch seal issue from early 2009...those defective lights would be counted again in this poll;

- the voting is anonymous and there are both Zebralight proponents and detractors who may try to skew the results (as indicated by reports of failures on unreleased lights). This is probably the biggest problem, as Zebralight has spawned an identity-allegiance in some and a matching hatred in others;

- nothing stops a person from registering under multiple names and voting multiple times;

- a major confound between popularity and failure rate exists (as explained above);

- multiple ownership isn't considered, so a single failure may represent many owned lights (as explained above).

But many people won't factor (or don't understand) the above. Not everyone has had training in the interpretation of research, or understands how just one of the above problems could sink the validity of a study. The response will simply be the lowest common denominator:

"The failure rate is high."

 

[robostudent5000]

Re: Revised Zebralight Reliability Poll for 2012

- We are not tracking the date of purchase, and there is the known switch seal issue from early 2009...those defective lights would be counted again in this poll

wasn't the defect limited to the models that had the screw down type switch ring? if so, this poll asks only for votes on the newer versions of the H501, so the defective batch should be excluded.

i agree with all of your other point though. the results of this poll are not scientific.

i think it's better than the old one though. at least all the models aren't clumped together and the defective 2009 batch should be excluded. the failure rate reported on the old poll was a staggering 1 in 4. the rate reported on this poll seems a little more reasonable, albeit still inaccurate.

sometimes better doesn't rise to being good, but it is still better.