Zebralight reliability (the poll)

[shao.fu.tzer]

I was just looking at the H31 and H32... Interesting. I may just have to give Zebralight another chance. What bothers me is this:

Electronic soft-touch switch, with a 200,000 cycle operating life

I think it's not the physical part of the switch that's failing. I think it may be integral to the UI or active circuit (or whatever it's called)...

Still... Looks good...

Shao

 

[buzzz]

I just bought a Zebralight H501w and its broken after just 1 day! Very disapointed with this brand. From the 4 modes only 2 are "working". "Low" and "Strobe" is completly gone and "Medium" is flickering How can this be? I mean the product is not so very new.

 

[FroggyTaco]

Is it safe to assume you have tried at least 1 other battery as well as cleaning excess grease? Otherwise all this stuff is made by people & can have failures.

Also technically you are experiencing classic solid state electronics SOP failure. Meaning that it will failure within 24 hours or last a long time. It is never fun or convenient but true.

Travis

 

[buzzz]

Is it safe to assume you have tried at least 1 other battery as well as cleaning excess grease? Otherwise all this stuff is made by people & can have failures.

Also technically you are experiencing classic solid state electronics SOP failure. Meaning that it will failure within 24 hours or last a long time. It is never fun or convenient but true.

Travis

Yes I tried several eneloops and a duracell.
I talked to the dealer I bought the light and they will send me a replacement.
After all I really liked the H501w when it worked the one time I used it

 

[pteam]

I need a bright headlight for my employees at my business, working mostly on automotive stuff. I'm currently using the h60 zebralight that uses one 18650 battery. We have 3 of them and all of them have broke at one point or another. They suddenly just stop working after short periods of times only a few months. Sending them back and getting a return takes months and the last one we sent back got returned to sender.

What other bright headlight options are there with similiar or more lument output and preferbly flood beam? The h60 puts out 190 lumens. Any suggestions on something that won't break in 2 months?
I'm going to order one of these - [advertising link removed - DM51] they look awesome 1400 lumens!

Also of note 60 people have had a problem with zebra lights out of less than 200 who voted, so there is ovbously a problem...

Edit: I thought we were allowed to link to deal extreme? Arent they a sponsor?

 

[ScubaSnyder]

Can you elaborate on what exactly happened (to fail) in each case? I'd be curious to hear.

The first one sent back had a crack in the lens, second two lights had switch malfunctions, the lights would just flicker when I held the button or not turn on at all. I recently got replacements though free of charge and the lights work great, I had them fail but I still trust the lights. I just carry two of them.

 

[MountainVoyageur]

Would it be possible, and desirable, to modify the poll to separate infant mortality failures from subsequent failures?

One may well be willing to deal with initial QC or infant mortality problems if the light would be highly reliable after that point.

--MV

 

[BirdofPrey]

Thus far I've had my H60w for going on two years (not quite). My fiance has an H50w and she's had it for about a year. We've used them a few times while hiking at night with no problems. I use mine a LOT just as a generally purpose light and she's used her's a lot while reading stuff on the drive home from work.

The hikes we've taken are usually 3 to 6 hours in length. Thus far, the only thing I've had issue with is an erratic run time on the light which I attribute to the cheap Tenergy batteries I use in them. I'd use different batteries but my EagleTacs don't fit as they are two long and to tighten the cap down enough to get the light to come on puts too much strain on the circuit protection cover.

 

[uplite]

...to tighten the cap down enough to get the light to come on puts too much strain on the circuit protection cover.

IMO this is the #1 reason for this thread.

I took a read through all the posts in this thread a couple months ago, and most of the specific failures mentioned here are due to tailcap contact. Especially with protected lithium-ion cells (which are longer than usual).

Then I bought another H501 last month, and it did not work fresh out of the box. I swapped tailcaps with my old H501, and it worked. Turns out...the tailcap was not making contact unless it was cranked down HARD...to hard for comfort.

That's when I learned...Zebralight customer service ROCKS. They sent me a new tailcap, no charge, no questions asked, delivered in 3 days, before I figured out that I could "fix" the problem myself by pre-compressing the spring.

Several guys here solved their H60 problems by trimming the spring to accommodate their protected 18650 cells.

If you have a problem with a zebralight, I would try that first. Compress or trim the spring. IMO these ultra-light flashlights are ultra-sensitive to the length of the cell. But it's easy to fix. :thumbsup:

-Jeff

 

[buzzz]

My new H501w just arrived and works fine and I hope it will last a bit longer than the last one. Changing the tailcap didnt fix the broken one.

 

[red02]

My H501 failed about 4-5mo of regular everyday use. Most of the time the light was used on high. Thought I'd chime in for the record.

 

[pteam]

IMO this is the #1 reason for this thread.

I took a read through all the posts in this thread a couple months ago, and most of the specific failures mentioned here are due to tailcap contact. Especially with protected lithium-ion cells (which are longer than usual).

Then I bought another H501 last month, and it did not work fresh out of the box. I swapped tailcaps with my old H501, and it worked. Turns out...the tailcap was not making contact unless it was cranked down HARD...to hard for comfort.

That's when I learned...Zebralight customer service ROCKS. They sent me a new tailcap, no charge, no questions asked, delivered in 3 days, before I figured out that I could "fix" the problem myself by pre-compressing the spring.

Several guys here solved their H60 problems by trimming the spring to accommodate their protected 18650 cells.

If you have a problem with a zebralight, I would try that first. Compress or trim the spring. IMO these ultra-light flashlights are ultra-sensitive to the length of the cell. But it's easy to fix. :thumbsup:

-Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks for this info. I will try this on my 4 non-working h60s, hopefully I can get 1 or 2 working again!

 

[De-Lux]

I have an H30 that I use very lightly. Other than a brief flicker while changing modes its been fine. It is a shame that the build quality is not better on these lights because they are very unique and quite useful.

 

[pae77]

So far I haven't had any reliability issues with either of my Zebralights and I think the build quality is pretty awesome.

I suppose my opinion would change if I had experienced a problem. But as far as the things I can see and touch like the case, the anodizing, the feel of the switch, the threads, etc., the build quality is among the best I've seen.

 

[red02]

I really don't like the poll for this purpose, members who had never experienced failures may have failures in the future and cannot change their vote... And the 3rd option skews the percentage of failure/non-failure.

Just venting.

 

[De-Lux]

So far I haven't had any reliability issues with either of my Zebralights and I think the build quality is pretty awesome.

I suppose my opinion would change if I had experienced a problem. But as far as the things I can see and touch like the case, the anodizing, the feel of the switch, the threads, etc., the build quality is among the best I've seen.

The ZebraLights build quality are at par with most Chinese lights being made but put them next to a Peak or Ra (HDS) for example and the difference in build quality becomes quite apparent. Don't get me wrong, I love my ZebraLight but always have a backup close by.

 

[Frederic]

10 H30's Moderate to light use. No failures. Have 2 H31's and one more on the way. We will see how those do.

 

[sappyg]

I really don't like the poll for this purpose, members who had never experienced failures may have failures in the future and cannot change their vote... And the 3rd option skews the percentage of failure/non-failure.

Just venting.

i thought the poll was wack too. discounting the non votes entirely the ZL failure rate is beyond 25% of total votes and discounting failures that may happen after the poll count.

that's a pretty high # if you ask me. i want to like these lights but they seem a little cat and mouse..... i guess the best way to look at it is you have a 75% chance of getting a good one. ZL customer service makes them a winner and i can't help but want one.

 

[CSI304]

My H30 Q5 is still going strong, it's been several month since I got it.
I use it everyday and it has 0 failures, gone through 3 CR123a. I say the
build quality is quite awesome.

I actually use this light more then all my surefires combine. It's very useful:thumbsup:
They should fix the poll, it doesn't do Zebralight any justice... option #3 simply makes no sense to me.

 

[red02]

I count 36% failure rate at current numbers...

I've made this argument before; no matter how good the warranty and CS are it doesn't matter if the light fails in the field or on a trip. While its nice to know your 50-70 bucks aren't completely wasted, but for that trip your light is busted and so is your preception of dependability for that light.

After my failure I'm really reluctant to get another ZL. Even though ZL did right by fixing it, I won't be able to depend on it.