New SF U2: Donut beam and broken clickie

WAVE_PARTICLE

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Geez....spend over $200 and you'd expect at least a little bit of quality control
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. Ok, the donut beam pattern was expected after reading a few reviews, but comon.....the clickie problem? Don't they test these things before shipping them out? My momentary-on works fine, but my constant-on doesn't "click" in place. In fact, there is no clicking
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.

Ho-hum. I guess I'll have to get in touch with Surefire and get it fixed. It's too bad I live in Canada....shipping and customs can be a *****.

Thanks for letting me vent.....
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greenLED

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Sounds familiar. I was venting and ranting left and right earlier today about similar issues. My switch clicks and now activates OK, but I had to fix it myself for it to work reliably. I've decided the donut hole on mine is not bad (it was worse on another U2 I saw), but this AM I found a piece of lint inside the head/reflector. I still haven't fully digested that one but already shot SF a rather long e-mail.
 

iNDiGLo

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My U2 Clickie was working intermittently so i called SF customer support and they dropped one in the mail to me no questions asked. Should be here in a few days. Nice.
 

fieldops

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Green: Your luck with that U2 is not good at all

I'm getting kind of nervous, even though mine appears ok (1 day old). There appear to be far too many clickie problems here. I'm almost tempted to get a couple of extra clickies to put in the battery spares kit. Its sad to have to say that about a 270.00 light from Surefire, but I'm a littled worried. I know Surefire will replace them after failure, but that means ...after your light fails on you. Can you even buy the clickies? I did not see them on the Surfire website. Maybe somebody like Lighthound can get them. I sure hope not too many other people are getting this problem. Maybe I'm being overly concerned, but there really seems to be a problem.:(
 

CLHC

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Wow! That is a bummer for all ya'lls SF.U2. . .Sorry to keep hearing about these "horror" stories if you will. Hope everything works out with your problem and with SureFire.
 

AESOP

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I had the same thing happen to the switch the first night with mine. I e-mailed SF and they sent a new Clickie in the mail no questions asked. I found if you lightly tap the clickie on the side it would work. I have had no problems with the replacement one, thank goodness.

Michael
 

GWC3

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my U2 a few times has not clicked back off fully, which means the next try to turn it on binds the switch. I found that wiggling the switch back/forth once or twice allows it to reset and function ok. that was within 3 days of getting it. since then it seems for now to have settled down. I dont know if this is a breakin period or just a failure waiting to happen. I emailed SF and requested a replacement anyway. BTW - is SF customer service more responsive to emails or phone calls? thx
 

grnamin

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These reports are getting so common that maybe Surefire should put "Some repair may be required" notice on the boxes. :huh: :D I had the clickie problem with my 3rd U2 back in December of 2004. I called Surefire about it. They said they would send me a replacement. It arrived about 5 months later; it was the HA III natural version. I took the guts out and put it into the black tailcap. I had learned through CPF how to repair the old tailcap so I wasn't without a working clickie for the time while waiting for the replacement.
 
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shooter08

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Sorry to hear about your misfortune. You would think that on their flagship
top of the line led light there would be no problems you paid a premium price
you should have recieved a premium product no excuses. I myself just bought
a U2 on the 23rd. My U2 has a barely noticable donut hole But its a little dim
compared to just about every other 5 watt light I own. Also my clickie was
gritty and seemed about to fail so off it came and got a spray of CRC 2-26
electrical cleaner lubricator. Its safe on plastics and displaces moisture and
combats corrosion. I also put a little on the selector ring (It was binding up)
and now it works very smoothly. I bought my spray can of it a couple of
years ago at Home Depot it was in the electrical department.

Hope this helps future owners out.

Dave
 

Robban

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grnamin said:
These reports are getting so common that maybe Surefire should put "Some repair may be required" notice on the boxes. :huh: :D I had the clickie problem with my 3rd U2 back in December of 2004. I called Surefire about it. They said they would send me a replacement. It arrived about 5 months later; it was the HA III natural version. I took the guts out and put it into the black tailcap. I had learned through CPF how to repair the old tailcap so I wasn't without a working clickie for the time while waiting for the replacement.
5 MONTHS? That's just sad. 5 weeks, ok, but months that's bullshit IMHO.
 

greenLED

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AESOP said:
I had the same thing happen to the switch the first night with mine. I e-mailed SF and they sent a new Clickie in the mail no questions asked. I found if you lightly tap the clickie on the side it would work.

The tapping worked sometimes to fix mine. The point is, however, we shouldn't be having to tap on a light's tailcap for it to work (...intermitently at best!). Like I posted in some other thread, I solved my flaky tailcap problem by raising the little tabs on the metal plate inside the clicky. But, I shouldn't have to fix things myself right off the box! :rant:

It sounds like there's two problems: the one I had (flattened tabs), and the actual clicking mechanism jamming (which seems it might be solved with extra lubrication).

Anyway, I'm waiting for SF's reply to my e-mail.
 

grnamin

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greenLED said:
I solved my flaky tailcap problem by raising the little tabs on the metal plate inside the clicky. But, I shouldn't have to fix things myself right off the box! :rant:
Here's a picture showing the metal tabs just in case anyone wanted to know what they look like:
clickie%20guts%20with%20metal%20tabs.jpg
 

grnamin

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greenLED said:
yup, those are the ones! How'd you open the switch?
The replacement I got from Surefire was easy to open. I just twisted the small bezel that holds the rubber boot and guts in place and it opened. Some bezels are harder to open than others. I've come across some that I've had to heat using the boiling water method.
 
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joema

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greenLED said:
The tapping worked sometimes to fix mine. The point is, however, we shouldn't be having to tap on a light's tailcap for it to work... .
My first U2 also had the tail click problem. Like yours tapping it sideways made it sometimes work. I returned it for the donut problem, which is why they didn't send me a replacement tailcap.

The replacement U2 I got is fantastic -- white tint, super bright, switch works perfectly, almost no donut. But having to return a brand new $270 light should be an incredibly rare event. Difficult to ascertain from informal postings here, but it doesn't seem super rare.
 

AESOP

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greenLED said:
The point is, however, we shouldn't be having to tap on a light's tailcap for it to work QUOTE]

Agree 100%. Their QC is horrible. I wonder if they aren't just sending them out, if people complain, then worry about it. Since people will not want to do without their new flashlights they manage to sell the substandard ones. It appears that as long as they are doing so well with military contracts they don't care about the civilian market.

Michael

 

Bluehinder

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Hi,

My new U2 also had the switch fail the same night I got it. Momentary works, but constant requires 5-10 clicks to hold, and an equal number to turn off.

I called SF today, and while they are sending a new one out, I have no confidence that it will work either, I mean, why should it given all the above problems.

This is simply inexcusable for a light at this price, and frankly, for a light at any price. They should all work out of the box. What a PITA.

I also have a donut, which I am learning to live with, given that's also a crap-shoot.

Blue
 

rp42995

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I just think it stinks when you buy this light you should not have these problems like switch breaking the night I got it ,my 20 year old $10 M@G never had a switch failure. I know they will fix but its a real pain just my 2 cents
 

senna94

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My U2 is about 2 months old and barely started exhibiting the clickie switch problem. I was able to bend the already mentioned tabs out without taking the switch apart and it works fine. However, I just bought an L4 for Christmas and the switch on it just jammed in the on position. I called Surefire and they said they would send me another one. Luckily I have an E2e body that uses the same tailcap so I was able to rob it for now. Either way, is seems these issues need to be resolved. Maybe we should all ask Surefire to send us another spare tailcap just in case the ones we have fail. A redesign is in order!!!!!!!!!!
 
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