Shock & dismay at L2P "goitre"

I can't believe this happened. I placed my new Fenix L2P
on my bedside table tonight in candle mode (ie on its end).

I awoke some hours later to find the flashlight had fallen
on its side, and the clickie switch had blown up like a balloon
to twenty times its size (it looked like a goitre or someone
had attached a huge rubber table leg protector to one end).

I turned the flashlight off and the balloon subsided, but now
the clickie extends just enough to prevent the unit being able to
stand on its end.

I am shattered. What may have caused this? (the light still works)

Re: Shock & dismay at L1P "goitre"

wow!
Seems the L1P is too well sealed. Battery generated gas and the rubber switch cover "balloonned"

Re: Shock & dismay at L1P "goitre"

liked to have seen a picture of that one.

I was considering getting an fenix L1P.

my NUWAI ALX-654C has a pressure release valve in the tail cap.

I think all lights should have one.

regards.

I hope you don`t mind as i just e-mailed you story to FENIX.

Re: Shock & dismay at L1P "goitre"

The Gerber Infinity's also had this problem but with no rubber cap to expand. The pressure stayed inside until you tried to open it!

I had a similar issue with my L2P. Luckily I noticed it right after the rubber cap grew enough to tip the light over, so it didn't swell too much. As soon as I figured out what was happening, I turned the light off took off the tailcap. The cap returned to it's normal size, but I haven't used the light again after that.

I was/am pretty disappointed.

They do include an extra switch boot, right?

Is this more likely to happen when a battery is being rapidly discharged as in these bright little Fenixes?

Geoff

This a problem that is shared by all multi-celled lights. One cell always
gets fully discharged first (there are not perfectly matched cells) and then
the other cell reverse charges into the other one and the reveresed cell
begins to vent some gas. Unfortunately the L2P is sealed so well that gas
venting cannot leak past the o-rings, thus the switch boot takes the expansion.
I have only observed this with nimh's. Alkalines have not done this to me.

Since the L1P uses one cell, it does not have this problem.

If any of you who have experienced this need more tailcap boots, please
let me know and I'll drop one in the mail for you.

fenix_fan wrote: "the clickie switch had blown up like a balloon
to twenty times its size (it looked like a goitre or someone
had attached a huge rubber table leg protector to one end)."

Sorry to hear of your mishap.

I think - as others have already suggested - it's the gases given off by depleting batteries.

Can you please tell us what type of batteries you were using in the Fenix L2P?

Not that anyone needs to be monitoring flashlights - but it probably is not a good idea to leave flashlights ON for long periods unattended (particularly past known runtimes) - if rechargeable NiMH are used they could be over discharged to permanently damage the batteries - and as in your case depleting batteries can give off enough gases to built up quite high pressures in a sealed flashlight, also multiple Lithium batteries could actually explode......

Please take a look at this thread over in the General Flashlight Discussion section on the use of multiple Lithium batteries (CR123) -

Sticky: A Little Accident. W/123's and a Peli. M6

4sevens said:

This a problem that is shared by all multi-celled lights. One cell always
gets fully discharged first (there are not perfectly matched cells) and then
the other cell reverse charges into the other one and the reveresed cell
begins to vent some gas. Unfortunately the L2P is sealed so well that gas
venting cannot leak past the o-rings, thus the switch boot takes the expansion.
I have only observed this with nimh's. Alkalines have not done this to me.

Since the L1P uses one cell, it does not have this problem.

If any of you who have experienced this need more tailcap boots, please
let me know and I'll drop one in the mail for you.

Click to expand...

Well said, and very nice of you to offer replacement tailcap boots. I have a L1P, and couldn't be happier with it.

That is pretty wild, I'll keep that in mind with my Mediterranean 2AA EDC,
I've run well over 200 sets of NiMH through my BB500 R2H minimag and my Med 2AA over the last three years and have never had that happen. But it can and would probably happen to me if I ran mine all the way down.
Glad my MillerMods L1P pulls 1.7 amps from one NiMH...

Benthead: MM's have the weird oring in the tailcap that is designed to let pressure out.

If you were using NiMH and it did that, you probably destroyed one cell or severly damaged it. The Fenix's are extremely good at sucking the power out of cells, and once the light dims down a lot you want to shut it off and change cells or you can discharge them too much or reverse charge like what happened.. Leaving the light on and going to bed wasn't a good idea!! hehe.

Unless you had alkalines in there, which you can just throw away, but I've seen alkalines do this in other multi-cell lights and when they do that, they leak and usualy damage the light as well. I was holding a 4AA sealed hazard rating light in a garage, and felt it vibrating and making sizzling noises. I quickly sat it down and then opened it to releave the pressure. Sure enough one of the alkalines was vomiting all over the inside of the light.

I would assume (which probably I shouldn't) that many of us don't use our multi-cell lights in extreme conditions of wetness.

What would be wrong with drilling a veerrry tiny hole in the battery tube for venting ?

If it has O-ring seals , I don't think water would rush in even if it was dropped in a bucket of water , since there is no other place for air to enter. Kinda like a straw with water in it but with your finger on the end . (vacuum and air pressure principle ):huh:

What are the ya's & na's on this proposal ?



_____________________________________________

Mini-Mags didn't used to have the chevron ring or whatever you call it. They just used a stock O-ring. Not sure how the pressure was handled, if it all.

TooManyGizmos said:

I would assume (which probably I shouldn't) that many of us don't use our multi-cell lights in extreme conditions of wetness.

What would be wrong with drilling a veerrry tiny hole in the battery tube for venting ?

If it has O-ring seals , I don't think water would rush in even if it was dropped in a bucket of water , since there is no other place for air to enter. Kinda like a straw with water in it but with your finger on the end . (vacuum and air pressure principle ):huh:

What are the ya's & na's on this proposal ?

Click to expand...

I'd prefer to break one o-ring, or make a hole in the rubber cap with a pin.

TooManyGizmos said:

I would assume (which probably I shouldn't) that many of us don't use our multi-cell lights in extreme conditions of wetness.

What would be wrong with drilling a veerrry tiny hole in the battery tube for venting ?

If it has O-ring seals , I don't think water would rush in even if it was dropped in a bucket of water , since there is no other place for air to enter. Kinda like a straw with water in it but with your finger on the end . (vacuum and air pressure principle ):huh:

What are the ya's & na's on this proposal ?



_____________________________________________

Click to expand...

air can be compressed remember?

I have a spare tailcap boot, but not the skills to replace it!
(anyone in Melbourne, Australia??)

Not sure what the batteries were, as I was in such a panic
I removed them and replaced them with another brand.

I know I shouldn't have fallen asleep with the flashlight on,
and I hope I'm not sounding bitter and twisted, but a warning
in their product brochure about potential gas emissions would
have been handy in hindsight!

sorry to hear about your problem fenix_fan, i don't know how to replace the tailcap as i haven't had the need to yet, but i know that some on the forum have already done so, and i'm sure someone who does know will chime in and help out =)

RE:

ABTOMAT said:

Mini-Mags didn't used to have the chevron ring or whatever you call it. They just used a stock O-ring. Not sure how the pressure was handled, if it all.

Click to expand...

does anyone have a diagram of a chevron ring? i did a search and couldn't find much, but this sounds interesting, even for a quick read. I don't think i'd drill a hole into the body itself and have something constantly open, but maybe if a small portion of the o-ring could be weakened somehow, thus allowing truly excessive pressure to be released, while still maintaining some sort of seal, it might work? the fenix isn't really rated as a dive light, and should really be more regarded as 'weather proof', so a weakening of the o-ring should be sufficient for most 'normal' cases, no?

Fenix_fan,

Check with the person you purchased it from - they should be able to
service you. If they don't respond let me know and I'll take care of you.

One alternative if you want to break the seal is put a tiny pin-hole in
the rubber boot when you get it replaced. This is a quick and dirty
solution but it should vent with no problem at all.

As I mentioned before, this is problem with all multi-celled lights. I had a
princeton tech 4aaa 3 led light that is really sealed well too. Well I ran
the light down and left it "on" for several weeks. One day I head a loud
"pop" noise and the plastic housing cracked open and a chunk of plastic
actually shot away from the body. The Duracell AAA's (brand new that
came with it) had leaked everywhere inside the body. The whole light was
ruined, not to mention nasty chemicals everywhere.

You can view the rubber boot as a safety too. Would you rather have
a pressurized solid aluminum body blow up and have the tail cap shoot off
as you unscrew or would you have a rubber boot blow up? I know enough
pressure could be built up to make metal fly! Yes, scary thoughts. Did
you guys read that thread on a 2xcr123 light that completely blew up
with sitting on the shelf? It was a serious explosion that took out other
stuff too. (I'll find the link and post here) Anyway, my point is maybe the
rubber boot isn't that bad compare to a light that doesn't have any way to
expand.

You can blame fenix for make a light that is too well sealed. Well, I'm sure
there would be complaints if water leaked into the light also. I've
personally taken my l1p down to 100ft for 15 minutes with no problems
at all.

Anyway, just my humble two cents.

Just a quick search for the two cell cr123 light explosion... found the
thread... it's a pelican m6 that blew up making a nasty dent in the
cabinet: THREAD