Modding SF light to increase water resistance

Read some threads on this forum, that the dive rated SF 6PN had an O ring in the bezel & two O ring in the tailcap.

Where possible I had add an additional O ring to tailcaps of my SF Z, G, P lights. Does that put my lights in the same league as the 6PN ?

Notice there are no additional groove either in the bezel or tailcap of a E2D, E1E, etc. Any idea how to increase E series light water resistance? Thanks.

Lots of "grease" on them threads. . . :wave:

Did that, I grease the O rings and threads fornightly. For my EDC, once a week.

It's possible that the Exx series were not "designed" for diving, but to be sure are water-proof/resistant to a reasonable degree.

firefly99 said:

Where possible I had add an additional O ring to tailcaps of my SF Z, G, P lights. Does that put my lights in the same league as the 6PN ?

Click to expand...

Nope. You can try lots of grease and slightly thicker o-rings, but lights with clickies or those not designed as dive-lights are not easy to seal for diving. For serious diving, consider lights from Pelican.

i put teflon plumbers tape on the threads of my lights that i want to make sure are waterproof. i mean it just makes sence, if its good to seal the pipes, the flashlight should be no problem!

.02

There seems no way to improve the water seal of the snap in front lens (single o-ring)
Any additional o-rings at other places will be useless therefore.

My understanding is that double o-rings are needed where two threaded components are required to be rotated underwater. Where this is not required one o-ring / gasket / seal is sufficient [if it is designed to be watertight to a certain depth].

Most SureFires (including the E Series) use a bezel ring that screws onto the bezel clamping down the window against its seal(s).

oh, Sorry then,
I am used to my older SFs, where the lens is snapped into a notch in the bezel

Aren't they *all* supposed to be good to 10 meters? I could check out my G2 in the pool for you guys, but I don't think anybody's going to be suprised to see it working at 6 feet.. and honestly, a puddle deeper than that is probably going to lose the light anyway..

ACMarina said:

Aren't they *all* supposed to be good to 10 meters?

Click to expand...

It's possible with the new ones now. Remember the SureFire M6 (First Gens) "hot-tub" incident that Al spoke about a while ago? :huh:

Most SureFires are designed to be capable of being tested and rated waterproof to "Navy" specs which is usually 100ft / 30 metres.

(exceptions are the rechargeables)

SureFire does not depth test and rate each individual flashlight. The ones it does to that for are give the "-N" or "N" designation. For example: M3N or 6PN etc.
Some are rated waterproof as standard (such as the W "Military" handgun WeaponLights, and the X200 Series hangun WeaponLight)

A well looked after SureFire should not have any problems being submerged. I suggest that you do not submerge your flashlights in hot [bath] water. I suggest that you do not rotate any component whilst the flashlight is submerged unless you have to. I suggest that if you need to take you SureFire underwater as part of your job (etc) that you contact SureFire Tech Support (or a WeaponLight specialist) to see whether a more suitable model is available.

Al