Dust under the lens, can you guess the brand?

Are all the LED lights made by Surefire still coming with dust under the lense? My E2L has this. It sucks cuz you can't even take the head apart to blow the dust out.

I guess if we want the "Surefire" name on our flashlights we have to learn to put up with this and worse. I just tell myself it doesn't matter, at least it IS a Surefire. :thinking:

what longbow said

if you are unhappy, you can always send an email to surefire and tell us their reply

:thumbsdow: One of my SF got 3 speck of dust on the reflector.
After a while I learn the fact that life goes on and certain things(1,2,3 speck of dust) are better left ignored.

SureDust?

When i got my L6 it indeed have dust, but i learned to live with it. Really doesnt matter for me. I mean its a SureFire

I agree, the dust has no effect on output or function. However, it does show somewhat of a lack of care during final assembly. It would be very easy (and you would think a standard practice) to blow out the bezels with dry compressed air before assembly.

Mark

If it is really bad, just send it back and make them fix it. The only way it will stop is if it becomes a problem for SureFire.

Scott

It's a built in feature that is not very well known... TDDS (TM) Surefire's Tactical Diffusion Dust System (patent pending) "Small dust sized particles of multi-faceted silica designed to diffuse light in a preset beam pattern, (Flood, Tactical Spot, or Donut). I don't think the patent has gone through yet, perhaps this is why we don't know about it yet...until now

Yeah, I got a KL1 with fuzz and dust on the optic, but I can't tell in the beam. It performs so well I hate to send it in for fear I'll get an inferior one in return. If it were my EDC it would probably bug me, but it rides in all the fuzz and dust at the bottom of my wife's purse, so who's complaining?

for practical reasons, surefire didnt design a light that was meant to be put on a shelf or collected as a hobby, they designed tools that was meant to be used.
as a hobby enthusiast myself, i can understand where some people are coming from, i used to collect scale model cars and in that hobby, if the paint thickness was wrong, the manufacturer wouldnt be able to sell many units, so they got things perfect because the final product was meant to sit on a shelf to be admired at. this is different to surefire
the more you use your tools, the less you will worry about it
try and enjoy the light for what it is, a tool that puts out light
cheers
Des

+1 to what roguesw said. I think a lot of us want our lights to be *perfect* but I'm more interested in performance than appearance. Each of my Surefire lights has a tiny cosmetic defect; I couldn't care less.

Actually, the "dust" is a new type of optic specially designed for new style LED's.

it makes you wonder how long they sit there with the lenses off to get dust, or are they not as water tight as we thank and seep through the threads:lolsign:

IMO a light must work, ok, if it costs 2$ or 200$. But when I spend 200$ or more and the homepage of SF shows me "The world's finest Flashlights and Tactical products" and then I look to the problems with this lights, :thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow.

This can't be reality, but it is.

With statements like roguesw and carrot, you help not, to remove this problems.
SF should know what happens. IMO should the owners of this lights be more solidarity.

Maglights are in a different price range (two worlds difference), but there I never has had dust under the lence or switch-problems. And this are not shelfqueens.

Best regards

____
Tom

I think when the product is 2 to 3 times more expensive as the next best competitor the company should correct systemic problems. Isolated flaws will happen on the best of products but the systemic stuff must be fixed on something in this price class.

My E2L throws a great square focused beam, it is not my EDC but my work light, around machinery it spots small pieces of paper blocking photocells, it spots belts off or broken, don't even look at the lens, look at the beam it produces. I was at Knob Creek and in real dark it threw a beam about 150 ft and it lit up the hill like a Anti Artillery spotlight.

SF sells a premium product at a premium price and part of that price goes to both R&D and providing their great warranty service.

as a result, i don't see why i shouldn't expect a premium product and service for this premium price.

it's pretty funny when "lesser" products & manufacturers are slagged of for any problem people can find, and individual or a small number of cases are automatically taken to represent a whole. while at the same time, people unhappy with their premium priced premium product are told to overlook cosmetic and similar problems and "treat it as a tool" or whatever. both sides i think need a bit of perspective. =P

I know I'm being picky. I always am. I like things I buy to be perfect, whether it's a $1 widget or a $200 flashlight. And if it's not perfect, I like to make it perfect. Because it's mine. I have a strong sense of pride of ownership with my things.

I don't think a $200-$400 flashlight should come with dust behind the lens.

I'm not a collector. I use my flashlights. Except for the 'backups' But I also take care of the ones I use.

I know the dust affects the performance of the light less than 0.01%, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I have many cheaper lights that don't contain the magical Surefire dust.

The worst thing is when you're showing off your $200 flashlights to someone and they notice the dust under the lens or a clicky that doesn't work so swell...


I have noticed a slight downward trend in quality from the first Surefires I owned, to the present ones. The present ones also have nice features that the older ones didn't..

Lightedge said:

I think when the product is 2 to 3 times more expensive as the next best competitor the company should correct systemic problems. Isolated flaws will happen on the best of products but the systemic stuff must be fixed on something in this price class.

Click to expand...

LARGE number of failing clickies, dust under the lense, less than stellar LED's with bad tints and donut holes showing up in some that hit the shelves, less than indestructable pocketclips with plastic fasteners and the occassional crooked bulb/reflector that you'd expect to find on a $17 Maxfire, not a $95 E series light.


These things come to mind. Hope Surefire is reading this.

Surefire, we love you, that's why you're seeing the constructive criticism here.