Light Salesman demo goes Awry- Pelican M6 LED

I frequent a uniform shop that sells pretty high end lights. The salesman there doesn't realize that I'm a flashlight geek but he's always trying to sell me a new light- most of which I either can't afford (SF M6) or that don't measure up to what I already use.

He's on a rant about how LED's are better than hotwires and does a demo where he throws a Pelican M6 LED accross the room then turns it on to show how tough it is. I'd seen him do it before and found it funny.

This day he again tells me how I need to replace my SF 6P that I carry with an LED (guess he doesn't realize I'm also carrying an Orb Raw and Mr. Bulk Lioncub). He tosses the Pelican accross the room then tries to turn it on....and it doesn't work.

The force of the toss smashed the two batteries inside the light causing them to short out. The SF batteries had the nipples pushed into the battery splitting the wrapper along the side.

Thank god the light didn't vent and explode. After that I gave him a short lesson on the dangers of damaging LiIon cells. He seemed a bit meeker when he realized he had almost caused an explosion.

I'm guessing that his demo will no longer include tossing the light accross the room.

Note to self - If shop in Califorina
Bring soon to be finished 2C ROP LE, and HDS. Blast salesman's eyes out.

I've done some of my own "flashlight droppings" before, but before I do them, I always empty my HDS of its R123a, I don't want my light turning into a rocket engine and then blowing up. I also do them on carpet for HA3.

I remember when they used to do that with Kel Lites to show how strong they were. Oddly enough, I don't remember ever seeing where where the bulb failed, but I never saw one being toss round with the light illuminated.

I had the pleasure of being present for PK's famous Beast toss in Cambria. It remained lit throught the process.

Larry

Navck said:

"flashlight droppings"

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*crackup*



Nice story, by the way.

Did anyone take video of that toss? Not that I don't believe it survived, but must have been a cool thing to watch, like the tigerlight homerun on their site.

tvodrd said:

I had the pleasure of being present for PK's famous Beast toss in Cambria. It remained lit throught the process.
Larry

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Sorry to be a little off topic here but Brighteyez' comment about Kel-Lites made me smile. When I bought my first Kel-Lite in the '70's, I brought it over to my motorcycle riding buddy's house to show him. We both had Mags and were always ticked off in that they would pop a bulb almost everytime one of us dropped one.

Kel-Lites sold at a premium over Mags and he asked why I would pay the extra money for one? It was a little after dark and without commenting, I just turned it on and threw it down his street. It bounced over and over and came to rest still lit! I know it was dumb luck because Kel-Lites lamps weren't shock protected or anything but I just looked at him and said; "that's why". He rushed to Big 5, (where I bought mine), the next day and bought one.

Navck said:

Note to self - If shop in Califorina
Bring soon to be finished 2C ROP LE, and HDS. Blast salesman's eyes out.

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Actually, funny you mention that. The next time I came in I brought my ROP in. I told him I wanted to show it to him in a dark hallway they had for doing light demos. He brought in the Pelican LED, and a Surefire M3 (lola I believe).

He went on his rant about how bright the 3w luxeon was, then showed me the awe-inspiring M3.

Then I said "Well, this is what I carry at work" and lit off the ROP.

His first statement was "Holy sh*t that's bright", Immediately followed by "How do I make one of those?".

My ROP in 1980s black Mag2d clothing suprises again.

Scary story!

Just dropping an incan from desk height is enough for a bulb test...throwing it across the room...brrrr. Well, maybe if the batteries were removed.

I recall on time long ago I was really peeved and threw the Mini Mag down deforming the bezel. The AA's inside had a slight indention on the + terminal yet the light remained lit.

AlexGT said:

Did anyone take video of that toss? Not that I don't believe it survived, but must have been a cool thing to watch, like the tigerlight homerun on their site.

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I'm afriad it all happened WAY too fast, and there may have been a couple of adult beverages that slowed our response time down a bit. I do have some very blurry still images that tell you nothing. But there were PLENTY of eyeballs that witnessed it. Not once. Not twice. But three throws. Finally, it was the batteries that gave up. They ended up being too short to make contact. New batteries fixed it completely. These were throws *as hard as possible* up into the air, and allowed to fall on the roadway.

I think it was close to midnight and I don't think PK gave us any warning. He just walked out to the middle of the street and flung it straight up. He turned around and walked back without even bothering to watch its return to earth! Most of us were in the mode! The stuff of legends!

Larry

Wish I could have been there....

So far none of the brick and mortar shops have tried to 'school' me in the ways of lights with the exception of one genuinely helpful salesman who was trying to help me find a replacement for a Mag6C. He asked if I needed brighter, and that he had brighter lights than it (gesturing towards shelf of lithium powered ones). I grinned and told him that yes, brighter, but not just brighter.. outrageously brighter.

Yes.. it was going to be turned into a six-NiMH ROP (not difficult to guess!)

For the skeptics I always have the U2 in my pocket. Brighter? Sure. LED? Sure. Variable power? Uhhhh.....

tvodrd said:

I think it was close to midnight and I don't think PK gave us any warning. He just walked out to the middle of the street and flung it straight up. He turned around and walked back without even bothering to watch its return to earth! Most of us were in the mode! The stuff of legends!

Larry

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That would've been awesome to witness. "The stuff of legends." Indeed!

That's a funny and slightly scary story. Years ago I worked as an installer in a car stereo shop. We had this one salesman who always loved to demo the equipment with the volume control at 11 - the distortion was so bad it made the hair on the back of my neck cringe....

Well one day he's pulling his usual blowhard sales tactics to a young fellow - cranks a $1400 amp up way past its limit and proceeds to demo the unit for about 2 minutes at that level - well at about the 2 minute mark something in the subwoofer melts down (probably the coil) it stops dead in mid boom and before he can turn anything off smoke starts pouring out of the amp - the store smelled like burned electronics for a week!

Needless to say that was the last week for that salesman in the store :laughing:

Regarding incandescents:
Light bulb filaments are more likely to survive an impact while the bulb is on.

The filament is more flexible when hot, so it is more likely to bend than break while it is on.
Crash investigators (auto or plane) use this to help determine if a bulb was off or on during a crash.

some info:

http://www.parceng.com/newsletters/010203.html

http://www.waltersforensic.com/articles/accident_reconstruction/vol1-no18.htm

http://www.harristechnical.com/articles/lamp.pdf

http://www.pimall.com/NAIS/n.light.html