Dropped L2P from 3 feet...

I was at the gas station and my brand new L2P fell out of the car seat and onto some concrete.

Took a look and it didnt fare too well

There is a slight dent on the head of the light and some of the anodize got scraped too.

a bit dissapointed but i guess i shouldnt be too suprised.

the aluminum in my FENIX P1 is quite soft and would probably deform to if dropped.

the best anodizing in world wont help if the metal is soft.

sorry for your loss.

regards.

I feel your pain. I remember when I first dropped my L1P. The first time hurts the most. After a few days I remembered I bought this light to use, not to be a shelf queen. It gets better after time. And a black sharpie.

i know how you feel. I scraped mine against a rock and scarred the tailcap. Fortunatley I was able to get a spare cap. If you want buy a 2nd light, I would buy the tailcap from you.

China's best...

I dropped my NEW L0P the other day. I was in the garage and had it resting on the windshield above the wiper. It was On. I couldn't easily get my fingers around it the proper way, so I attempted to lift it by pinching it from end to end. I barely got it off the windshield and one end slipped off my finger and away it went, hit the concrete and cartwheeled about two feet. It survived. Only got one little nick on the head. What probably help a lot is that it's not as heavy as an L2P.

Hi,
I also dropped an L1P after 1 week of the purchase.Unfortunatlly for me it fell face first about 3ft and died. I bought two more to replace it

Seems like I've been lucky... dropped my L1P on a concrete floor from about 5ft... not a single mark on it must have been a good one that accidentally slipped past quality control :laughing:

As my L1P is my primary EDC, I made a multi function lanyard for it. Just a small splitring, piece of cord (about 2 ft) and a snapgate carabinerthingie... when carrying it (in the original holster) I wind the cord around the light, making it fit tighter in the holster. I clip the snapgate to the D-ring on the holster, making it very hard to lose it, not to mention that if it drops, it wont hit the ground. When using the light, I clip the snapgate to the doubled up cord to make it a wrist lanyard, or I clip the snapgate to the split ring to create a neck lanyard. Very simple, very useful and very cheap...

Great idea for the lanyard. Thanks for the tip!

frank828 said:

I was at the gas station and my brand new L2P fell out of the car seat and onto some concrete.

Took a look and it didnt fare too well

There is a slight dent on the head of the light and some of the anodize got scraped too.

a bit dissapointed but i guess i shouldnt be too suprised.

Click to expand...

Sorry to create yet ANOTHER firestorm, but I received an L2T....I actually bought it...I'm returning it because of what I perceive to be "economy" construction and materials. I compared the thickness of metal and quality of anodizing to an Inova that cost me the same amount of money, and a Pelican M6 that cost me less. No comparison. Then I compared brightness.... again no comparison. Then I read the terms of the warranty...LIFETIME repairs, but YOU PAY FOR PARTS. Interesting. My Inovas, Pelicans, Surefires, Streamlights, etc all have a no-questions-asked, 100% parts-and-labor lifetime warranty.
Nothing against Chinese lights (I own lots of Nuwai lights).

Have a great day, all

P.S.: I've dropped my Inovas and Pelicans onto concrete, etc and had NO ill effects

steve_vance said:

Sorry to create yet ANOTHER firestorm, but I received an L2T....I actually bought it...I'm returning it because of what I perceive to be "economy" construction and materials. I compared the thickness of metal and quality of anodizing to an Inova that cost me the same amount of money, and a Pelican M6 that cost me less. No comparison. Then I compared brightness.... again no comparison. Then I read the terms of the warranty...LIFETIME repairs, but YOU PAY FOR PARTS. Interesting. My Inovas, Pelicans, Surefires, Streamlights, etc all have a no-questions-asked, 100% parts-and-labor lifetime warranty.
Nothing against Chinese lights (I own lots of Nuwai lights).

Have a great day, all

P.S.: I've dropped my Inovas and Pelicans onto concrete, etc and had NO ill effects

Click to expand...

I really don't like the emitters that Fenix uses anymore. After owning an HDS for a short while and receiving my MillerMods L2P today, I've been spoiled..

Personally I prefer the L2T body to the L2P though. The L2P body is too smooth and doesn't have as much grip.

I must concur with Steve to some extent. I have an L2P (with an extra L1p body). I was attacted to it because of its very good performance with alkalines. Until the L2P, my only nice light was the Inova X5. Sure, the X5 was incredibly built, but the Fenix's beam looked so much whiter and brighter in comparison. But the brightness comparison was unfair becuase the X5 is a flood light designed for long run times. So I decided not to compare the two.

But I recently got an Inova T1. When I looked at the spots of the T1 and L2P side by side, while the T1 has a slight purplish tint, the L2P spot suddenly looked pukish green in comparison . Now if you also compare the build quality, it is like comparing a tank to a Jeep. Both are rugged, but there is absolutely no comparison. The Fenix feels like a cheap toy in comparison (only in comparison, it is not cheap hardware otherwise). I paid about $35 for the T1, slightly less than for the L2P. I don't have as much of a hangup on AA alkalines anymore, and without that factor, there is absolutely no comparison between the T1/T2/XO and the L2P.

I think Fenix succeeds by filling voids left by other manufacturers. The L2P provides excellent performance with simple AA alkalines, the L1T/L2T offers two stages for a competitive price, the P1 is a bright and well regulated tiny CR123 light that has not much competition in that price range (some Peaks do compare well, but they are not completely comparable). So unless someone is looking for certain specific characteristics, Fenix lights would come across as way overpriced for someone looking just for a good light. Inovas are so much better built and actually cost slightly less. But if you want a light like the E1, Inova doesn't offer it.

Hey, don't worry about a little scratch or a few dents... you should see the hell my L1P's gone through... one of my favorite lights.

Same thing happened with my L0P. I dropped it on the first day on ceramic floor. It got 1 dent on the bezel 1mm large by 2mm long but I don't care. It now looks almost the same as carrot's L1P because of keys scratching it after a few months. It has been bought to be used, not to be too much babyed!

carrot said:

Hey, don't worry about a little scratch or a few dents... you should see the hell my L1P's gone through... one of my favorite lights.

Click to expand...

one of carrot's favorite lights to play catch with fido...

I have dropped mine a few times, luckilly no damage done

I unscrewed the switch and compared the body thickness of the AA Inova X1 to the AA Fenix Civictor. The Fenix is noticably thickerthan the Inova...and the L2T is the same as the Civictor, thicker. I looked at 1 watt 123 Pelican...and the Fenix`s are thicker than it too. I don`t understand your post Steve. What part of the light are you comparing to?

If you just looked at the thickness of the body at the end of the barrel, you didn't really compare body thicknesses. There is a bigger step going from the body to the threaded area for the Inova. With the Fenix, the step is much shallower. As a consequence, if you look inside the tail cap, you will see the threads dug almost entirely into the tail cap wall, whereas they are sticking out of the tail cap wall with the Inova. Translation: for the parts that mate, that is the parts of the tail cap and body that overlap, the thickness split is more even with the Inova. As consequence, if you only look at the very end of the barrel, the wall will look thinner there, but it is not once you add the step below the threads.

Now if you are comapring body thickness, let's compare any of the Fenix's with even just the T1 . The T series has monster wall thickness.

Having said everything in this post and in the previous one, Fenix does offer very good quality. The Inovas go one step (or two) beyond, but whether someone cares about itis another issue. There is such a thing as overbuilding and there is such a thing as good enough. But determining which is the case is highly subjective.

My Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA Luxeon has been dropped from 3-5 feet (1-1.5 metres) onto hard surfaces many times and despite the plastic construction, it handles it very well. Nothing's damaged.

Steve_vance and InfidelCastro, you may want to check out the Minimag LED in 2AA and/or 3AA. They're $20-25 and for the price, I'm pleased with the quality of construction.

the polymer for the streamlight is quite strong, so it doesn't get destroyed easily