10X high beam lamped died! :(

I bought 5 Dominators back in December for my friends and me. Of the five, 3 have had bulb failures. Two main bulbs and one secondary bulb blown. Surefire has come through everytime. My advice is if you use your light a lot, keep a spare set of bulbs on hand. Also, my first bulb to blow was like yours. It stayed lit for only a few seconds before failure. Surefires service and products are great which is why I buy their products. Bulbs...thats another story You may want to call them and get a manual.

I don'tw ant to open a huge can o' worms, but this very high rate of failure with this particular model is troubling, to me...We all know SF makes high quality stuff, so why is this model having so many bugs??

--dan

The bug is in the bulbs which they don't manafacture. I think I might have got an earlier batch of lights since the replacement bulbs are working fine. The light is great even with the lexan lens. I couldn't be happier with the my purchase.

I just go my Dominator today. Charged it up and played with it for a few minutes. All of a sudden, the high beam simply stopped working! I didn't drop/bang the light nor did I try rapidly blinking it on/off.

Maybe I got one from one the early production run ones with the lamp problems? The number on the reflector housing says "A00037" if that helps any.

In any case, I called SureFire and they nicely offered to send me a replacement lamp for free; this is, of course, really great.

BTW, my light didn't come with the manual; how the heck to I replace the lamps? I already tried taking the two screws out in the head and all that did was allow me to remove a plastic spacer and the "circuit board battery contact thingie".

Thanks in advance!

Yes, SureFire had lots of trouble with lamps for the 10X.

Your 10X is a really early serial number, and I suspect it didn't go through all the checks that 10X's go though now. I believe that Dealers were asked to recall all their stock, a long while back when SureFire discovered the problem.

Of course, SureFire Customer Service have shone when their lights haven't. I use my 10X almost nightly, and have no fear of the bulbs blowing.

Al

Not wanting to sound like the bad guy and at the risk of being flamed to death , having my M3 MN11 explode in 5min & seeing others having bulb problems, with multiple surefire bulbs, it would seem to me the most logical course of action for SureFire is to test-run the bulbs before packaging them, eliminating the .5% failures or other defects. I'm sure this process wouldn't be cheap but how much are they spending sending out replacement LAs & bezels? This could be prevented by testing first. For such a quality name and premium price one would expect better bulb reliability out of the box. I realize that another manufacturer is making these but Surefire is ultimately responsible for the product(s) they sell.

I do not like flaming, and SureFire have a forum for people to give them feedback or issues such as lamp failure, and also to give them suggestions for how to improve the reliability of their products.

Perhaps this should be put on SureFire's Discussion Board too? I think so.

I understand that a number of lamps are now tested (each and every one of them) before they leave SureFire.

Al

I for one am not flaming. I own many Surefire lights and reccommend them. When there is a problem, I have always been more than fairly taken care of. A lot on this board may not know of their bulletin board. And they don't always respond on their board. Such seems to be the case with the price increase issue which is like a hot potato.

I think it's ok for Yeedude and Sean to voice their comments here and FWIW, I agree with Sean's comment.

FWIW, I did cross-post this topic onto the rechargable lights forum over at SureFire. When I tried going there yesterday to check to see if there had been any responses their server was down.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sean:
... and at the risk of being flamed to death

...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Size15s:
I do not like flaming, ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sean posted some expectation of being flamed.

Al posted that he didn't like flaming.

He was suggesting that as a Moderator he would defend Sean's right to express his opinion, and that flaming is not allowed on CPF.

Simple as that.

lightlover

No, Sean's comments definitely was not flaming by any means! Check out some newsgroups for real flaming. He's just voicing his opinion of which I agree with. I think it's poor quality control on Surefire's part when my 8AX lamp explosed (not just blew but fragmentated), after just a short amount of usage. This was my first Surefire and I was very unhappy as it was a $160 purchase bought at a local store. At the time I was naive on such matters and the warranty stated that lamp assemblies were not covered so I paid an additional twenty something dollars for another one. I certainly wouldn't tell of suggest to Surefire on what methods they should use for their quality control but they are responsible for the end result and we have a right to complain and state our opinions.

Here's the latest word...

I spoke with Customer Service yesterday afternoon and they told me that the 10X and it's lamps are not available again and that it would take a few weeks before they would be able to get a replacement lamp to me.

I guessing they're having problems again with the lamps and/or the OEM supplier?

Thanks for the heads-up.

Al

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Glow Bug:
...Surefire ... bulletin board. And they don't always respond on their board. ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glow Bug, I'm curious. What do you mean when you say "they don't always respond" on SFDB ?
Leaving to one side the 2002 Price Increase Topic, I thought they have a pretty good track record ??

lightlover

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by *something ridiculous ?:
Glow Bug, I'm curious. What do you mean when you say "they don't always respond" on SFDB ?
Leaving to one side the 2002 Price Increase Topic, I thought they have a pretty good track record ??

lightlover

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You are right, PK as well as other Surefire staff has always answered my questions and others on the board. However, with five pages of requests for some kind of an explination reguarding the price increase, that would qualify in my mind of sometimes not replying. Don't get me wrong, I love Surefire as a company and their supierior products. I own many of them. As I have said before, PK rules!
I just feel they should have given their die hard supporters some type of answer by now. Not to do so only causes confusion in the minds of those who like them most.


P.S. here is one of the points conveyed from their board by a member on this topic:

"Mr. Hopkins, as Editor-in-chief for the May/June 2002 American Handgunner: 1000+ words including, a 43 word reply to someone who took the time to write to the editor with a concern!

Mr. Hopkins, as Communications Director of Marketing & Advertising for SureFire: zero words for over 5 pages of posts by some of SureFire's most enthusiastic supporters.

Not my words; not my spin. Just the facts. "

something ridiculous, I hope this clarifies my position.

Thanks Glow Bug

I agree "PK rules".

I was just wondering if you'd had a bad experience with the SFDB service.
I'll take that as a resounding no, then.

(Excepting the 2002 Price Increases Topic, which I have posted in more than a few times.)

lightlover