led temperature monitoring: does it really matter?

i was thinking...with my hds, it's great it has heat monitoring and stepdown, but with a u-bin so cheap (can be had for <$10), why would it matter if it gets a little damaged from running a little hot? if it dropped in output due to damage, noticeably, I could just spend the cost of 2 lattes and swap out the LED for a fresh one - and in the meanwhile I'd get the output level I'd want, without thermal stepdown, for as long as I want.

I was thinking of this while reading over the thread about the new Arc coming up, and the importance placed on making sure there was thermal protection.

Or am i being ignorant?

The manufacturer doesn't want a lot of warranty returns due to people damaging their lights from overheating them. That would be my guess any way.

Greg

If you overdrive the light you assume all responsability as abuse to the product.

The HDS was designed to work in all situations and require little work to keep it working. If you've read henry's site he's been in tough places and just wants stuff to work when he needs it.

It maybe true you can get a U-Bin for $10 and swap it in an hour in your house. However what if you're climbing a mountain or something and the night before you let your LED overheat and when you grab for a light at 1000ft above sea level it's dim because the LED's damaged?Plus he put it there to protect the user. Have you ever tried leaving a L2P head with a CR123 on unattended for 5 mins it's enough to give you a second degree burn.

tebore - good points. i didn't think about the first, and forgot that the 2nd (peace of mind) is one of the greater yet perhaps unquantifiable reasons I like the hds. an unconscious sense of security when i use it. it's also probably b/c i haven't taken it camping yet too. when i do i'm sure both those reasons will become more apparent.

thanks for the education, guys! =)