Surefire M3 :(

Took my brand spankin' new M3 out of the box, put the three batteries in it, and hit the tailcap switch and...............NOTHING!!!!!!! Oh well, the MN10 blew before even emitting one visible photon. Called Surefire and they are sending me a new MN10 at no cost. Very good...

Eric

My M3 received today is working flawlessly. Odd that your LA would fail right out of the box like that without a "burst" or something first...

it seems blown lamps in SureFires are becoming a common thing

I thought that it was weird too. The only thing that I could think of is that mabye it was blown when they packaged the unit. Mabye during testing it blew and somehow got put in the 'good' batch and was installed in the bezel.

Eric

Batch of bad lamps maybe? Someone at the assembly plant not understanding to not touch the glass envelope? /shrug.

I've been fortunate, so far no blown lamps in mine, all relatively new.

I thought the dominator was one of the lights they were having problems with? sorry if i got the name wrong im not a SF expert yet I've also heard about e2 bulbs going out without even being dropped/touched. this has been talked about a lot and if you search you could probly find it. so far my new e2 works. but reading about all these bad lamps hasn't given me as much confidence in my new surefire and doesnt motivate me to buy another light from them.

Yup, it was the 10X Dominator's 500 Lumen lamp that gave trouble, seems like that was due to a sub-contractor QC problem, within Carley.
That was apparently solved, but now 10X's are in short supply again, though I think that's because in the current situation Military orders are being filled as priority.

Other SF LA's will inevitably blow - the industry standard, acceptable rate of failure is 0.5%. Of all the ones I've personally had, they have been tough and long-lasting. Especially a 60 Lu MN03 I have, which I almost despair of breaking - it's been dropped about 20 metres (in total !) at various times without failure or degrading the beam.
(I don't know why I seem to drop it every time I touch it ??)

The only comfort is that if a LA lasts the first 2 hours, it'll probably last for well over it's rated life.

If you touch the quartz/glass, they WILL blow, full stop.
If you acidentally do so, to clean them, use a lens tissue, wetted with a 70% Isopropanol to 30% de-ionised water mixture.

lightlover

I have never had a problem with a SF bulb. Other than one E2 with a crooked bulb. And that's out of M6, E2, E2e, 2 M2's, M3.

As much as it stinks, I would consider yourself lucky that the bulb did not blow while in the light. I've heard of many a ruined bezel from blown bulbs.

I would like to say I've heard of ruined bezels, not many...but even one is too much for me.

I do consider myself lucky that it didn't blow in the housing . I am glad that they stand behind their products and it will not affect myself purchasing any more in any way. I am completely happy with my purchase.

Eric

Lightspeed2,
I'm really curious about this. (Oh, and Sorry that I didn't clearly express my sympathies before.)
I haven't heard of any M3 LA problems, nothing mentioned about the MN10.
And it's stuff that does get heard, because people report any kind of unexpected behaviour from SF LA's.

You're saying that the LA blew, meaning that it didn't even light briefly. But the envelope is all still in one piece, yes?
(At least you've got a clean reflector still ... )

Did it make any noise of blowing up at all ?

Can you double check for continuity on the LA ?

Not that it makes much difference, but was it a recent SF model - you said that you loaded the batteries, and I thought that SF's now came fully ready to go, with a sticker saying "Lithium Batteries included" on the bezel. So what's the serial number, maybe it's quite old ?

Anyway, SureFire Customer Service has dealt with it, but from the details so far, this is kind of a rare event, a LA being totally dud from the very start.

lightlover

I will post the serial number as soon as I get home. The bezel had a sticker that stated that the batteries were underneath the carboard partition. The M3 was NIB though, with the shrink wrapping on it still. I opened the box, inserted the three batteries in it, rotated the tailcap past the lockout position, and pressed the tailcap switch....nothing happened. I made sure that the batteries were inserted the proper way and reinserted them, still nothing. I then took 3 brand new 123's I had and installed them...nothing. I then took 2 of the three batts. that came with the M3 and installed them in my E2e...it lit up. Batteries deemed good. Not once during all of this did it occur to me that the LA might be bad. Mostly because I didn't even see a flicker of light. Next I took the bezel off of the M3 and pulled the LA out and put the 225lu assembly. Re-tightened the bezel and pressed the tailcap...it lit up. Immediately picked up the MN10 LA and looked at the filament and to my disbeleief, it had an approx. .5mm(!!!!!) gap in it. I am thinking that this La had to go through QC and someone there popped the thing, and threw it in the 'good' pile anyway. I didn't even need a magnifying glass to see the break, it was plain as day. I ohmed it out just for kicks, and to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating, and although I still was seeing the flying green monkeys, my Fluke read "OL" which means infinite resistance, which means that I wasn't hallucinating any more than usual. Needless to say, I was a bit peeved.

Eric

Here are the pics everyone. I didn't notice at first, but you can actually see the little section of the filament that came out. Weirdest thing I have ever seen.


Notice the filament piece towards the right side of the pic.

Eric